Jernej Belak

Requisitely holistic ethics planning as pre-condition for enterprise ethical behaviour

Purpose ‐ Ethical behaviour of enterprises can be attained only by planning of ethics. The purpose of this paper is to show the need for the business ethics planning, to disclose the need for the requisitely holistic planning of enterprise ethics, and to offer the concept of the requisitely holistic planning of enterprise ethics. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The research cognitions on the importance of ethical core values, enterprise culture, ethical climate and informal as well as formal measures of business ethics are discussed and argued in application of the dialectical systems theory. The various research insights are used and applied in concluding concept of requisitely holistic planning of enterprise ethics. Findings ‐ For successful implementation of the ethics program or plan, it is important that the program is internalized by all enterprise’s stakeholders. The paper shows that credibility and ethical behaviour of an enterprise can be achieved only through requisitely holistic planning of enterprise ethics. Practical implications ‐ This paper gives us the insights in the state of the importance and interconnection between ethical core values, culture and ethical climate as well as informal and formal measures of business ethics in relation to enterprise ethics implementation. The present research paper also has important practical implications since it shows the importance of the requisitely holistic planning of enterprise ethics in a sense of sustainable development of enterprises as well as enterprises’ long-term success. Originality/value ‐ The available literature does not provide for a similar research or concept of requisitely holistic planning of enterprise ethics. The paper also models the interconnection between core values, culture, climate and informal as well as formal measures of business ethics in order to understand the importance of enterprise ethics.

Enterprise ethical climate changes over life cycle stages

Purpose – Life cycle stages may see, result from, and/or cause, changes in culture and climate as the right‐brain attributes of both managers and their co‐workers. A four‐stage model is used to perceive these possible changes. Findings are tested in Slovenian enterprises. Differences per stages may be crucial and should therefore be known to managers/owners. Based on the case study research, this paper aims to suggest that enterprise awareness of importance of ethical climate can be of essential meaning for its long‐term success. The purpose of this paper is to discover differences in enterprise ethical climate in different enterprise life cycle stages and to identify their importance for active ethical climate care by the enterprises.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the qualitative research is applied. The research cognitions on ethical climate are discussed in application of the dialectical systems theory.Findings – The paper finds that there are some differences in enterprise ethical climat...

The use of institutional measures for business ethics implementation in family and non-family businesses: Does a family matter?

The case study research methodology in combination with quantitative methods was applied to explore the influence of a family on the emergence and presence of informal and formal institutional measures of business ethics implementation. For the empirical testing, we have selected Slovenia, one of the most developed European post socialist transition countries. Our research reveals that the role modeling is presented to a greater extent in family than in non-family businesses; this measure is the most popular measure of encouraging ethical behavior in family as well as in non-family businesses. The core value statement is presented to a greater extent in non-family than in family businesses, reflecting the less formal mode of family businesses functioning. Key words: Family, family enterprise, case study, informal and formal measures of business ethics implementation, ethical behavior, transition economies, Slovenia. INTRODUCTION At the most basic level, a family enterprise may be defined as an enterprise which is controlled by members of a family. However, family enterprises are not homo-genous. Empirical research has revealed that, among others, family enterprises vary, regarding the degree of family involvement in ownership and management (Astrachan et al., 2002; Aronoff and Ward, 2002; Sharma, 2004; Westhead and Cowling, 1998; Poutziouris et al., 1997; Duh et al., 2009). The family is an intimate room where the core values, culture, as well as ethical climate of the family, as well as of the broader environment is shaped (Duh and Belak, 2009). It is also where the first social relationships are formed, which differ from relationships with people outside the family circle. The process of family education and upbringing form the foundation for the focused expectations of every single family member upon which the trust and firmness of family relations are built (Bogod and Leach, 1999). The family system forms fundamental principles, core values,

Special knowledge needs of family enterprises in transition economies: experiences from Slovenia

In many countries throughout the world the majority of enterprises are family ones. Particularities in the development and management of family enterprises create needs for special knowledge. Therefore, in providing knowledge to these enterprises consideration must be given to their complexity, which is derived from the involvement of a family in ownership and management. In this paper, we discuss the importance of knowledge created and transferred from external sources such as counselling, publications, and education and training programs. External sources of knowledge considering the unique characteristics of family enterprises are well developed in many countries with established market economies. In Slovenia and, we believe, in many other former socialist countries, such external sources of knowledge are rare and still developing. The results of our research in Slovenia show that more than two-thirds of family business owners-managers regard such sources of knowledge as unimportant. This paper analyzes the reasons for such a finding.

