As currently designed, the business corporation is primarily designed for one simple purpose: the enrichment of stockholders. Considering the immense size and wealth of many modern corporations, however, this prioritized focus has deleterious ethical consequences, including a burgeoning wealth gap between those who own or manage the corporation and employees. Several individuals and organizations are calling for a redesign of the business corporation to benefit those affected by business organizations, such as employees and communities. One such design, developed in the village of Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain, is employee-owned with extensive profit sharing, employee training, limits on executive compensation, and financial support for the surrounding community. To examine the differences between the status quo corporation and a modified Mondragon model, an analysis was performed of the financial, employee compensation, and stock information of a sample of corporations of the Fortune 500 under both systems. While aggregate financial position and profitability did not differ significantly between the two models for the tested corporations and time period, the employee compensation, financial commitment to training and education, community financial support, and ethics of the two models have profound differences.

Most executives recognize that the long-term financial health, prosperity and survival of their firm depend upon leaders who have good moral character. The article argues that a retrieval of Aristotle’s work on character and virtue can bring new clarity on how to identify and select leaders of our business institutions. The study presents a discussion of Aristotle’s phronesis or practical wisdom and how this focus might aid and abet the selection of appropriate leaders. The original contribution offered here centers on how virtue only makes sense for Aristotle in the context of a teleological worldview whereby human beings are seeking what is intrinsically worthwhile—purpose, meaning, health, and community life. For Aristotle, virtues are much more than what makes a person attractive to the job market. Catholic social teaching reflects this Aristotelian perspective on the role of business in society. The article concludes showing how Aristotle’s insight on phronesis offers a way to enhance standard processes employed in the selection of business leaders.

The paper analyzes managers’ stance toward the ethical responsibility of those who work for multinational garment retailers. Most are charged with the social compliance policies affecting relationships with subcontractors. This study is based on interviews conducted with major European and American retailers. Our research question is: what is the normative stance of our respondents? We find that they reject the ideological way in which the normative debate on sweatshops has been conducted by business ethicists during the last decades. These executives’ implicit conception and scope of their moral responsibility is much more in line with Iris Young’s (2006) conception of ‘political responsibility’. This managerial ethical position has not been adequately captured by earlier writings on this topic. In general, the managerial ethical framing of issues like child labor, minimally decent labor conditions, a living wage, etc. is at odds with how these issues are usually treated in the philosophical debates around sweatshops. Examining both visions allows us to better grasp the pragmatic normative stance of business practitioners as well as the dynamics of social compliance policies. In the conclusion, we draw both management lessons and research implications for more ethical interactions with suppliers.

During the professional socialization process, nascent professionals internalize the moral values of their profession. Since professional socialization begins in professional schools, this article provides a new conceptual framework for professional ethics education which highlights the affective aspects of moral formation. To create the conceptual framework, this article synthesizes the ideas of Durkheim, Kohlberg, Hoffman, and Haidt on moral formation, with Durkheim as a common thread. In this conceptual framework, the internalization process is influenced and promoted by social discipline, which includes both cognitive and affective aspects. Desirable social discipline can be achieved when cognition and affect are well-balanced, with respect for individual differences. To illustrate how this conceptual framework can be applied to professional education, this article uses the specific example of engineering ethics education.

This study focuses on the role that a) Compassion for Oneself, Others and the Environment (COOE) and b) Desire for Sustainability Awareness (DSA) have on Fair Trade Fashion Consumption (FTFC). The newly derived COOE and DSA constructs help us understand how emotions of compassion and the desire for sustainability awareness may influence consumer behavior. Online surveys were distributed consumers who shop at Fair Trade clothing companies and consumers shop at conventional clothing companies. The sample size for this study is one hundred and twenty-nine, N=129. Results were analyzed through correlation and multiple regression. It was found that COOE and DSA are positively related to FTFC. In addition, Internet Engagement (IE) functions as a moderator for the relationship between DSA and FTFC.

The field of leadership-as-practice (L-A-P) is beginning to mature as a theory of leadership in direct opposition to standard leadership, which views the individual as the mainstay of leadership experience. Nor does it focus on the dyadic relationship between leaders and followers, which historically has been the starting point for any discussion of leadership. Rather, it is concerned with how leadership emerges and unfolds through day-to-day experience. In this ongoing and evolving activity, questions of ethics arise which challenge what appears to be a flat ontology circumscribing its ethical applications. Using a case analysis, which according to the author takes significant liberties with some of the fundamental ethical principles and practices of L-A-P, this essay seeks to refine and delineate what constitutes business ethics from a leadership-as-practice perspective.