Business Commons^™

Equine Welfare As A Mainstream Phenomenon, Bernard E. Rollin

Bernard Rollin, PhD

The 20th century has witnessed a bewildering array of ethical revolutions, from civil rights to environmentalism to feminism. Often ignored is the rise of massive societal concern across the world regarding animal treatment. Regulation of animal research exists in virtually all Western countries, and reform of “factory farming” is regnant in Europe and rapidly emerging in the United States. In 2012, a series of articles in The New York Times focused welfare attention squarely on the horse industry. Opponents of concern for animals often dismiss the phenomenon as rooted in emotion and extremist lack of appreciation of how unrestricted animal …

Welfare Of Non-Traditional Pets, Catherine A. Schuppli, David Fraser, H. J. Bacon

David Fraser, PhD

The keeping of non-traditional or ‘exotic’ pets has been growing in popularity worldwide. In addition to the typical welfare challenges of keeping more traditional pet species like dogs and cats, ensuring the welfare of non-traditional pets is complicated by factors such as lack of knowledge, difficulties meeting requirements in the home and where and how animals are obtained. This paper uses examples of different species to highlight three major welfare concerns: ensuring that pets under our care i) function well biologically, ii) are free from negative psychological states and able to experience normal pleasures, and iii) lead reasonably natural lives. …

The Elephant (Head) In The Room: A Critical Look At Trophy Hunting, Chelsea Batavia, Michael Paul Nelson, Chris T. Darimont, Paul C. Paquet, William J. Ripple, Arian D. Wallach

Chris Darimont, PhD

Trophy hunting has occupied a prominent position in recent scholarly literature and popular media. In the scientific conservation literature, researchers are generally supportive of or sympathetic to its usage as a source of monetary support for conservation. Although authors at times acknowledge that trophy hunting faces strong opposition from many members of the public, often for unspecified reasons associated with ethics, neither the nature nor the implications of these ethical concerns have been substantively addressed. We identify the central act of wildlife “trophy” taking as a potential source of ethical discomfort and public opposition. We highlight that trophy hunting entails …

The Elephant (Head) In The Room: A Critical Look At Trophy Hunting, Chelsea Batavia, Michael Paul Nelson, Chris T. Darimont, Paul C. Paquet, William J. Ripple, Arian D. Wallach

Chelsea Batavia, PhD

Trophy hunting has occupied a prominent position in recent scholarly literature and popular media. In the scientific conservation literature, researchers are generally supportive of or sympathetic to its usage as a source of monetary support for conservation. Although authors at times acknowledge that trophy hunting faces strong opposition from many members of the public, often for unspecified reasons associated with ethics, neither the nature nor the implications of these ethical concerns have been substantively addressed. We identify the central act of wildlife “trophy” taking as a potential source of ethical discomfort and public opposition. We highlight that trophy hunting entails …

Four Research-Based Paradigms For Teaching Trust, Michele Williams

Michele Williams

National-Cultural Differences In Ethical Decision Making: A Comparison Between Oman And United States University Business Students, Candace Mehaffey-Kultgen, Babu P. George, Gregory Weisenborn

Babu George

Information Technology Ethics: A Research Framework, Richard V. Mccarthy, Leila Halawi, Jay E. Aronson

Leila A. Halawi

Information technology has become so pervasive that opportunities for abuses abound. IT Ethics has taken on increasing importance as the size and complexity of IT issues continues to grow. This paper outlines a research framework to analyze: Do significant ethical differences exist amongst undergraduate and graduate MIS students?

Ethical Attitudes Of Business Information Systems Students: An Empirical Investigation, Leila Halawi, Silva Karkoulian

Leila A. Halawi

This paper discusses attitudes toward ethical issues in information systems. Approximately 150 subjects were drawn from two populations: full-time undergraduate business information systems students and full-time master’s students. The subjects read a subset of six ethical scenarios. Hypotheses were tested for significant differences between the undergraduate students’ beliefs and those of graduate students, and female and male students who responded to the same scenarios.

