Alejo José G. Sison

Corporate Governance and Ethics

Corporate Governance and Ethics is an illuminating and practical reading of Aristotle’s Politics for today’s corporate directors. With a deft synthesis of ethics, economics and politics, Alejo Sison elevates the discussion of corporate governance out of the realm of abstract rules and structures into a more effective form of Aristotelian politics. He argues that corporate governance is a human practice where subjective, ethical conditions outweigh the mastery of techniques, since the firm is not a mere production function but, above all, a community of workers. Corporate governance issues are discussed in a holistic fashion, using international case studies to embed the discussion in environments defined by their economic, legal and cultural systems. One of the author’s key messages is that reform starts with the ethical and political education of directors.

The Cultural Dimension of Codes of Corporate Governance: A Focus on the Olivencia Report

The article deals with the sociocultural and historical background of the Olivencia Report and relates this to the documents content, particularly, to its recommendations for Spanish Boards. A discussion of the distinctively Spanish understandings of loyalty, due diligence and transparency is included. The work ends with insights into parallelisms between corporate governance and political government, specifically on the role of culture, democratic representation and accountability, the distribution of power, the protection of property rights and equality.

Integrated risk management and global business ethics

The key concept in Business Ethics has changed from ‘corporate social responsibility’ to ‘integrated risk-management’. This change, first wrought by American laws, has been extended to other countries through globalization. The most important laws concern corruption, anti-trust, consumer safety, environmental protection and insider-trading. The ‘Federal Corporate Sentencing Guidelines’ have particularly been helpful in identifying and valuing business risks. The author proposes a ‘next-generation’ Business Ethics integrating personal, professional and organizational ethics in the context of an institutionalized, country-sensitive ‘corporate culture’.

Aristotelian Corporate Governance

Aristotelian corporate governance requires a radical change of tack from conventional theories. I shall attempt to develop this broad theme in three major stages. First, I will render something that could pass for an Aristotelian theory of the firm, fully aware that Aristotle himself did not deal with such an institution in his writings. I will have to provide an account of the proper locus and purpose of the firm within the overall context of society. Secondly, I will offer, through an analogy with the common good of the polis or the state, an account of the common good of the firm. I should also propose ways in which the particular common good of the firm could be integrated or subordinated to the wider common good of the political community. Lastly, I will try to explain the theory and practice behind what could stand as Aristotelian corporate governance, one that seeks to achieve the corporate common good.

The Challenges of Capitalism for Virtue Ethics and the Common Good

Studies from a variety of theoretical perspectives confirm that work organizations impact the development of employees’ moral agency. But how and in what direction? Rival answers to these and related questions include those who extol the bourgeois virtues required by market orders and those who regard business organizations as corrosive of the virtues. Empirical research into virtues in organizations has done little to resolve the issue. This paper will illustrate the dimensions of these disputes and attempt to diagnose their cause. It turns out that rival accounts of the impact of business on moral agency presuppose radically different accounts of those individual, public and common goods to whose achievement the virtues must be directed; or so I shall argue.

The Dilemmas of Business Ethics Courses

Starting off from a general notion of a dilemma as that situation in which any of the alternative courses of action leads to some unwanted consequences, this chapter seeks to address two current and inter-related issues concerning business ethics courses. Firstly, it shall consider the inclusion of ethics in undergraduate and master programs in economics and business administration; and secondly, the “a-rational” choice forced on the students between the teleological and deontological doctrines with which these courses normally end. The authors defend that both issues could only be dealt with satisfactorily from a sound and valid “virtue ethics”, properly integrated into the economic and political realms of human activity. Concrete recommendations as to the reformulation of business ethics courses — with an emphasis on rational commitment, as opposed to “value-neutral” presentations — are explained in its concluding portion.

Enron — Pride Comes Before the Fall

At first it seemed as if Enron was just too big, just too important and just too valuable to fail (Walker 2002). It ranked seventh among the world’s largest corporations in the Fortune 500 list, and for six consecutive years since the mid-1990s, it was voted “America’s Most Innovative Company”. During that period, Enron reported an almost eight-fold increase in sales from

Governance and Government from an Aristotelian Perspective

13.3 billion to

Measuring Moral Capital

100.8 billion, with a market capitalization of

Andersen. No Fairy Tale Ending

63 billion. Its financial statement in 2000 reported a record-setting net income of