Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Weakness Is The New Strength: How Vulnerability Makes Leaders Stronger, Scott Dick

Transform

Weakness is the new strength: How vulnerability makes leaders stronger is the result from the meta-analysis of five phenomenological studies designed to generate a theory that explains how exemplar leaders from five different fields used “soft-skills” and four domains of behavior to create mutual shared knowledge, resolve conflict and transform relationships to produce breakthrough results. The four domains of behavior are communication, collaboration, ethics, and emotional intelligence. The sample was composed of 75 exemplar leaders from five different professional fields and included an analysis of over 1,300 pages of interview transcripts as the main data source for the study. The …

Cognitive, Ideological, And Goal-Pursuit Barriers To Ethical Decision Making, Jeffrey J. Bailey

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

This paper brings together diverse research findings to suggest that there are several cognitive, ideological, and goal-pursuit barriers that often get in the way of ethical decision-making. The barriers lead managers to give little or no conscious attention to the ethical implications of their actions. The barriers that I categorize and describe are overconfidence, cognitively “filling-in” of missing information, social norm beliefs, ethical fixed mindsets, metaphors in-use, fairness and justice ideology, behavioral scripts, goal-fever (teleopathy), and goal framing. I describe the processes and mechanisms that underlie these barriers to increase awareness of them so that the willing manager may be …

Leading Organizational Learning, Jessica C. Wells

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Leadership is hard to define but easy to recognize and is found in every facet of life. Leaders themselves range from good to bad, the extremities of which are determined by their character, actions, perception of self, how they are perceived by others and their worldviews. An individual’s values provide the basis for ethical decisions, which makes self-awareness a critical element in the development of one’s leader identity. This article provides an overview of leader identity development and offers ways for leaders to apply ethics in their everyday lives.

Social Responsibility: Preparing Students For The Real World, Alicen Flosi, Jeff Dyson, Gisele Moss

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

Ethics and corporate social responsibility are widely discussed in business and in the classroom. In fact, many mission statements for Colleges of Business include ethics as a major component. As corporations become increasingly aware of their impact on the environment, sustainability and social responsibility have become significant issues for many executives.

How to “teach” ethics and social responsibility is a dilemma that has been addressed with no definitive solution. Research shows that the traditional model of teaching and/or learning is outdated. In many disciplines, instructor/lecture and student note-taking are outdated methods of teaching. To increase student engagement and to reach …

Handling Spiritual Resources At Work: An Autoethnographic Inquiry, Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos

The Qualitative Report

This study draws upon some particular dimensions of spirituality in the workplace such as insight, intuition, wisdom, respect, love, humility, courage, ethics, optimism, the other, and sense of purpose. Through an autoethnographic inquiry it describes my personal spiritual journey at work, that is, my own experiences, reflections, understanding, viewpoints, and memories regarding those constructs as a framework. In hindsight, I explore a certain period of my professional life when I was very young and working for a multinational company, which was under permanent change in order to adapt and survive in the hypercompetitive and turbulent Brazilian market. By drawing on …

Leadership In Information Technology: Leadership Theories, Perspectives And Ethical Dilemmas, Douglas B. Malcolm

The Siegel Institute Journal of Applied Ethics

This paper will describe various leadership theories and how they were formed, current leadership perspectives for information technology (IT) and the impact they can have on an IT workforce due to negative impressions and conditions. It will then relate current ethical issues faced by Information Technology to the key driving forces behind IT today along with detailing the current ethical issues faced by IT Leadership. Finally it will recommend some future research to help IT Leadership navigate the ethical and leadership issues faced today and to prepare for the future issues that will appear as technology advances.

Business Teaching, Liberal Learning, And The Moral Transformation Of Business Education, Jeffrey Nesteruk

Organization Management Journal

Business ethics often draws from the content of liberal arts disciplines, but rarely from the practice of liberal education. Reconceptualizing the relation of business and liberal education offers a new strategy for promoting ethics within business schools. Under this strategy, ethics develops into more than a supplement to established functional courses. It becomes the locus for a more significant moral transformation of business education.

Business Schools: Ethics, Assurance Of Learning, And The Future, Bruce Warren, Susan D. Sampson, Erin Mcfee

Organization Management Journal

This paper reviews the teaching of business ethics at 70 of the top ranked business schools in the United States and internationally as determined by Business Week magazine. Interviews were conducted with deans, associate and assistant deans, directors and faculty with a survey instrument focusing upon ethics in the curriculum, modifications to the ethics curriculum, and assessment of learning.

Management As A Contextual Practice: The Need To Blend Science, Skills And Practical Wisdom, Jon Billsberry, Andreas Birnik

Organization Management Journal

This paper contributes to the debate regarding whether or not management is, or should become, a profession. Using the principles of dialectic logic, arguments for the thesis that management is a profession and the antithesis that management is more akin to an art or a craft are critically reviewed. Aristotle’s intellectual virtues episteme (science), techne (skills) and phronesis (practical wisdom) are introduced as a synthesis to this debate. Rather than characterizing management as a profession, it is argued that management is a contextual practice that requires a blend of all three intellectual virtues.

