This thesis attempts to inquire into the formation and consolidation of the ethos of business within the cultural and historical context of the twentieth century. Its aim is to reopen the debate about the nature of business ethics by focussing on the cultural complexities that underlie much of the contemporary discourse on business ethics, and to explore the historical and cultural conditions of possibility of the appearance of business and the figure of the businessman/woman as two of the central cultural and moral principles of contemporary society. To this extent, I seek to offer an alternative reading of 'business ethics', which in the mainstream literature devoted to this topic, is presented not only as a side-effect of business life but also as a technical or therapeutic problem that always has a possible solution. The various efforts that constitute the domain of business ethics have in common a vision where 'ethics' can be abolished through the application of a moral ~ technique that would create a type of business person, business organisation and society from which all the ethical contradictions and conflicts can simply be removed. Rather than focussing on the various techniques of business ethics that attempt to prescribe and secure what counts as 'good' or 'bad' business behaviour, this project seeks to explore the fundamental question of who is the historical subj ect through whom and for whom an ethics of business arises in the first place. Accordingly, this project offers an analysis of the contemporary ethos of management that is predicated upon a specific understanding of that historical subject and argues that both business ethics and the ethos of management share a common ground: the denial of the tragic. It then proceeds by offering a description of the idea of the tragic in order to recover and re-establish it as an indispensable and constitutive element of the ethos of business. For the recovery of the tragic, four modem novels are analysed and interpreted in which the ethos of business and the character of businesspeople are depicted in their essential tragic dimension.

In Taiwan, most life insurance companies pay salespeople by a pure compensation scheme (i.e. no base salary is provided). In addition, life insurance companies may pay a large part of the compensation fee to salespeople immediately (e.g. 80% of the whole compensation payment) when the deal is closed. Such a scheme may encourage short-term sales, but may also generate some unethical practices (e.g. providing exaggerated information to customers). To try to overcome this problem. insurance companies offer a non-immediate reward scheme to salespeople. In a non-immediate reward scheme, salespeople receive a small part of the compensation in each period. Thus, salespeople could be encouraged to provide services to customers in the long term, and would become less short-term focused. However, it is open to the question: does a non-immediate reward system really promote ethical behaviour in life insurance selling or not? A comparative analysis of reward schemes requires consideration of time preference, a concept of which has not been given sufficient attention in business ethics and sales management scheme.

Professional ethics often asks for a kind of behaviour which is at odds with basic moral requirements, or it imposes moral restrictions which are not to be found in ordinary everyday interactions. Therefore, the individual professional must develop a sort of 'double morality', that is, he must learn how to use different sets of moral rules depending on whether he finds himself in a professional context or not.

No description available.

Cases involving sudden environmental events, such as British Petroleum’s (BP’s) accidental oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, clearly demonstrate the causal relation between poor corporate environmental performance and abrupt loss of shareholder value. Under such circumstances, a firm’s results can be readily priced using a conventional valuation model and hence, there is a clear nexus between environmental performance and business outcomes, as represented by the firm’s financial results as well as the event impact on shareholder value through equity prices. However, in less extreme cases there is no clear evidence of there being a relationship between these elements. Further, in relation to the literature on the nature of and motivations for corporate social and environmental reporting, scant attention has been directed towards research on the usefulness of environmental performance information to financial decision makers. Moreover, such studies as there have been have delivered mixed results in the absence of a conceptual framework that is able to distinguish the quality of such reporting from underlying performance and other representations of performance, such as reputation and SRI index membership. In order to address these previous shortcomings in this field, the proposed research focuses on environmental issues to investigate whether corporate environmental performance information can be considered as an aspect of a firm’s value, in terms of equity performance and to this end three empirical studies are carried out probing the relationships, respectively, between: - corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation and equity performance, - socially responsible investment (SRI) index membership and equity performance, and - CSR ratings and share selection in SRI versus general investment funds, whilst in each case controlling for other environmentally related factors, as well as financial performance. The findings of the first empirical study suggest that environmental reputation and physical performance measured as proxies of the corporate environmental performance have value relevance, being negatively significantly related to the stock valuation, whereas environmental disclosure (DJSI) is not value relevant to financial decision-makers, and hence, not incorporated into share prices. However, the outcomes suggest that the GRI, an alternative measure of environmental disclosure, is value relevant even though it is not incorporated into share prices. The outcomes of the second empirical study indicate that companies being added to the DJSI or the FTSE4Good index in the March announcement results in a temporary decrease in a their share price, whilst companies added in (deleted from) the September announcement of the FTSE4Good index experience a significant but temporary increase (decrease) in stock return. However, membership of SRI indices does not have value relevance. Finally, the findings from the third empirical study suggest that CSR ratings have a weak influence on the ownership holdings decisions taken by SRI fund managers and further, they show that they, on aggregate, prefer to take into account multidimensional CSR measurements when making investment choices.

