...Peter Seele Nr. 2/2007 ISSN 2190-5398 2 Who responds to whom? Corporate Culture and the question of communicating Responsibility Prof. Dr. Ludger Heidbrink Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter F. Seele CRR (Center for Responsibility Research) Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Essen Outline There are as many opinions on business and ethics as there are statements. In this paper we present the major positions in this ongoing and increasing debate and categorize them according to their ratio as business or ethics, business and ethics and finally ethics in business. In this paper we also present the view, that ethical issues are not separated but connected from business in terms of making profit. We also argue against a strong normative idea of business ethics claiming social responsibility as objective for corporations. After introducing the most common concepts to manage ethics (Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Citizenship (CC)), we identify Corporate Culture as crucial parameter to combine business and ethics by the notion of responsibility. Spheres of corporate responsibility: formal and informal institutions The wording in corporate ethics is of major significance and consequence. By the terms used it might become apparent which positions and which ideologies are applied. Whereas NGOs and government institutions speak of CSR or Social Responsibility, corporations prefer to speak of Corporate Responsibility. CSR can be seen as a two sided concept trying to refer...
Words: 6317 - Pages: 26
...jon24565_ch05.qxd 11/2/05 1:22 PM Page 138 C H A P T E R 5 Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business Learning Objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically. 2. Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions. 3. Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically. 4. Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ...
Words: 21076 - Pages: 85
...jon24565_ch05.qxd 11/2/05 1:22 PM Page 138 C H A P T E R 5 Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business Learning Objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically. 2. Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions. 3. Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically. 4. Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ...
Words: 21076 - Pages: 85
...C H A P T E R 5 Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business Learning Objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically. 2. Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions. 3. Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically. 4. Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ you. A Question of Business How Different Ethical Stances Can Help or Harm...
Words: 20958 - Pages: 84
...Chapter 1- The Pay Model Compensation: Does it matter? Compensation is one of the most powerful tools organizations have to influence their employees. General Motors (GM), like Chrysler, has, for decades, paid its workers well—too well perhaps for what it received in return. Having labor costs higher than the competition, without corresponding advantages in efficiency, quality, and customer service, does not seem to have served GM or its stakeholders well. On the other hand, Nucor Steel pays its workers very well relative to what other companies inside and outside of the steel industry pay. But Nucor also has much higher productivity than is typical in the steel industry. Wall Street financial services firms and banks used incentive plans that rewarded people for developing “innovative” new financial investment vehicles and for taking risks to earn themselves and their firms a lot of money. Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which included restrictions on executive pay designed to discourage executives from taking “unnecessary and exces-sive risks.” In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, entitled “How Business Schools Have Failed Business,” the former director of corporate finance policy at the United States Treasury wrote that “misaligned incentive programs are at the core of what brought our financial system to its knees.” 7 He says that we “should ask how many of the business schools attended by America’s CEOs and directors educate their students about the...
Words: 8809 - Pages: 36
...CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Corporate Finance Compensation of corporate executives in the United States continues to be a hot-button issue. It is widely viewed that CEO pay has grown to exorbitant levels (at least in some cases). In response, in April 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Say on Pay” bill. The bill requires corporations to allow a nonbinding shareholder vote on executive pay. (Note that because the bill applies to corporations, it does not give voters a “say on pay” for U.S. Representatives.) Specifically, the measure allows shareholders to approve or disapprove a company’s executive compensation plan. Because the vote is nonbinding, it does not permit shareholders to veto a compensation package and does not place limits on executive pay. Some companies had actually already begun initiatives to allow shareholders a say on pay before Congress got involved. On May 5, 2008, Aflac, the insurance company with the well-known “spokesduck,” held the first shareholder vote on executive pay in the United States. Understanding how a corporation sets executive pay, and the role of shareholders in that process, takes us into issues involving the corporate form of organization, corporate goals, and corporate control, all of which we cover in this chapter. 1.1 What Is Corporate Finance? Suppose you decide to start a firm to make tennis balls. To do this you hire managers to buy raw materials, and you assemble a workforce that will produce and...
