This paper raises a set of ethical questions that business leaders can ask themselves when deciding to operate in nations with grave violations of human rights. These questions are drawn from the tradition of moral inquiry known as "just war" (bellum justum). This tradition has devised a set of criteria helpful in organizing our ethical thinking about war. This paper transposes these criteria to the distinct, but related, domain of international trade.

This paper explores the relationship between organizational size, structure and the strength of organization members’ ethical predispositions. It is hypothesized that individuals in smaller, more flexible, organic organizations will display stronger ethical predispositions. Survey results from 209 individuals across eleven organizations indicate that contrary to expectations, larger, more rigid, mechanistic structures were associated with higher levels of ethical formalism and utilitarianism.

The study found that codes of ethics are a potential factor influencing the behaviour of corporate agents. Reasons are provided why codes are violated as well as complied with. A set of eight metaphors are developed which help to explain how codes of ethics influence behaviour.

The public sector internationally has been undergoing major change in recent years. In the field of Human Resource Management these changes have involved many new challenges facing the Human Resource Practitioner (HRPs), in dealing with the substantial ethical issues which can arise.This study involved a survey of HRPs in South Australia to ascertain the degree to which ethical dilemmas had increased for them in frequency and complexity. The study also sought insights into the likely action choices that HRPs would make in handling various situations involving an ethical judgement. Further measures were taken to assess their levels of self-efficacy towards certain ethical scenarios (15 in all). Finally, a replication of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) developed by Victor & Cullen (1988) was included in the study.

This paper reviews some common perspectives on social capital and begins an investigation into the theoretical and empirical role of contending ideologies in the development of social capital

At the close of the twentieth century, sweatshop labor remains an integral part of the world economic order. Is it always appropriate to condemn sweatshop labor? Might these practices be suitable, if not desirable, in particular economic and social settings? Is it exploitative if labor has alternative choices but freely chooses the sweatshop instead?These questions do not have easy answers. Economic analysis of developing economies presents fascinating arguments for the existence of some "sweatshop" conditions in order to allow those economies to progress. The elimination of sweatshop labor may not be warranted by economic development and their complete eradication may be only a pipe dream, but then are certain positive measures that can be taken without the dire economic consequences that are commonly attributed to interventions.This paper presented at the IABS '99 conference considered the adverse nature of sweatshop practices, address and critically examine the macroeconomic implications of sweatshops in developing economies, and balance these potentially positive consequences with ethical imperatives. The result of this examination is a prescription (if not a motivation) for organizations that choose to do business in economies based on sweatshop conditions. Alternative means exist by which to conduct business ethically in sweatshop economies. As a result of the space limitations of these proceedings, only certain sections of that original paper will be included herein and the endnotes have been removed. For a copy of the entire paper, please contact the authors.

This paper describes an interdisciplinary intervention of George Washington University faculty and students in business, engineering and law to assist a job training program in the fashion industry, evaluates the experience and identifies various support systems to encourage the sustained benefits of cross school alliances. Graduate school intervention to facilitate the competitive advantage of the inner-city is gaining prominence nationally, in academe, and in state and local governments. The competitive advantage of the inner city advanced by Harvard Business School Prof Michael Porter is a new model of economic development that recognizes the unique strengths of urban areas, specifically, strategic location, local market demand, integration with regional business clusters and underutilized human resources. Faculty and students in disciplines such as business, law and engineering can use their skills to provide research and development consulting deliverables that would not otherwise be available to urban entrepreneurs. These cross school collaborations have enormous potential yet there is limited scholarship to chronicle how these strategies are actually working.

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) is a national, not-for-profit organization founded in June 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter, following several years of pioneering research on inner-city business and economic development. The ICIC mission is to build healthy economies in America's inner cities that create jobs, income, and wealth for local residents. The National Business School Network (NBSN), a program of ICIC, engages America’s urban graduate business schools to foster inner-city business development and serve inner-city based companies in their communities. This paper reports on a project the NBSN undertook in 1998 with the Washington, D.C., Department of Housing and Community Development to create an inner-city business strategy for area graduate business schools. The report illustrates initial benchmark data that mapped graduate business school programs that aid Washington, D.C.'s inner city. The author also provides recommendations to further their participation and the development of a citywide effort to collaborate on inner-city business development projects.

In an article entitled 'A Price on the Priceless' from the Economist 18/6/99, the value of business is argued as lurking not in the physical and financial assets but in the intangibles of knowledge and ideas. Sharing similar thinking, Microsoft's boss Bill Gates recently was quoted as saying "our primary assets which are software and software development skills, do not show up on the balance sheet".But are knowledge and ideas the only intangibles on which businesses should be valued? What about relationships or partnerships? This question seems to highlight the very essence of the corporate citizenship debate and the need to better understand it through research.

