Ebook: Business Ethics in Theory and Practice: Contributions from Asia and New Zealand

This book originated in a symposium on business ethics that took place in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Canterbury in September of 1997. Professor Werhane, who was a visiting Erskine Fellow, provided the keynote address, and many of the papers in this collection were originally presented at this symposium. We are grateful to Kluwer Publishers for the opportunity to publish these essays in their series on International Business Ethics. We want to thank the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden School, University of Virginia, and the Erskine Trust and the Department of Management at the University of Canterbury for their support of Professor Werhane's fellowship, research for this text, and funding for its production. We especially want to thank Lisa Spiro, who copy-edited and prepared the manuscript for publication. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW This book originated in a symposium on business ethics that took place in the faculty of commerce, at the University of Canterbury, in September 1997. Professor Werhane, who was a visiting Erskine Fellow, provided the keynote address. Contributions to the proceedings were. inter-disciplinary, spanning theory and practice. Subsequent contributions were obtained from within New Zealand and from Asia. The book starts off on rather a pessimistic note: the new managerialism (the kind of thing Scott Adams jokes about in the world-famous Dilbert cartoons) is economically suspect and psychologically damaging.

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This book is a collection of essays devoted to questions of international business that present fresh road maps to analyze business ethics topics of universal concern.
Peter Earl and Matthew Hirshberg set up the context with accounts of implications of Western economic theory. Ian Grant raises the question of amorality in business. As Patricia Werhane and Alan Singer conclude, though, ethics is embedded in all that we do.
Catherine Casey, Suchitra Mouly, Amelia Smith, Jay Sanakaran, Kate Kearins, Keith Hooper, David Coy, Glynn Owens, and V. Nilakant deal with ethical issues concerning organizational culture, management communication, and employee empowerment, and Ming Singer links moral development to workplace justice.
Four studies of cultural traditions, Alejo Sison's study of the Philippines, Shioji and Nakano's analysis of Japanese traditions, and Wong Wai-Ying and Po-Keung Ip's essays on Confucian ethics find that the underlying value system in each culture strongly influences business.
Stan Godlovitch and Singer conclude the collection, demonstrating that we have made some moral progress in business, politics, and science, as Werhane points out in her essay on environmental sustainability. New mind sets are crucial for moral and material progress, and, they conclude, we are capable of such development.

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This book is a collection of essays devoted to questions of international business that present fresh road maps to analyze business ethics topics of universal concern.
Peter Earl and Matthew Hirshberg set up the context with accounts of implications of Western economic theory. Ian Grant raises the question of amorality in business. As Patricia Werhane and Alan Singer conclude, though, ethics is embedded in all that we do.
Catherine Casey, Suchitra Mouly, Amelia Smith, Jay Sanakaran, Kate Kearins, Keith Hooper, David Coy, Glynn Owens, and V. Nilakant deal with ethical issues concerning organizational culture, management communication, and employee empowerment, and Ming Singer links moral development to workplace justice.
Four studies of cultural traditions, Alejo Sison's study of the Philippines, Shioji and Nakano's analysis of Japanese traditions, and Wong Wai-Ying and Po-Keung Ip's essays on Confucian ethics find that the underlying value system in each culture strongly influences business.
Stan Godlovitch and Singer conclude the collection, demonstrating that we have made some moral progress in business, politics, and science, as Werhane points out in her essay on environmental sustainability. New mind sets are crucial for moral and material progress, and, they conclude, we are capable of such development.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-vii
Introduction and Overview....Pages 1-11
Managerialism and the Economics of the Firm....Pages 13-26
New Organizational Cultures and Ethical Employment Practice....Pages 27-39
Environmentally Sustainable Business and the Rashomon Effect....Pages 41-50
Strategic Discourse as a Technology of Power....Pages 51-61
Property Ethics and Starvation....Pages 63-77
The Contributions of Empirical Research Towards Normative Business Ethics....Pages 79-86
Ethics, Aesthetics, and Empiricism....Pages 87-99
Business Ethics: Is Amoral Good Enough?....Pages 101-111
Perceptions of Empowerment....Pages 113-130
Ethics in Action: The Management of Intangibles....Pages 131-144
Business and Culture in the Philippines....Pages 145-165
Japanese Philosophical Traditions and Contemporary Business Practices....Pages 167-176
Rethinking the Presuppositions of Business Ethic—From an Aristotelian Approach to Confucian Ethics....Pages 177-188
The Traditions of the People of Hong Kong and their Relationships to Contemporary Business Practices....Pages 189-204
Varieties of Progress: Commercial, Moral and Otherwise....Pages 205-219
Synergy-Orientation and the “Third Way”....Pages 221-239
Afterword....Pages 241-242
Back Matter....Pages 243-247

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This book is a collection of essays devoted to questions of international business that present fresh road maps to analyze business ethics topics of universal concern.
Peter Earl and Matthew Hirshberg set up the context with accounts of implications of Western economic theory. Ian Grant raises the question of amorality in business. As Patricia Werhane and Alan Singer conclude, though, ethics is embedded in all that we do.
Catherine Casey, Suchitra Mouly, Amelia Smith, Jay Sanakaran, Kate Kearins, Keith Hooper, David Coy, Glynn Owens, and V. Nilakant deal with ethical issues concerning organizational culture, management communication, and employee empowerment, and Ming Singer links moral development to workplace justice.
Four studies of cultural traditions, Alejo Sison's study of the Philippines, Shioji and Nakano's analysis of Japanese traditions, and Wong Wai-Ying and Po-Keung Ip's essays on Confucian ethics find that the underlying value system in each culture strongly influences business.
Stan Godlovitch and Singer conclude the collection, demonstrating that we have made some moral progress in business, politics, and science, as Werhane points out in her essay on environmental sustainability. New mind sets are crucial for moral and material progress, and, they conclude, we are capable of such development.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-vii
Introduction and Overview....Pages 1-11
Managerialism and the Economics of the Firm....Pages 13-26
New Organizational Cultures and Ethical Employment Practice....Pages 27-39
Environmentally Sustainable Business and the Rashomon Effect....Pages 41-50
Strategic Discourse as a Technology of Power....Pages 51-61
Property Ethics and Starvation....Pages 63-77
The Contributions of Empirical Research Towards Normative Business Ethics....Pages 79-86
Ethics, Aesthetics, and Empiricism....Pages 87-99
Business Ethics: Is Amoral Good Enough?....Pages 101-111
Perceptions of Empowerment....Pages 113-130
Ethics in Action: The Management of Intangibles....Pages 131-144
Business and Culture in the Philippines....Pages 145-165
Japanese Philosophical Traditions and Contemporary Business Practices....Pages 167-176
Rethinking the Presuppositions of Business Ethic—From an Aristotelian Approach to Confucian Ethics....Pages 177-188
The Traditions of the People of Hong Kong and their Relationships to Contemporary Business Practices....Pages 189-204
Varieties of Progress: Commercial, Moral and Otherwise....Pages 205-219
Synergy-Orientation and the “Third Way”....Pages 221-239
Afterword....Pages 241-242
Back Matter....Pages 243-247
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