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Showing posts with the label business ethics

Putting the Power Back in Pensions

Pensions are a primary source of retirement savings throughout the nation. Poor management decisions, recessions, and cronyism have depleted these funds to a point where they now become a significant risk, not only to those who rely on them, but to the local economy as well. Chicago recently became aware of the devastation of their policies when faced with a pension budget shortfall of $6 billion that neither they or the State of Illinois can afford. Difficult choices will need to be made that will likely upend entire networks of people and companies that need and profited off these pensions. The problem with pensions is that when they go South there are few win-win situations, and reform comes with a significant cost; especially to those of older age. The cost either falls on the states, on employees, or on the national economy. As the risk of multiple pension implosion rises at a time when national debt is high, the Great Recession is coming to a close, and international strife i

Leadership and Moral Reasoning Set the Standards for Others

Moral reasoning is as important today as it was in the past. It could be argued that with the growth in society and the increase in the size of structures that moral reasoning is even more important today. Business and civic leaders that have obtained and support moral reasoning are at a higher level of development than others. It is these highly developed people that should be leading organizations to new levels of performance. A paper in the Journal Business Ethics: A European Review helps highlights how moral reasoning impacts intra-firm networks and the values others maintain (Kulkari & Sobodh, 2014). Human development and moral reasoning move together hand-in-hand. People who are less developed have a harder time thinking beyond what is of benefit to themselves. The authors have used 6 stages or moral reasoning where the stages 1-4 are primarily concerned with fear, self-interest, and following the rules for personal gain. Only in stages 5 and 6 can one claim moral leadershi

Rules or Values in Ethical Development

Developing ethics within organizations is not an easy task. Many companies offer some rudimentary ethics classes in orientation with little to no follow up. As can be expected, these ethical values only last for so long before they are tested and compared against actual working conditions. To develop higher levels of ethical standards among employees it is necessary to ensure that they find a match between their own personal values and the ethical standards. It is not easy to have employees internalize certain values and maintain ethical standards when other options are available. Connecting employees to their personal value systems and infusing ethical standards into the organization's culture can go a longer way in creating lasting beliefs. Internalized ethical standards rely on employee values, organizational values, and standards coming together with compatibility. Identity based ethical decision-making combined with rule-making ethical decision-making has a longer posi

Are Today’s Business Graduates More Ethical?

Are business students becoming more ethical? College of business students are starting to see more value in ethics when compared to previous generations and this could have a positive influence on their future decision-making. According to a study by Hollier, et. al. (2013) the infusion of ethics classes in universities are helping students make ethical choices. This will naturally have an impact on the corporate world and the way in which decisions impact environments.  Ethics is a concept of understanding the differences between right and wrong, a manner of character and the inclusive way in which a person makes decisions. When ethics are lacking people make choices that benefit them the most without considering the larger costs on society or the people who will be hurt by their choices. A lack of business ethics can have a huge impact on the functionality of business and in turn impact societal trust.  Most colleges focus the far majority of their time teaching

Call for Papers: The Ethics of Business and Leadership in a Transdisciplinary Context

15th to 15th May 2014 Oradea, Bihor, Romania Type: Conference Deadline for Papers : 9th February 9 th 2014 The Conference provides a platform for academics and practitioners in the field of business and leadership to interact and debate on the dimensions of ethics in business and leadership in the context of transdisciplinarity and knowledge based society  Website: http://www.emanuel.ro/ro.academic.conferinta

Improving Business Education through Industry Connections

Business colleges have developed over the past few decades. According to Xie and Steiner (2013), not all of these changes have been for the better. The authors argue that traditional business education has damaged the overall business community and narrowed people into irrelevance. They provide some possibilities for improvement of business colleges within their paper.  They offer a couple of solutions that include connections between business and business schools, new business education models,   as well as joint creation of knowledge management. Their reasoning is that student’s knowledge should broaden perspectives beyond simple tools of management and should include the overall human elements that enhance understanding further than number crunching.  Collaboration between Business Schools and Business: In the older models, students were apprentice oriented. Business colleges should make stronger connections to the business community in order to create higher levels of