Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (l. 200-217).

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (February 22, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-65)

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-217).

The concern about how business should behave as one of the dominant institutions in society, widely referred to as corporate social responsibility, has been a subject of interest among academics and practitioners all over the world. The increasing global outlook of business activities and the need to understand environments in most parts of the globe have also made this concept relevant for all time. This thesis therefore relates to a study, which assesses the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility for organisational effectiveness in a developing and African country. It was argued that ethics and social responsibility must first be perceived to be important for business success, before managers’ behaviour can become ethical and reflect greater social responsibility. Using a mainly qualitative approach and aided by some quantitative analysis, the study explored the perceived importance of this construct (ethics and social responsibility) for organisational effectiveness among insurance managers in the Nigerian insurance industry. This exploration and the analysis are based on the theoretical assumptions that personal and situational factors do influence managers’ perception of the importance of ethics and social responsibility and its business assumption. These, therefore, constitute major outcomes of the study. Given that the study is the first of its kind in the insurance industry, and Nigeria, a developing economy, its outcomes further aids our understanding of how managers in an African socio-economic context perceive the construct and their readiness to translate it into business practice. Above all, the thesis demonstrates that the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility for organisational effectiveness is a function of industry and product nature, individual moral values, corporate ethical values and organisational commitment. The findings suggest that meeting customers’ expectations reinforce trust-relationship, which in turn is moderated by some other personal-situational factors. The findings also indicate that highly idealistic managers were more sympathetic towards the welfare of others, and have higher perception of the important role of ethics and social responsibility for business success.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: page 387-430.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 786-847). Also available on the Internet.

Technology has several advantages, but the growing fear is that the power of human beings over nature through technology is growing in an alarming rate so that, if not checked with a new ethics of responsibility, we may be heading to the destruction of nature and the annihilation of humanity. In response to this fear, Hans Jonas set a whole new debate into motion, both in Germany and America, when he argues (in his book entitled, The imperative of responsibility: In search of ethics for the technological age (1984) that the existing approaches to philosophical ethics, including theological ethics, are inadequate since they do not tackle the serious issues produced by the rapid expansion of modern technology. He then asserts that we must make a concerted effort to develop a theory of responsibility, so that humanity could be salvaged from future extinction. Whereas Jonas denies that religion could form the basis of a universal ethics of responsibility, Schweiker strives to prove him wrong by producing a Christian version of an ethics of responsibility from that of Jonas. Using Schweiker’s formulation of a Christian ethics of responsibility, this researcher aims at taking the debate to another level by engaging his Christian ethics of responsibility with African ethics to come out with an African Christian ethics of responsibility. The reason why we are formulating an African Christian ethics of responsibility is that if Africa is seen as the fastest growing Christian continent in the world, then formulating an African Christian ethics of responsibility is worthwhile since such an ethics addressing the negative impact of modern technology will be available and accessible to a substantial part of the world population. Although African and Christian in its point of departure, this ethics of responsibility claims to be universal in a normative sense of the word. It strives to provide moral guidance that should be heeded by everyone. This is because in our formulation, we will call Christians and non-Christians alike to emulate the altruistic love of Christ for the world as the core of an ethics of responsibility that is future-oriented. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

In recent years, activism movements have shaken public consciousness, waking us up to the fact that there is no time to waste in light of the Social and Environmental Crises humanity is facing. Since the pivotal role of science and technology has in both creating and trying to solve those Crises, scientists’ political engagement has been the topic of an increasing number of publications. A number of authors call for academics to engage in activism, reasoning it with the responsibility academics have towards society as professionals and human beings. However, what this responsibility itself means in the context of academic activism has been largely overlooked. We identified Hans Jonas’ ethics of responsibility as the most apt theory to analyze the phenomenon. In fact, according to Jonas, science has unleashed the uncontrolled power of technology by only seeing the benefits of technological innovations, while forgetting to consider its costs. Therefore, ethical reflections should be brought back into science to move from a retroactive towards a future- oriented responsibility that focus of preserving the existence of future generations on Earth. Through semi-structured interviews with academics who are engaged in academic activism, we investigate the concept of responsibility in relation to their engagement. Our findings indicate that academic activism is a manifestation of individual future-oriented responsibility, sparked by the fear for a doomed future. Unfortunately, the attempt by academic activists to bring ethical reflections into the wider institutional context is faced with resistance by the prevailing neoliberal system, which prevents academia from taking collective responsibility and re-establishing its social mandate.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 201-203) and index.