Words: 7653 - Pages: 31
...The Importance Of Corporate Ethics and Values: Building a Sustainable Strategy Model for Effective Implementation of Good Corporate Governance within a State-Owned Enterprise in South Africa. A Research Study Presented to the Graduate school of Business Leadership University of South Africa In Fulfillment of the Requirements for the MASTERS DEGREE IN BUSINESS LEADERSHIP UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA Prepared by Lazarus Docter Mokoena (called Bonga) [Student No: 0555-418-7] Tel: 011-217 1187 (Work); 011-679 5486 (Home) Cell: 082 466 6896 SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR M.H. CROSBIE FINAL RESEARCH REPORT November 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................... 8 1. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 INTRODUCTION................................................................................. 8 ESKOM’s COMPANY BACKGROUND ................................................ 8 ESKOM’s BUSINESS CONDUCT POLICY .......................................10 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH .......................................................12 PROBLEM STATEMENT .................................................................14 IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF STUDY .....................................17 RESEARCH PROPOSITIONS AND HYPOTHESIS ...........................18 1.6.1 Propositions ...................................
Words: 27408 - Pages: 110
...Q1) What is Ethical analysis and discuss its Application: in Corporate Decision making? Ethics is unique among disciplines in that practitioners often cannot agree on a common definition of their topic. Ethics Scoreboard can't solve that problem, which is many centuries old. Here it attempts to put forth definitions that explain what words mean when they are used on this website.] Values: Those qualities of behavior, thought, and character that society regards as being intrinsically good, having desirable results, and worthy of emulation by others. Morals: Modes of conduct that are taught and accepted as embodying principles of right and good. Morality: A system of determining right and wrong that is established by some authority, such as a church, an organization, a society, or a government. Ethics: The process of determining right and wrong conduct. Ethical System: A specific formula for distinguishing right from wrong. Unethical: An action or conduct which violates the principles of one or more ethical systems, or which is counter to an accepted ethical value, such as honesty. Non-ethical considerations: Powerful human motivations that are not based on right or wrong, but on considerations of survival and well-being, such as health, security, love, wealth, or self esteem. Concepts Non-Ethical Considerations: Defined above, non-ethical considerations are important because they are often the powerful impediments to ethical conduct, and the cause of many conflicts...
Words: 25626 - Pages: 103
...Chapter 1 Ethical Reasoning: Implications for Accounting Discussion Questions 1. Select one of the world’s religions and give a concrete example of how the Golden Rule applies in that religion. "Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion had more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal." The Dalai Lama Students may use the Internet as resource when researching the use of the Golden Rule in different religions. At websites such as www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm and www.scarboromissions.ca, the comparisons of world religions are made. The students can compare the provided information with their personal views on the Golden Rule. From the Baha’I Faith, “Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.” Baha’u’llah in Gleaning (from www.scarboromissions.ca/Golden_rule/sacred_texts.php, February 7, 2010). From www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm (February 7, 2010), Black Elk of Native American Spiritually is quoted “All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” Plato also stated, “May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.” Many students may remember being reasoned with by a parent or teacher on such lines of thinking. Students may remark that the appeal for many charities, particularly those who feed...
Words: 6425 - Pages: 26
...Chapter 1 Ethical Reasoning: Implications for Accounting Discussion Questions 1. Select one of the world’s religions and give a concrete example of how the Golden Rule applies in that religion. "Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion had more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal." The Dalai Lama Students may use the Internet as resource when researching the use of the Golden Rule in different religions. At websites such as www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm and www.scarboromissions.ca, the comparisons of world religions are made. The students can compare the provided information with their personal views on the Golden Rule. From the Baha’I Faith, “Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.” Baha’u’llah in Gleaning (from www.scarboromissions.ca/Golden_rule/sacred_texts.php, February 7, 2010). From www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm (February 7, 2010), Black Elk of Native American Spiritually is quoted “All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” Plato also stated, “May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.” Many students may remember being reasoned with by a parent or teacher on such lines of thinking. Students may remark that the appeal for many charities, particularly those who feed...
Words: 6425 - Pages: 26
...Chapter 1 Ethical Reasoning: Implications for Accounting Discussion Questions 1. Select one of the world’s religions and give a concrete example of how the Golden Rule applies in that religion. "Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion had more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal." The Dalai Lama Students may use the Internet as resource when researching the use of the Golden Rule in different religions. At websites such as www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm and www.scarboromissions.ca, the comparisons of world religions are made. The students can compare the provided information with their personal views on the Golden Rule. From the Baha’I Faith, “Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.” Baha’u’llah in Gleaning (from www.scarboromissions.ca/Golden_rule/sacred_texts.php, February 7, 2010). From www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm (February 7, 2010), Black Elk of Native American Spiritually is quoted “All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” Plato also stated, “May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.” Many students may remember being reasoned with by a parent or teacher on such lines of thinking. Students may remark that the appeal for many charities, particularly those who feed...