Evaluation Of Ethical Issues In The Knowledge Age: An Exploratory Study, Leila Halawi, Richard V. Mccarthy

Leila A. Halawi

Unethical information technology (IT) conduct is estimated to cost billions of dollars in deficits for enterprises. Included in this unethical behavior are issues associated with the knowledge age. Many IT ethics concerns do not have guidelines that are well recognized or broadly accepted. This study will explore the ethical perception of a diverse group of knowledge workers. It will also examine the effects of deterrents, individual factors and external variables to determine if there are noted differences in ethical perceptions that can be explained by these variables.

Who Let The Lawyers Out?: Reconstructing The Role Of The Chief Legal Officer And The Corporate Client In A Globalizing World, Constance Bagley

Constance E. Bagley

Giving Voice To Values: A New Approach In Accounting Ethics Education, Steven Mintz

Steven Mintz

Case Study: Sexism In Advertising And Airlines, Tamilla Curtis, Anke Arnaud Ph.D., Blaise Waguespack

Dr. Anke Arnaud

This case study outlines an ethical dilemma faced by a young female student who is planning to buy airline tickets. Her purchase decision is influenced by cost and advertising strategies. The case discusses advertising ethics, ethical moral philosophies, including teleology and deontology, and sexist advertising with examples from the airline industry. This case will be beneficial for marketing students to discuss the topic of advertising ethics, and for business students to discuss the topic of organizational ethics. Students enrolling in aviation related classes will also benefit from this case. The teaching notes for instructors are available upon request.

Case Study: Sexism In Advertising And Airlines, Tamilla Curtis, Anke Arnaud Ph.D., Blaise Waguespack

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

This case study outlines an ethical dilemma faced by a young female student who is planning to buy airline tickets. Her purchase decision is influenced by cost and advertising strategies. The case discusses advertising ethics, ethical moral philosophies, including teleology and deontology, and sexist advertising with examples from the airline industry. This case will be beneficial for marketing students to discuss the topic of advertising ethics, and for business students to discuss the topic of organizational ethics. Students enrolling in aviation related classes will also benefit from this case. The teaching notes for instructors are available upon request.

Arachnophobia: A Case On Impairment And Accounting Ethics, Julie Persellin, Mike Shaub, Michael S. Wilkins

Michael S Wilkins

This case requires students to apply accounting and ethical decision-making within the context of a potential land impairment decision. Students are required to research the relevant professional literature and provide appropriate FASB Codification references and IAS cites as they investigate the significant uncertainties that frequently are associated with valuation and impairment analyses. Students also are required to evaluate the ethical implications of the decisions that could be made regarding the necessity of impairment. The case provides an opportunity for students to extend their research and financial accounting abilities, to consider the consequences associated with a set of potentially reasonable accounting …

Revised Aicpacode Of Professional Conduct: Analyzing The Ethical Responsibilities For Members In Public Practice And Members In Industry, Steven Mintz

Steven Mintz

On June 1, 2014, the AICPA issued a codification of the principles, rules, interpretations, and rulings in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct that specify which ethics provisions apply to members in public practice, members in business, and other members. A major improvement of the revised code is the creation of three sections for members in different areas of practice, to assist accounting professionals in each group to determine whether they are in violation of any of provision of the revised code. This paper explains those provisions as they apply to different members of the Institute.