A new role for business in society is emerging which goes beyond traditional philanthropy and local good neighborliness and extends to active engagement in wider societal issues and triple bottom line accountability. This paper offers new insights Into analyzing a company's approach to its wider role in society, in other words its corporate citizenship, it is based on the evidence of 12 companies, which participated in an action research conference held at Warwick University Business School In July 1998. It helps understanding of a company's current citizenship position, that of its benchmark peers and In which direction it might most easily be influenced to develop.

If we are concerned with the relation between business and society, we cannot be careless about the specific meaning of the term society. A few ideas about the conceptualization of the term society are reviewed-based on three contemporary European sociologists: Castoriadis, Morin, and Luhmann.

This study discusses the utilization of applied Habermasian theories in the field of business and society. It focuses on Wood's (1991) CSP from the perspectives of Habermasian project of the structural transformation of the public sphere.

This symposium panel will draw upon some of the fascinating, occasionally vexing, insights of European critical theory to suggest alternative ways of thinkmg about, as well as enacting, one of the core constructs of our field—coiporate social performance. My paper will explore the integrative potential of reflexive discourse as a sense making process to approach “value attunement” within stakeholder communities.

Multinational corporations are increasingly subject to the public’s attention, as a result of changing societal expectations towards corporations in general and multinationals in particular. Especially global players like Shell are perceived not only as economic institutions but also as a societal ones. This paper contributes to the understanding of the corporation's changing function by analyzing the Shell case based on a framework developed by the authors. The Shell case is a part of the "Redefining the corporation" international research project supported by the Alfred P. SLOAN Foundation.

To date, the literature on governance has not paid much attention to professional legitimacy, and less still to how professional organizations attempt to preserve their legitimacy. Legitimacy is, however, a fundamental requirement for ensuring the survival of these organizations. Taking the case of two accounting professions in Quebec, which are currently going through a period of turbulence, this paper examines management issues related to their continued quest for legitimacy, which is closely related to their specific identity and roles. The theoretical background is based on five prevalent theories (institutionalism, negotiated order, stakeholders, impression management and closure). Legitimacy is defined here in three dimensions with its management dynamic vatying with three modes.

The existence of the federal Sentencing Guidelines, and the power of the Justice Department to extract behavioral promises in exchange for a beneficial plea agreement, now make it possible for the criminal justice system to have a direct and significant impact on corporate governance practices. In feet, in several recent cases, government prosecutors have built into corporate plea agreements specific improvements in board composition and changes in management’s monitoring practices. These developments, in turn, have stimulated some prophylactic governance changes. The Justice Department should now consider further uses of its powers in this area. And both shareholders and other stakeholders should welcome the exercise of these powers.

Two constructs have been developing in strategic management and organization theory that relate to many topics in the business and society field - reputation and organization identity. These constructs have significant potential for contributing to research in business and society, and our field can likewise enrich work in these sister fields.

This paper utilizes in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey to examine the motives of corporate philanthropy and reasons of not making corporate contributions among export-import firms in Taiwan. The results indicate that these Taiwanese firms, when making corporate contributions, emphasize social responsibility motive most, followed by top management’s influences and external solicitation. It appears that enhancing product sales, corporate image, and sales promotion or reducing pressure from competitors are not participant firms’ primary motives when making corporate contributions. With regards to reasons of not making, corporate contributions, the data reveal that lack of human resources is the primary cause that leads participant firms to make no corporate contributions, and followed by insufficient funds.This paper also develops scales for measuring motives of corporate philanthropy and reasons of not making corporate contributions. All of the scales measured have a greater than 0.5, indicating satisfactory reliability for these constructs (Churchill and Peter 1984). Also, factor analysis was performed to determine content validity of these constructs (Churchill 1979). The results (with varimax rotation) revealed approximate match between factors and conceptualized corporate philanthropic motive constructs, and perfect correspondence between factors and conceptualized “reasons of not making corporate contribution" constructs. This indicates high face validity of the measures.Managerial implications are provided as well as limitations of this study and suggestions for future research.

In this paper aspects of “spiritual” management are explored in a study in which 70 exiting clergy were interviewed. The paper reports the results of this study conducted in Norway, and how it contributes to (1) understanding clergy in secular organizations, (2) exploring working conditions in local parishes, and(3) exploring what the church can learn form secular organizations.