Georges Enderle

A balanced concept of the firm and the measurement of its long-term planning and performance

This paper offers a new concept of the firm that aims at balancing the corporate economic, social, and environmental responsibilities and goes beyond the stakeholder approach. It intends to provide a conceptual and operationalizable basis to fairly assess corporate conduct from both inside and outside the companies. To a large extent these different responsibilities may overlap and reinforce each other. However, if they conflict, they should be clearly evaluated for their own sake and in terms of wealth creation. Only then can a balanced approach be realized. Section 1 briefly discusses some general aspects of the relationship between concepts and measurement. In Section 2, a concept of the firm is developed that is based on the notion of responsibility and balances economic, social and environmental responsibilities. According to these concepts, different ways of measuring corporate planning and performance are examined in Section 3, followed up by a summary and conclusions.

What is Business Ethics

Noting the reluctance of many practitioners to use the word ethics or even to be willing to discuss ethics, an attempt is made to define what business ethics ought to be. The suggestion is made of a “new practice,” an approach which recognizes the priority of practice over theory. The focus is on improving the ethical quality of decision-making. Three levels must be distinguished: the micro or the level of the individual, the meso or the level of firms and organizations, and the macro level of national economies. Three groups of values must also be considered: personal, collective, and general. The inter-relationships among these levels and values must always be kept in mind.

A Worldwide Survey of Business Ethics in the 1990s

This unique collection of reports encompasses a wide range of challenges and activities of business ethics in most parts of the world. In the introduction, after a brief explanation of the sixfold questionnaire and its assumptions, I try to highlight a number of striking features contained in these reports, which may help to delineate the state-of-the-art of business ethics at national and regional levels. As a result of this international comparison, the following features deserve particular attention: the relevance of semantics, corruption, leadership, corporate responsibilities, the need for case studies, business ethics as a social institution, and the question as to how important international issues really are.

Managerial Ethical Leadership: Examples do Matter

The central role of corporate leaders in setting the ethical tone for their organization is widely accepted. Four well known former CEOs are profiled to illustrate how their managerial ethical leadership not only influenced their firms but also the practice of business. Insights are drawn from their writings and speeches as well as other sources which examine demonstrated leadership abilities. Their behavior not only provides examples of leadership but also is exemplary from an ethical point of view. The article concludes with five common themes that describe these individuals and the essence of managerial ethical leadership.

Some perspectives of managerial ethical leadership

If managerial leadership means deciding responsibly in a complex situation, the ethical dimension of leadership — besides its analytical and instrumental aspects — has to be clarified. I present and discuss several essential aspects of managerial ethical leadership: (a) some major presuppositions (the concepts of leadership and responsibility), (b) three normative-ethical tasks of the activity of leadership (perceiving, interpreting and creating reality — being responsible for the effect of ones decisions on the human beings concerned — being responsible for the implementation of corporate goals) and (c) some claims on the leader as a subject responsible for his or her own activities. I shall conclude by adding some reflections on the limits of managerial ethical leadership.

Epistemological and ethical considerations in conceptualizing and implementing human resource management

As an example of applied social science, the field of human resource management is used to show that ethical problems are not only those of carrying out research, of professional conduct, and of the “distribution fairness” of social science knowledge. A largely overlooked ethical issue is also the implicit choices that are made as an integral part of research and implementation. First, an analysis is undertaken of the implicit assumptions, values and goals that derive from the conception of human problems in work organizations as “managing human resources”. Secondly, it is argued that such a conception is in fact a socially constructed reality with “real” consequences and not a reflection of “objective” states of human and social nature with which we have to live. Thirdly, to the extent that our implicit assumptions are in part based upon conceptual choices that are made by individuals or as a collective act of a discipline or work organization, the development of an ethical framework that could guide such choices becomes a crucial challenge for business ethics.

The Ethics of Conviction Versus the Ethics of Responsibility A False Antithesis for Business Ethics

In his famous lecture on ‘Politics as a Vocation’, Max Weber coined and elaborated on the antithesis between the ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility, which has had a far-reaching impact on the ethics discussions, particularly in German-speaking countries. The article explores what Weber himself meant with this distinction and what implications result from it. As an interesting historical observation, Webers interpretation of ‘Do not resist an evildoer’ in the (Christian) New Testament is contrasted with Mahatma Gandhis diametrically opposed interpretation. After criticizing Webers position, the article outlines how todays business ethics can be based on a new and different foundation that overcomes the ‘profound antithesis’ between the ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility without disregarding the tensions between internal attitudes and external action results.

Confidence in the Financial Reporting System: Easier to Lose than to Restore

In the aftermath of the collapse of Enron and Andersen with its far-reaching repercussions, we have realized how crucial it is for the functioning of the economy to have confidence in the financial reporting system. When the numbers in the financial statements are not “honest,” the users of these statements are misled: investors cannot make informed decisions; employees cannot trust their employers; business partners cannot collaborate effectively; competitors cannot engage in true competition; government cannot collect fair taxes; financial markets cannot operate properly; the public loses confidence in business; and business loses its legitimacy. Those in charge of financial reporting, both the providers and the certifiers, not only violate their professional duties and lose their integrity, but also jeopardize the whole financial reporting system.

Die goldene Regel für Manager

Wie eine kurzlich erschienene empirische Untersuchung festhalt, fuhlen sich die Manager im Grunde genommen in ihrem Gewissen allein. Gibt es fur sie eine Entscheidungsregel, eine oder die Goldene Regel, die ihnen eine ethische Orientierung gibt? Mit der Goldenen Regel ist die in vielen Kulturen und Fassungen verbreitete sittliche Grundformel der Menschheit gemeint: Behandle die andern so, wie du selbst von den andern behandelt werden willst. Im ersten Teil wird diese Regel in ihren Strukturelementen analysiert. Im zweiten Teil werden drei Thesen aufgestellt und Chancen und Grenzen diskutiert, die diese Lebensregel fur Manager haben konnte.

Ethical innovation in business and the economy – a challenge that cannot be postponed

In his captivating historic account The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (1999) David Landes discusses the question of why the Industrial Revolution happened in Europe, a relatively poor world region at that time, and not in the Middle East with its high Islamic culture, nor in China, the richest country in the middle of the second millennium. His short answer points to the Europeans’ cultivation of invention (called ‘the invention of invention’ by some authors) as well as the European joie de trouver or the pleasure in what is new and better. These developments arose due to much less interference in Europe by religion (as was happening in the case of Islam) or by the state (as was happening in the case of China):