No description available.

Η παρούσα εργασία στοχεύει στην διερεύνηση των αντιλήψεων που έχουν διαμορφώσει οι φοιτητές των τμημάτων διοίκησης επιχειρήσεων στην Ελλάδα σχετικά με ζητήματα επιχειρησιακής ηθικής. Το κεντρικό σημείο ενδιαφέροντος είναι να εντοπιστούν αν υπάρχουν διαφορές ως προς διάφορους παράγοντες π.χ. φύλλο, θρησκευτικότητα, εργασιακή εμπειρία, αν το επίπεδο επιχειρησιακής ηθικής που έχουν διαμορφώσει οι φοιτητές διαφέρει μεταξύ των τμημάτων διοίκησης επιχειρήσεων στην Ελλάδα και μεταξύ προπτυχιακών και μεταπτυχιακών φοιτητών. / --

Με την ανάπτυξη της παγκόσμιας οικονομίας και τη διεθνοποίηση των επιχειρήσεων, η επιχειρησιακή ηθική έχει ολοένα μεγαλύτερο αντίκτυπο και στη διεθνή αρένα. Το αυξημένο μέγεθος του διεθνούς εμπορίου και της επένδυσης που έλαβαν χώρα τις προηγούμενες δεκαετίες, οδήγησε σε άνοδο της αλληλεξάρτησης μεταξύ των μεμονωμένων εθνικών οικονομιών. Κατά συνέπεια, οι επιχειρήσεις που δραστηριοποιούνται σε διεθνές επίπεδο δέχονται πολύπλευρες επιδράσεις από όλο τον κόσμο, οι οποίες εμπεριέχουν σοβαρούς ηθικούς προβληματισμούς. Η παρούσα διπλωματική περιλαμβάνει θεωρητική προσέγγιση της επιχειρησιακής ηθικής στα πλαίσια της στρατηγικής ανάπτυξης των επιχειρήσεων μέσω των εξαγορών και συγχωνεύσεων σε διεθνές επίπεδο. Παρουσιάζονται οι κύριες συνιστώσες του όρου της επιχειρησιακής ηθικής, όπως οι θεωρίες ηθικής, οι θεμελιώδεις αρχές της ηθικής, οι κώδικες ηθικής συμπεριφοράς και τα βασικά μοντέλα που εφαρμόζονται, τροποποιημένα ως προς τις ανάγκες των επιχειρήσεων. Θίγονται τα ζητήματα των εξαγορών και συγχωνεύσεων που πραγματοποιούνται σε ξένες χώρες. Αναλύονται οι πηγές των ηθικών προβλημάτων που προκύπτουν κατά τη διάρκεια τη διαδικασίας της εξαγοράς ή συγχώνευσης καθώς και στη μετέπειτα πορεία της, τα οποία συνοπτικά είναι οι πολιτισμικές διαφορές, η συνεχής εφαρμογή τακτικών αθέμιτου ανταγωνισμού, και φυσικά τα παγκόσμια προβλήματα του φυσικού περιβάλλοντος (διάθεση επικίνδυνων αποβλήτων, υπερθέρμανση του πλανήτη κλπ). / -

