Business Ethics: A Critical Approach: Integrating Ethics Across the Business World

385 Pages·2012·2.46 MB·English

by  Patrick O'Sullivan

BUSINESS ETHICS
Events such as Trafigura’s illegal dumping of toxic waste in Sierra Leone and BP’s
environmentally disastrous oil spill have highlighted ethical issues in international
business at a time when business leaders, academics and business schools were
reflecting on their own responsibilities following the global financial crisis. The
scope and scale of the global operations of multinational businesses means that
decisions taken in different parts of the world have far-reaching consequences beyond
the national settings where employees are located or where firms are registered
and, as such, an awareness of these responsibilities needs to be integrated into all
levels and all subjects.
Using four guiding principles – a critical multilevel approach rooted in the
tradition of European social theory, a comparative and international perspective,
a global rather than European standpoint, and engaging with subject-specific issues
– this book aims to ‘mainstream’ business ethics into the work of teachers and
students in business schools. This comprehensive volume leverages contributions
from a range of experts to move away from business ethics being a box to be ticked
towards an integrated consideration across the business disciplines.
This impressive book brings ethical considerations back to the heart of the
business curriculum and, in doing so, provides a companion for the progressive
business student throughout their university career.
Patrick O’Sullivan is Professor and Head of Department of People, Organizations
and Society at Grenoble Ecole de Management, France.
Mark Smith is Associate Professor of Human Resource Management at Grenoble
Ecole de Management, France.
Mark Esposito is Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Leadership
at Grenoble Ecole de Management, France.
‘Ethical issues have moved to the forefront of public policy debate following
a series of crises affecting business, finance and government over many years.
These culminated most recently in the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,
the American subprime crisis and the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone.
Consequently this provocative and stimulating new book is a welcome
diagnosis of the ethical issues underpinning a wide range of academic
disciplines and subjects that bear on business finance and government in
particular, but also a normative essay on what policies government, regulators
and managers might pursue to avoid these ethical dilemmas in future. While
business ethics has been a Cinderella subject in business schools, this collection
of essays places ethical considerations centre stage for the first time and the
acute analysis will stimulate debate through the innovative range of case studies
at the end of each chapter. Every discerning business school, manager and
bureaucrat should read this book and follow its wise prescriptions.’
Nigel F. B. Allington, Downing College and Centre for Economic
and Public Policy Research, University of Cambridge
‘The authors provide a lively reflection on contemporary business ethics
theory and practice and an original multi-level critique that helps the reader
questioni ng conventional beliefs in strategic management. They offer a
constructive critique to rethink business models and the managerial mindset
towards responsible capitalism.’
Simone de Colle, Dublin City University, Ireland
‘The gist of this book is a challenge – a challenge to reflect on and to rethink
the role of business in society. The authors of this book pose questions that
are at once inspiring, intriguing, and compellingly urgent.’
Christina Garsten, Stockholm University, Sweden
BUSINESS ETHICS
A critical approach:
integrating ethics across
the business world
Edited by Patrick O’Sullivan,
Mark Smith and Mark Esposito
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,an informa business
© 2012 Patrick O’Sullivan, Mark Smith and Mark Esposito
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Business ethics: a critical approach integrating ethics across the
business world/edited by Patrick O’Sullivan, Mark Smith,
Mark Esposito. – 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Business ethics. I. O’Sullivan, Patrick. II. Smith, Mark,
1950 June 25– III. Esposito, Mark.
HF5387.B86677 2012
174’.4–dc23
2011048331
ISBN: 978-0-415-66356-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-66358-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-11901-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo and Stone Sans by
Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
PART I
Introduction 1
1 Ethics as social critique 3
Patrick O’Sullivan, Mark Smith and Mark Esposito
2 Levels of critique: a methodological framework
for the study of ethics and morality in business 22
Patrick O’Sullivan
3 The ethical management of ethics: fostering ethical
behaviour in corporations 34
Ion Copoeru
PART II
Organizational strategy 47
4 Corporate Social Responsibility, definitional
paralysis and ambiguity 49
Mark Esposito
vi Contents
5 The impact of ethics on the issues of organizational
congruence 60
Lloyd C. Williams and Mark Esposito
6 Ethical issues of reification and recognition in HRM:
a Critical Social Theory perspective 74
Gazi Islam
7 Private vices, business virtues? The institutional strategy
of legitimated online gambling in Italy 86
Carmelo Mazza
PART III
Finance and economics 99
8 The ethical and social dimensions of executive
compensation 101
Terence Tse, Khaled Soufani and Lucie Roux
9 The ethics of the banker: reflections on the banker’s
economic and societal functions, or how history
requires us to reflect on the role of banks in society 118
Sandrine Ansart and Virginie Monvoisin
10 Islamic finance revisited: a brief review with the
Singapore example 134
Habibullah Khan and Omar K. M. R. Bashar
11 Ethical issues in the policy response to the 2008
financial crisis: moral hazard in central banking
and the equity of bailout 147
Alojzy Z. Nowak and Patrick O’Sullivan
PART IV
Organizational behaviour 167
12 Ethics and management: the essential philosophical
and psychological basis of ethical management
driven by a progressive company 169
Loïck Roche
Contents vii
13 Mindfulness as a mediator between the effective
and the ethical manager 179
Dominique Steiler and Raffi Duymedjian
14 A cultural appreciation of diversity of ethical
strategies: examples from European business 191
Taran Patel
15 Employee surveillance and the modern workplace 206
Marko Pitesa
PART V
Marketing and innovation 221
16 Ethics and marketing 223
David Bevan
17 Deeper into the consumer’s mind: market research and ethics 238
Caroline Cuny
18 Social and societal marketing: applications for
public policy makers and companies 254
Carolina O. C. Werle
19 Designing for a better world 267
Josiena Gotzsch
PART VI
HRM and employee relations 285
20 ‘You take the high road . . .’: analysing the ethical
dimensions of high performance work systems 287
Keith Whitfield, Rachel Williams and Sukanya Sengupta
21 Ethical challenges in business coaching 302
Pauline Fatien Diochon
22 Ethical issues for international human resource
management: the case of recruiting the family? 317
Mark Smith and Christelle Tornikoski
viii Contents
23 Competency management: between managerial
development and ethical questioning 332
Pierre-Yves Sanséau
PART VII
The ethical future? 347
24 Epilogue: towards an ethical future for business? 349
Patrick O’Sullivan, Mark Smith and Mark Esposito
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 The three levels of critique 8
9.1 Banking activities and responsibilities 124
9.2 Banking activities and responsibilities in the 2000s 130
11.1 Inflation in the Euro area (annual percentage changes,
non-seasonally adjusted) 158
14.1 Ethical strategies of the four cultures proposed by CT 201
19.1 The plastic bags are selected on colour, cut open, washed
and dried 278
19.2 In a next step the plastic bags are compressed in a thicker,
flexible material 279
19.3 Conserve India handbags 280
19.4 The Chulha stove 282
19.5 Modular structure of the Chulha stove 282
21.1 Typology of clients’ reasons for resorting to business coaching 305
21.2 Main ‘ethical traps’ in the three-party business coaching contracts 312
21.3 Main tensions in the three-party coaching contracts 312
Boxes
1.1 The UN Global Compact for Business 5
17.1 Examples of national marketing deontological codes 240
Tables
3.1 The connection between ethics-related control mechanisms
and management control-system components 37
5.1 The boundaries of sustainability and congruence 61