Academic Ethics, Martha C. Spears

Organization Management Journal

With an increased emphasis on the topic of ethics in business, more attention has been focused on the college campus and how students are introduced to ethical issues. The question often asked is how ethics is being taught in business school classrooms and whether students are receptive to these messages. Are faculty members considered ‘‘more ethical’’ and, therefore, able to teach students to be ethical citizens? Alternatively, is it the experience and broad knowledge rather than the individual’s behavior that qualifies a professor? Students, in turn, are influenced by the opinions their professors express in classroom discussions. This paper recognizes …

When Reality And Rules Collide: Understanding The Business Context Of Ethical Decisions, Timothy D. Golden, Kathleen Dechant

Organization Management Journal

With the series of ethics scandals over the last decade, more and more companies have created, updated, or clarified their corporate codes of conduct. Yet even though tougher and more detailed guidelines are in place, managers often find themselves questioning the validity and application of some rules in certain situations. In particular, when managers experience a disconnect between company rules and what is actually occurring on the job, they are faced with the choice of whether or not to adhere to the rules, or bend or break them. This inbasket exercise simulates a day in the life of a corporate …

When Reality And Rules Collide: Understanding The Business Context Of Ethical Decisions, Timothy D. Golden, Kathleen Dechant

Organization Management Journal

With the series of ethics scandals over the last decade, more and more companies have created, updated, or clarified their corporate codes of conduct. Yet even though tougher and more detailed guidelines are in place, managers often find themselves questioning the validity and application of some rules in certain situations. In particular, when managers experience a disconnect between company rules and what is actually occurring on the job, they are faced with the choice of whether or not to adhere to the rules, or bend or break them. This inbasket exercise simulates a day in the life of a corporate …

Towards A Hermeneutics Of Narrative Identity: A Ricoeurian Framework For Exploring Narratives (And Narrators) Of Strategy, Steven Sonsino

Organization Management Journal

With notable exceptions, the organization studies literature has tended to exclude a consideration of time from considerations of narrative identity. Building on the work of Ricoeur, and starting from the position that narrative identity is dynamic and rests on a temporal structure, it is suggested that narrative identity emerges from the poetic composition of one or many narrative texts. Drawing upon Ricoeur’s conception of narrative identity, an analytic framework is developed and encompasses a dialectic where narrative is described as the path of character, and character as the path of narrative. Narrative identity, in conclusion, is a reflexive consideration of …

Towards A Hermeneutics Of Narrative Identity: A Ricoeurian Framework For Exploring Narratives (And Narrators) Of Strategy, Steven Sonsino

Organization Management Journal

With notable exceptions, the organization studies literature has tended to exclude a consideration of time from considerations of narrative identity. Building on the work of Ricoeur, and starting from the position that narrative identity is dynamic and rests on a temporal structure, it is suggested that narrative identity emerges from the poetic composition of one or many narrative texts. Drawing upon Ricoeur’s conception of narrative identity, an analytic framework is developed and encompasses a dialectic where narrative is described as the path of character, and character as the path of narrative. Narrative identity, in conclusion, is a reflexive consideration of …

Firing And Conspiring At Existo’S Springfield Operation: Parts A & B, Jason Mirabella, Barry Armandi, Herbert Sherman

Organization Management Journal

Firing a sales staff which acts in an immoral and illegal manner may appear to be an easy solution, but, as the staff at Existo’s finds out, is only the tip of the iceberg of the company’s real problems. Students are confronted in this two-part case with two critical decision points: In Part A one of Existo’s customers has in her possession a seemingly fraudulent letter from one of the exsalesman from the Springfield operation which offered the customer a higher discount than the original contract agreement. Students are asked how to proceed from the CFO’s perspective given the firm’s …

Weaver’S Cove Energy Versus The City Of Fall River, Massachusetts: An Experience In The Concepts Of Stakeholders, Economic Impact, And Social Obligation/Social Responsibility, Susan M. Bosco, W. Brett Mckenzie, Kathleen S. Micken

Organization Management Journal

This experiential exercise, designed for our introductory business course, uses a classroom debate to teach the concepts of stakeholders, social obligation/social responsibility, and ethical frameworks for decision-making. The basis for the debate is the request by Weaver’s Cove Energy to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Fall River, Massachusetts. Weaver’s Cove has proposed the facility for an abandoned industrial site on the waterfront. The exercise addresses the three learning goals listed above through readings, position construction, and the debate itself. The rationale for the assignment and the chosen pedagogy are presented. Additionally, the materials used to …

Trends. Implications Of War And Peace For The Morality, Ethics, And Legality Of Killing And Incarceration, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a perspective for the controversy surrounding the appropriateness of killing and incarceration during a war on terrorism with global reach.