The Ethical Climate And Context Of Organizations: A Comprehensive Model, Anke Arnaud Dr., Marshall Schminke

Dr. Anke Arnaud

Traditional approaches to understanding the ethical context of organizations often focus on ethical work climate, which reflects the collective moral reasoning of organization members. However, such approaches overlook other components of the ethical environment that may influence how ethical judgments translate to ethical behavior. This study extends our understanding of the ethical context of organizations by considering how three distinct aspects of that context collective moral reasoning (ethical climate), collective moral emotion, and collective ethical efficacy interact to influence ethical behavior. Results from 117 work units support our hypotheses. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

An Examination Of Personal Values And Value Systems Of Chinese And U.S. Business Students, Don Giacomino, Xin Li, Michael D. Akers

Michael D. Akers

Using the Rokeach Value Survey and the Musser and Orke typology this paper examines the personal values and value systems of business students in China and compares the results with the results of a recent study that used similar methodology to examine the values and value systems of U.S. students. The study also examines the differences in values and value systems of the Chinese students by gender and by major. While there are few differences for the Chinese students by gender, our findings show several differences in the rankings of values by the Chinese and U.S. students as well as …

Hospital Costs And Clinical Characteristics Of Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Patients: A Continuous Ethical Dilemma, Alberto Coustasse

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

This study describes the clinical characteristics and examines hospital costs involved in the care of 117 patients undergoing Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) between January 1999 and August 2002. The majority (70.9%) of the patients undergoing CRRT expired in the hospital. Statistically significant differences were found with respect to the length of stay for discharge status and gender; and with respect to costs for surgery versus no surgery and gender. Significant differences were also found between discharge status and gender, age, and cardiovascular surgery. The results of this study raise economic and ethical questions related to the cost/benefit of CRRT …

Ethical Perception Of University Students: Study Of Academic Dishonesty In Pakistan, Rana Rashid Rehman

Rana Rashid Rehman

The current research work aims to explore major activities performed by the university students during academic misconducts and their perception regarding such activities. The study further explores the ethical limits drawn by the students about academic dishonesty. Case study methodology is utilized in this research. Sixty-one post graduate and doctoral students were interviewed. Pattern analysis is conducted to analyze the information received through structured interviews of the participants. Study founds the key activities through which students are involved in such misconducts and make a comprehensive agreement on academic dishonesty that has become the normal part of life in education system …

Physician Incentives: Managed Care And Ethics, Douglas A. Mains, Alberto Coustasse, Kristine Lykens

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

The authors review the principle features of the managed care system in an effort to understand the ethical assumptions inherent in managed care. The interrelationships among physician incentives, responsibilities of patients and the physician-patient relationship are examined in light of the ethical concerns identified in the managed care system. The managed care system creates ethical tensions for those who influence the allocation of scare resources. Managed care's administrative controls have increasingly changed the doctor-patient relationship to the businessperson-consumer relationship. Managed care goals of quality and access demand that physicians be both patient advocate and organizational advocate, even though these roles …

Accounting For Ethics In Action: Problems With Localised Constructions Of Legitimacy, Stewart R. Clegg, Ray Gordon

Ray Gordon

Socially constituted systems of order emanate from tacit interaction. While they are reflected in an organization’s culture, they do not necessarily align with the organization’s authorised rules and codes of conduct. Such misalignment renders legitimacy in organizations problematic. The paper explores the relation between power and legitimacy by showing how such systems of order recursively establish, and are established by, forms of legitimacy that may not be formalised. Empirically, such forms of legitimacy thwarted a police organization’s attempt to reform. Theoretically, an understanding of organizational change is connected to the relationship between power and legitimacy. The paper provides insights into …

Location And Tracking Of Mobile Devices: Überveillance Stalks The Streets, Katina Michael, Roger Clarke

Professor Katina Michael

During the last decade, location-tracking and monitoring applications have proliferated, in mobile cellular and wireless data networks, and through self-reporting by applications running in smartphones that are equipped with onboard global positioning system (GPS) chipsets. It is now possible to locate a smartphone-user's location not merely to a cell, but to a small area within it. Innovators have been quick to capitalise on these location-based technologies for commercial purposes, and have gained access to a great deal of sensitive personal data in the process. In addition, law enforcement utilise these technologies, can do so inexpensively and hence can track many …

