Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Navigating The Life Cycle Of Trust In Developing Economies: One-Size Solutions Do Not Fit All, Laura Hartman, Julie Gedro, Courtney Masterson

Laura Hartman

Trust is critical to the development and maintenance of collaborative and cohesive relationships in societies, broadly, and in organizations, specifically. At the same time, trust is highly dependent on the social context in which it occurs. Unfortunately, existing research involving trust remains somewhat limited to a particular set of developed economies, providing a window to explore a culture's stage of economic development as a key contextual determinant of trust within organizations. In this article, we review the state of the scholarship on trust and identify those qualities of trust that are common in organizations at similar stages of economic development, …

Building Partnerships To Create Social And Economic Value At The Base Of The Global Development Pyramid, J Calton, P Werhane, Laura Hartman, D Bevan

Laura Hartman

This paper builds on London & Hart’s critique (2011) that C. K. Prahalad’s best-selling book (2005) prompted a unilateral effort to find a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Prahalad’s instrumental, firm-centered construction suggests, perhaps unintentionally, a buccaneering style of business enterprise devoted to capturing markets rather than enabling new socially entrepreneurial ventures for those otherwise trapped in conditions of extreme poverty. London and Hart reframe Prahalad’s insight to direct global business enterprise toward “creating a fortune with the base of the pyramid” rather than at the bottom of the pyramid. This shift in language requires a recalibration …

Development, Poverty And Business Ethics, Laura Hartman, Patricia Werhane

Laura Hartman

Proposals surrounding poverty alleviation are greatly affected by the ways in which we think about people living in conditions of extreme poverty. The success or failure of those proposals, when operationalized, depends upon our mental models and the ways in which we calibrate and then integrate the narratives we encounter. While others have envisioned a role for multinational enterprises (MNEs) in alleviating global poverty, these schemes lack the catalysts of moral imagination and systems thinking necessary to modify MNE mental models toward sustainable solutions that also create board-based stakeholder value. We will outline the parameters of the challenge, explain the …

Development, Poverty And Business Ethics, Laura Hartman, P. Werhane, K. Clark

Laura Hartman

Proposals surrounding poverty alleviation are greatly affected by the ways in which we think about people living in conditions of extreme poverty. The success or failure of those proposals, when operationalized, depends upon our mental models and the ways in which we calibrate and then integrate the narratives we encounter. While others have envisioned a role for multinational enterprises (MNEs) in alleviating global poverty, these schemes lack the catalysts of moral imagination and systems thinking necessary to modify MNE mental models toward sustainable solutions that also create board-based stakeholder value. We will outline the parameters of the challenge, explain the …

‘Connecting The World Through Games’: Creating Shared Value In The Case Of Zynga’S Corporate Social Strategy, Laura Hartman, E. Mead, D. Christman, P. Werhane

Laura Hartman

When using cases to teach corporate strategy and ethical decision-making, the aim is demonstrate to students that leadership decision-making is at its most effective when all affected stakeholders are considered, from shareholders and employees, to the local, national, and global societies in which the company operates. This paper challenges the obstructive perception of many Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) advocates that the interests of private organizations in the alleviation of social problems should not be vested, but instead should originate from charitable purposes. We evaluate an alternative approach to the role of business in contributing to social progress - Creating Shared …

Stimulating Investments In Haitian Smes, Laura Hartman

Laura Hartman

A Peer-to-Project site to link lenders, donors and investors with SMEs and social projects in Haiti.

Goals: Long-term sustainable operation, Increased access to development capital for entrepreneurs, Spurring large-scale economic development in Haiti.

Stimulating Investments In Haitian Smes (.Pps Version), Laura Hartman

Laura Hartman

[NOTE: This is the .pps version of the same presentation posted as an .xps and listed in this section of this website. For abstract information, please see that duplicate listing.]

Stimulating Investments In Haitian Smes (.Pdf Version), Laura Hartman

Laura Hartman

A Peer-to-Project site to link lenders, donors and investors with SMEs and social projects in Haiti.

