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

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.

Preface. Introduction. The Ethics of the New Managerialism. 1. Managerialism and the economics of the firm; P.E. Earl. 2. New organizational cultures and ethical employment practice: a critical discussion; C. Casey. Strategic Discourses and Narratives. 3. Environmentally sustainable business and the Rashomon effect; P.H. Werhane. 4. Strategic discourse as a technology of power; K. Kearins, K. Hooper, D. Coy. Empirical Psychology and Business Ethics. 5. Property ethics and starvation; M. Hirshberg. 6. The contributions of empirical research towards normative business ethics; M. Singer. 7. Ethics, aesthetics and empiricism: the case of steroids and sports; G. Owens. The New Zealand Context. 8. Business ethics: is amoral good enough? I. Grant. 9. Perceptions of empowerment: insights from New Zealand organisations; V.S. Mouly, A.C. Smith, J. Sankaran. 10. Ethics in action: the management of intangibles; V. Nilakant, R. Addison. The Asian Context. 11. Business and culture in the Philippines: a story of gradual progress; A.J.G. Sison. 12. Japanese philosophical traditions and contemporary business practices; K. Shioji, C. Nakano. 13. Rethinking the presuppositions of business ethics - from an Aristotelian approach to Confucian ethics; W. Wai-Ying. 14. The traditions of the people of Hong Kong and their relationships to contemporary business practices; P.-K. Ip. Moral Progress in Business and Society. 15. Varieties of progress: commercial, moral and otherwise; S. Godlovitch. 16. Synergy-orientation and the `Third Way'; A.E. Singer. 17. Afterword; A.E. Singer. Notes on the contributors.