The Future Prospects Of Embedded Microchips In Humans As Unique Identifiers: The Risks Versus The Rewards, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Microchip implants for humans are not new. Placing heart pacemakers in humans for prosthesis is now considered a straightforward procedure. In more recent times we have begun to use brain pacemakers for therapeutic purposes to combat illnesses such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, and severe depression. Microchips are even being placed inside prosthetic knees and hips during restorative procedures to help in the gathering of post-operative analytics that can aid rehabilitation further. While medical innovations that utilise microchips abound, over the last decade we have begun to see the potential use of microchip implants for non-medical devices in humans, namely for …

Deviance, Dark Tourism And ‘Dark Leisure’: Towards A (Re)Configuration Of Morality And The Taboo In Secular Society, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

Invisible Hands, Andrew Sikula Sr.

Andrew Sikula, Sr.

Why are economists often wrong in their predictions? Because they believe that individual behavior is motivated by money and that corporate activity is motivated by profits. In reality, desires and sense, not dollars and cents, determine performance.

Ethical Considerations In The Marketing Of E-Health Products, Ashish Chandra, Andrew Sikula Sr., David P. Paul Iii

Andrew Sikula, Sr.

The internet is now recognised as a growing international phenomenon. All kinds of products and services are being marketed over the internet to consumers throughout the world because country borders no longer restrict conducting business in the international marketplace. Though there are several advantages of online commerce, this form of marketing does raise ethical dilemmas, particularly when it comes to marketing healthcare products and information to consumers internationally. This paper examines some of these potential ethical concerns and provides some strategies for consumers and online pharmaceutical marketers to handle these dilemmas more appropriately.

A Prolegomenon To The Relation Between Accounting, Language And Ethics, Cecil E. Arrington

Ed Arrington

This essay outlines the preliminary structure of a moral ontology of accounting understood as discourse. To speak of an ontology of accounting is to speak of the most general features of accounting, those features of its existence that are present irrespective of variations in observed “accountings,” of ways in which accounting manifests itself in lived experience. To speak of a moral ontology is to construe those general features as products of human choices and actions which follow from axiological (value-based) commitments to pursue the good and just life, however that life might be understood, and indeed understood differently by different …

Poisoning The Well, Or How Economic Theory Damages, Julie A. Nelson

Julie A. Nelson

Contemporary mainstream economics has widely “poisoned the well” from which people get their ideas about the relationship between economics and ethics. The image of economic life as inherently characterized by self-interest, utility- and profitmaximization, and mechanical controllability has caused many businesspeople, judges, sociologists, philosophers, policymakers, critics of economics, and the public at large to come to tolerate greed and opportunism, or even to expect or encourage them. This essay raises and discusses a number of counterarguments that might be made to the charge that current dominant professional practice is having negative ethical effects, as well as discussing some examples of …

Social Implications Of Technology: Past, Present, And Future, Karl D. Stephan, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael, Laura Jacob, Emily Anesta

Professor Katina Michael

The social implications of a wide variety of technologies are the subject matter of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). This paper reviews the SSIT’s contributions since the Society’s founding in 1982, and surveys the outlook for certain key technologies that may have significant social impacts in the future. Military and security technologies, always of significant interest to SSIT, may become more autonomous with less human intervention, and this may have both good and bad consequences. We examine some current trends such as mobile, wearable, and pervasive computing, and find both dangers and opportunities in these trends. …

Accounting For Emission Rights: An Environmental Ethics Approach, Emma Zhang-Debreceny, Mary A. Kaidonis, Lee Moerman

Mary Kaidonis

We argue that the International Accounting Standard Board's difficulty in arriving at a standard for accounting for emission rights, which is central to Emission Trading Schemes, is an opportunity to re-examine the issues from an environmental ethics approach. We critically evaluate the IASB approach which privileges profits, and views emission rights as tradeable entitlements to pollute. We consider social ecology, an example of an environmental ethical perspective which holds that humans' survival and the environment's sustainability are inextricably linked. We conclude that social ecology can inform accounting standard setters about the accounting treatment of emissions rights.