Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty

Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty
Author: Richard M. Robinson
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-12-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030859975

This book offers students a philosophical introduction to the ethical foundations of business management. It combines lessons from Kant with virtue ethics and also touches upon additional approaches such as utilitarianism. At the core of the book lies the concept of the nexus of imperfect managerial duty: building and reinforcing the virtuous managerial team, engaging in reasoned discourse among all stakeholders, and diligently pursuing business responsibilities, including the creative efforts necessary for modern organizations. Case illustrations of these applications are presented throughout the book, including chapter appendices. Ancillary videos, test and answer banks and sample syllabi are available online via the author’s website.

Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty

Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty
Author: Richard Robinson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2024
Genre:
ISBN: 9783031631245

This book offers students a philosophical introduction to the ethical foundations of business management. It combines lessons from Kant with virtue ethics and also touches upon additional approaches such as utilitarianism. At the core of the book lies the concept of the "nexus of imperfect managerial duty." This consists of the creation and reinforcement of virtuous managerial teams, engagement of discourse among all stakeholders, and pursuit of business responsibilities including the creative efforts necessary for modern organizations. A variety of special problems in managerial ethics are also explored, such as the ethics of managerial paternalism, fairness in stakeholder negotiations, devolution of business into scandalous corruption, and the role of boycotts in society's shaping of managerial duties.Case illustrations of these applications are presented throughout the book including in chapter appendices. A series of brief-answer questions, essay questions, and discussion questions are presented at the end of each chapter. Links to relevant video presentations of lectures applicable for each chapter are also provided.

Corporate Governance and Business Ethics in Iceland

Corporate Governance and Business Ethics in Iceland
Author: Throstur Olaf Sigurjonsson
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2023-01-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1803825332

Corporate Governance and Business Ethics in Iceland provides real-world case studies of how institutions approach governance and ethics in a country where one organization’s actions often have a massive ripple effect throughout the entire nation.

Imperfect Duties of Management

Imperfect Duties of Management
Author: Richard M. Robinson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2018-10-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319997920

This book uses Kant's idea of imperfect duty to extend the theory of the firm. Unlike perfect duty which is contractual or otherwise legally binding, imperfect duty consists of those commitments of choice that pursue some moral value, but that have practical limits to their pursuit. The author presents a broad view of the imperfect duties of management, defined as a nexus of all commitments to do good involving relations internal and external to the firm. This nexus consists of three overlapping categories of (i) building a virtuous managerial community, (ii) pursuing reasoned managerial discourse, and (iii) diligent and reasoned pursuit of the body of routine managerial duties such as capital budgeting and internal controls. Specific applications of the nexus theory for stakeholder relations via fair negotiation, and for analysis of the effects on the managerial team of perquisite consumption are presented. This book has major implications for research in business ethics and allows critical insights into managerial decision making.

Environmental Advocacy and Local Restorations

Environmental Advocacy and Local Restorations
Author: Richard M. Robinson
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2023-04-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3031284399

This book explores the leadership of state and federal environmental agencies and local environmental groups in restoring the degraded rivers that flow into North America’s Great Lakes and other sites in the northeastern industrial corridor of the US. Robinson examines twenty of the forty-eight sites included in the Areas of Concern Program of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the US. These twenty include heavily urbanized locales such as those along the River Rouge and Detroit River, but also more pristine locales such as the St. Louis River that flows through Duluth. Additionally, Robinson examines challenging river restorations within the northeastern industrial corridor which are led by effective local environmental advocacy organizations: the Penobscot Nation of Indigenous People, the Mystic River Watershed Association, and the Housatonic River Valley Association. All of these river restorations are led and managed by the environmental experts of (i) state and federal agencies, (ii) academia, and (iii) environmental NGOs. Local restorations of industrially degraded water bodies now compose a significant segment of the environmental movement and, ultimately, Robinson demonstrates that local environmental advocacy organizations can help marshal state and local funding for those efforts.

The Ethically Responsible Organization

The Ethically Responsible Organization
Author: Ronald R. Sims
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2023-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Today’s businesses have an obligation to conduct themselves in an ethical and responsible manner at all times. Fortunately, many businesses have historically embraced the idea that they can operate in an ethically & responsible manner. However, there are way too many companies that are willing to cut corners and do whatever it takes to make a profit, thus contributing to the vortex of mistrust, distrust, misinformation, disinformation and less than full disclosures as a result of their unethical misconduct. This book takes the position that ‘enough is enough’ and argues that all businesses can and must be ethically responsible no matter its size or whether it operates locally or globally. The book describes the features of an ethically responsible (e.g., ethical and socially responsible) organization that is committed to always “doing the right things” which means they are committed to building, institutionalizing and sustaining an ethically oriented organizational culture. Ethical responsibility means maintaining —even improving— your bottom line, while setting a high bar for high ethical standards AND making a positive contribution to society. The book argues that organizations must be attentive to ensuring that the culture has as its core accountability, responsibility, and learning which means it invests in developing and expecting all of its employees to be fully engaged in making ethical decisions and being ethical leaders. The book also discusses what it means to be an ethically responsible global business, leader, middle manager, and lower level employee. The Ethically Responsible Organization provides a detailed look at the importance of organizations doing preventive work to avoid ethical falls or scandals and takes the position that if such a fall or scandal occurs then the company should seize the moment and learn from the experience by becoming a learning organization. The book also takes the position that an ethically responsible organization is already a learning organization where continuous inquiry, diagnosis, reflection, learning and self-correction is the keystone of the way it operates. Finally, the book offers some ideas on how organizations can reinforce and sustain themselves as ethically responsible businesses today and in the future by taking a strategic approach to ethics that includes constant and consistent ethics training and education for all its employees and partners. In the end, the purpose of the book is to continue to increase our understanding of why organizations stray from “doing the right things” and how a focus on being ethically responsible can position companies to avoid or quickly respond to any potential ethical misconduct or find themselves in the list of the years’ top ethical scandals. This book is written for all those who also take the stance that ‘enough is enough’ when it comes to the headlines of another failure because the organization’s leaders would not commit to being ethically responsible and find themselves in the throes of an ethical scandal and unable to recover from it – and like “Humpty Dumpty, all the kings horses and all the kings men the company can’t recover from what was a preventable ethical fall.”

Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse

Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse
Author: Richard M. Robinson
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2021-07-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030756068

This book explores the meaning and role of “fair and reasoned discourse” in the context of our institutions for environmental decision processes. The book reviews the roles of our “environmental advocacy organizations”—such as The Sierra Club, The Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense Fund—in providing and ensuring that our discourse and decisions are fair and reasoned according to the criteria of being (i) inclusive of input from all affected, (ii) informed of relevant scientific and socio-economic information, (iii) uncorrupted by direct conflicts of interest, and (iv) logical according robust review by uncorrupted judges. These organizations are described and examined as expressions of “collective imperfect duty,” i.e. the coordinated duties with environmental direction. The current state of our discourse is examined in light of this fairness criteria, particularly in consideration of the cross-border problems that threaten tragedies of the global commons.

Kantian Ethics and Economics

Kantian Ethics and Economics
Author: Mark White
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2011-05-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0804768943

This book integrates the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant—particularly the concepts of autonomy, dignity, and character—into economic theory, enriching models of individual choice and policymaking, while contributing to our understanding of how the economic individual fits into society.