Over the past two decades, the interest in the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within both the academic and practitioner discourse has been rapidly increasing. CSR has developed to become a strategic objective for many organizations, with the credibility of CSR hinging on implementation as statements. This thesis aims to explore the role that Human Resources (HR) can play in CSR strategy development and implementation. Through a systematic review of relevant literatures on CSR and HR, the researcher highlights important CSR-HR interfaces and proposes a newly synthesised conceptual model, the CSR-HR value chain, which captures the CSR domain and strategy, and the domains of HR’s added values into CSR and their metaphor roles and outcome benefits. This research adopts two main theoretical frames when building the CSR-HR value chain and its initial proposition. The first frame is the strategic approach for CSR understanding and practice that draws on previous CSR models especially the CSR domains and social responsiveness approach in addition to the stakeholder theory. The second frame is the strategic HR partnership framework which includes the resource based view of the firm as a base for evaluating HR’s conurbation into CSR. Within this theoretical background, the research’s main proposition is for a strategic HR partner role within a strategic CSR approach. The CSR-HR value chain model and its embodied proposition were evaluated within the context of four organizations operating in Lebanon, a country which is witnessing a recent evolving interest in the strategic application of CSR within both the academic and managerial contexts. Within each organization, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders in addition to gathering and analysing secondary documentation data related to the examined phenomenon. Empirical findings revealed that the role of HR is mainly being operational on the short-term range focus practiced mainly within a philanthropic CSR approach. The plausible explanation for the role of HR in CSR was thus identified and the factors affecting this role were discussed. This research contributes to knowledge through presenting the model which uncovers the role of HR in CSR and its outcome benefits. Also, this research contributes to managerial practices, especially for HR managers seeking to assume more strategic roles in CSR through providing them with the guideline for HR’s domains of added value into CSR, and the dynamics and factors shaping the role of HR in CSR.

Fraudulent behaviour by management has become a global problem that cuts across cultural and ideological divides. Therefore, given the high incidence and cost of fraud internationally and locally, as well as the fact that stakeholders, including shareholders, governments and non-governmental organisations, are increasing the pressure on organisations to manage unethical behaviour more effectively, it is astonishing that fraud per se has not attracted more research efforts. Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen, among others, have underscored the fact that the current modes which are governing companies are not sufficient to protect investors and public interests, because it is easy for otherwise honest people to be swept along in a climate of corruption. The aim of this study was to propose a model to predict potential risk of management fraud based on the organisational climate of the organisation. An interpretative framework was used to develop a conceptual model. Analytical induction and Lawshe’s content validity ratio were applied to validate the conceptualised model. The conceptual model assumes that there are certain organisational climate factors (determinants and dimensions) within an organisation which could indicate the direction of climate within the organisation. The determinants are leadership style, managerial values, trustworthiness, and organisational values. The following dimensions were identified: level of individual autonomy, reward system of organisation, degree of open communication between employees and management, perceived individual pressure, and fairness and innovation. The conceptual model further assumes that, although employees’ acceptance and/or tolerance of unethical behaviour might be high, not all managers will engage in fraud, as the various aspects of the fraud diamond also impose a form of constraint on the organisation. The level of individual constraint as imposed by the fraud diamond is moderated by an individual’s gender, tenure, education and age, which form part of an individual’s capability and comprise the acquired traits of an individual. Apart from these biographical traits, the model includes personal traits that will also have an impact on an individual’s capability. The limitations, practical implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed. This study, not only augments fraud literature, but also contributes to industrial/organisational psychology by studying individual deviance from an organisational perspective. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Consulting psychology) : illustrated (some colored)