Goals: Long-term sustainable operation, Increased access to development capital for entrepreneurs, Spurring large-scale economic development in Haiti

Mental Models That Impede Business’ Role In Global Poverty Alleviation, Dennis Moberg, Laura Hartman, Patricia Werhane, Scott Kelley

Laura Hartman

Six defective mental models that obstruct multinational enterprises from efforts at global poverty alleviation are identified. These include mindsets that define poverty in terms of individual daily earnings, that contend that global poverty is unsolvable, and frame global poverty as a human rights issue. In addition, there are the biased mental models that contend that the poor are incapable, that making money from the poor is unseemly, and that partnerships between multinational enterprises and public organizations are unlikely. It is claimed that such mental models challenge business leaders to be morally imaginative, and specific examples are cited that dispute each …

Integrating Ethics Across Disciplines: The Mcdonald’S Case And Poverty Alleviation, Laura Hartman, Regina Wolfe, Patricia Werhane

Laura Hartman

The question of whether ethical issues should be integrated throughout an undergraduate or graduate business curriculum is no longer relevant. To the contrary, it is instead the urgency of how those challenges are most effectively addressed and where to find models of positive corporate performance that occupies our current attention. While no single organization exemplifies the entirety of “ethical” behavior, it is vital to consider models of conduct that have generated value through ethical means, both domestically and on a global scale. The purpose of this discussion is to introduce McDonald’s practice of promotion from within an example of a …

Business, Profit, Partnership And The Global Common Good, Scott Kelley, Patricia Werhane, Laura Hartman

Laura Hartman

The chapter considers the reduction of poverty through for-profit initiatives, with a critique of global corporations that take goods and services out of the "bottom of the pyramid" rather than developing new markets that provide new jobs as well as export products and services. Thus, the common good is served through economic empowerment without having to appeal to global philanthropy. An inversion of intuitive thinking is proposed whereby models for for-profit initiatives are considered that will contribute to the common good rather than using a notion of the common good to inspire global companies.

Saint Vincent De Paul And The Mission Of The Institute For Business & Professional Ethics: Why Companies Should Care About Poverty, Patricia Werhane, Laura Hartman, Scott Kelley

Laura Hartman

In 2006, following St. Vincent of DePaul’s commitment to serving the poor, the IBPE aligned its mission with that of DePaul University’s: “serving first-generation and underserved student populations and …addressing social issues.” This initiative was further promoted by DePaul’s new strategic plan, Vision Twenty12. As a result, IBPE enhanced its mission to include becoming a catalyst aimed to inspire companies to address the reduction of poverty both globally and locally through for-profit initiatives. There are many dimensions to the achievement of this mission, including teaching, research, and community outreach; and the Institute is just beginning this lifetime set of projects. …

The End Of Foreign Aid As We Know It: The Profitable Alleviation Of Poverty In A Globalized Economy, Scott Kelley, Patricia Werhane, Laura Hartman

Laura Hartman

This chapter defends the following thesis: Poverty can be alleviated, if not eradicated, both locally and globally, but only if we change our narratives about global free enterprise and only if we rethink our mindsets regarding how poverty issues are is most effectively addressed. The chapter begins with an overview of the current state of the economic landscape with particular focus on – and criticism of –the failures of strategies employed since the middle of the last century. We then explore how a transfer of roles and responsibilities for global poverty from these traditional development practices to innovative, private, for-profit …

« Les Multinationales Et L’Avenir Des Sweatshops » (“Multinational Corporations And The Future Of Sweatshops”), Laura Hartman, Denis Arnold

Laura Hartman

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we explore the tension between the perspective of the free-trade economists and that of the labor advocates with regard to voluntary responses to the sweatshop dilemma. Second, we introduce and define the concept of positive deviancy and relate it to the apparel and footwear global labor markets. Third, we explain how moral imagination is one possible rationalization for this deviancy and then demonstrate how moral imagination may lead to the enhancement of norms in the area of global labor challenges. In order words, what are the root causes behind mistreatment of workers? …

Moral Imagination And The Future Of Sweatshops, Laura Hartman, Denis Arnold

Laura Hartman

Disputes concerning global labor practices are at the core of contemporary debates regarding globalization. In this essay we explore two multinational corporations’ global labor programs in an effort to illustrate the positive impact of moral imagination at the individual, organizational, and systems levels on the “sweatshop” problem. The intent is to identify the factors that have allowed particular multinational corporations (MNCs) to respect at least some of the basic rights of workers and thereby exhibit positive deviancy from historical norms in the apparel and footwear manufacturing industry. The labor initiatives discussed in this paper were trailblazing at their inception. However, …