Words: 6425 - Pages: 26
...213-255_Trevino_08p4.qxd 6/21/06 5:18 PM Page 213 PA R T IV ETHICS AND THE ORGANIZATION 213 213-255_Trevino_08p4.qxd 6/21/06 5:18 PM Page 214 CHAPTER 8 ETHICAL PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZATIONS INTRODUCTION In the third quarter of 2002, the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, estimated that the corporate scandals that began with the Enron debacle in late 2000 would cost the U.S. economy $35 billion. That is the equivalent of a $10 increase per barrel of oil.1 It is, in a word, staggering. And we may not have seen the end of it. Long before Enron’s collapse, a number of business ethicists and business professionals watched with concern as Wall Street analysts demanded increasingly strong corporate financial performance to support rising corporate stock prices. At the same time, the gargantuan compensation packages (including stock options) of the top executives running these companies became inextricably linked to their companies’ stock prices. In 1990, average CEO pay at major corporations was 107 times the pay of the average worker. By 2004, CEO pay had risen to 431 times the pay of the average employee. (If the pay of average workers in the United States had risen as fast as CEO pay, the lowest paid workers would be earning $23.03 an hour, not $5.15 an hour.)2 It was an “accident” waiting to happen, although everyone was making so much money in the market that no one wanted to admit that something could be fundamentally...
Words: 20980 - Pages: 84
...Chapter 1 ------------------------------------------------- Managerial Accounting: An Overview Solutions to Questions 1-1 Financial accounting is concerned with reporting financial information to external parties, such as stockholders, creditors, and regulators. Managerial accounting is concerned with providing information to managers for use within the organization. Financial accounting emphasizes the financial consequences of past transactions, objectivity and verifiability, precision, and companywide performance, whereas managerial accounting emphasizes decisions affecting the future, relevance, timeliness, and segment performance. Financial accounting is mandatory for external reports and it needs to comply with rules, such as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS), whereas managerial accounting is not mandatory and it does not need to comply with externally imposed rules. 1-2 Five examples of planning activities include (1) estimating the advertising revenues for a future period, (2) estimating the total expenses for a future period, including the salaries of all actors, news reporters, and sportscasters, (3) planning how many new television shows to introduce to the market, (4) planning each television show’s designated broadcast time slot, and (5) planning the network’s advertising activities and expenditures. Five examples of controlling activities include (1) comparing the actual number of viewers...
Words: 4275 - Pages: 18
...The Moral Compass Leadership for a Free World Lindsay J Thompson Leadership Ethics Course Manual ~ © 2005 Lindsay J Thompson ~ All rights reserved 2 THE MORAL COMPASS Leadership for a Free World Table of Contents introduction page 5 core learning page 9 the leadership labyrinth page 11 the m oral com pass page 27 values and global value creation page 73 corporate citizenship page 93 bibliography page 109 the case lab page 113 Leadership Ethics Course Manual ~ © 2005 Lindsay J Thompson ~ All rights reserved 3 Leadership Ethics Course Manual ~ © 2005 Lindsay J Thompson ~ All rights reserved 4 introduction Moral Leadership for a Free World If you read a newspaper this morning, you almost surely read something related to morality, leadership, and freedom. From international relations to neighborhood and family life, concerns about leadership ethics and human welfare are the focus of news, political movements, and civic initiatives. Emotionally engaging terms like “moral leadership,” “the free world” and “human freedom” are often used in the media without much explanation or clarification. Momentous decisions are made and life choices established in the name of values attached to these and similar terms. What do we really mean by “moral leadership,” or “freedom?” If two people use these terms in a conversation, do they explicitly share a common understanding of them or just assume common ground? For instance...
Words: 29833 - Pages: 120
...The Florida State University DigiNole Commons Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2-5-2009 The Social Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Brooke Ellen Forester Florida State University Follow this and additional works at: http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Forester, Brooke Ellen, "The Social Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study" (2009). Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 4418. This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at DigiNole Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigiNole Commons. For more information, please contact lib-ir@fsu.edu. FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A CASE STUDY By BROOKE E. FORESTER A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009 i The members of the Committee approved the Dissertation of Brooke Ellen Forester defended on February 5, 2009. ________________________ Michael Mondello Professor Co-Directing Dissertation ________________________ R. Aubrey Kent Professor Co-Directing Dissertation ________________________ Robert Brymer Outside Committee...
Words: 62361 - Pages: 250