Integral aproach to enterprise culture as one of the enterprises key success factors

Abstract Enterprise culture is judged by many acknowledged scientists and researchers now as a major determinant of any enterprise’s success. The present article shows the research cognitions on the impact of enterprise culture to the success of the enterprises observed. It investigates the impact of customer and employee oriented enterprise culture on market and financial performance of the enterprise. Results suggest that enterprises, which are more customer (externally) oriented, show better market performance as well as better financial performance. The cognitions also show that more employee (internally) oriented enterprises, show positive impact to their market as well as to their financial performance.

Management and governance: organizational culture in relation to enterprise life cycle

Purpose – The behaviour of an enterprise (including ethical behaviour) strongly depends on the organization’s culture, values and beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that organizational culture differs according to enterprise life cycle stage. Also the importance of the knowledge and awareness of these differences to enterprises’ management in order to be able to ensure enterprises’ success is argued. Design/methodology/approach – The case study research methodology was applied to explore the differences in the type of organizational culture as well as cultural strength depending on the enterprise’s life cycle stage. For the empirical testing, the author have selected Slovenia, one of the most developed European post-socialist transition countries. Findings – The research revealed differences in the types and strengths of enterprises’ organizational cultures and showed their dependence on the enterprises’ life cycle stages. Practical implications – Knowledge of differences in organization...

The importance of culture for enterprise dynamics: the role of type and strength of culture

Abstract Nowadays, enterprises can gain and sustain a competitive advantage in hypercompetitive environments for only a limited period of time. In order to be able to do that, enterprises must be dynamic. Even though – several authors suggest a positive association between organisational culture and the enterprise’s dynamic – we are still lacking the empirical support for such assertion. Therefore, we empirically tested the association between the type and strength of culture and the level of enterprises’ dynamics. Since organisational culture and the enterprises’ dynamics are both a complex phenomenon, we applied a case study approach combined with quantitative methods. The research indicates that the adhocracy culture type positively influences the level of enterprises’ dynamics. Regarding the strength of culture, our research results show that positive effects of strong culture exceed the eventual negative effects of such culture and positively influence the level of enterprises’ dynamics.

Ethical culture as a predictor of late payments

Poor payment discipline has been a constant problem faced by European companies and has only deteriorated with the current global economic crisis. Even though new legislation has been adopted several times on the European level, the situation has not changed in favor of improved payment discipline. This research aims to determine the correlation between ethical culture of the company and how it influences its payments.,The factor structure of Kaptein’s (2008) instrument for measuring ethical culture was analyzed using principal component analysis with varimax rotation. This factor analysis yielded six factors with eigenvalues over 1.00. The reliabilities of the single constructs were as follows: clarity (α = 0.891), feasibility (α = 0.918), discussability (α = 0.955), supportability (α = 0.956), sanctionability (α = 0.879) and transparency (α = 0.801). These six factors explained 78 per cent of the total variance. All six factors were named according to Kaptein’s (2008) proposal, whose factor analysis yielded, in addition to the six factors, the following two factors: “Congruence of supervisors” and “Congruence of management”. Both factors represent the ethical culture dimension that Kaptein (1998) called “Congruence”, which refers to the extent to which superiors’ and managers’ acts are in line with their ethics on the declarative level.,The results showed that two dimensions of ethical culture, sanctionability and feasibility, improve payment discipline.,The results of this study provide an important link between ethical culture and late payments. However, the research has some limitations. The first limitation is the response rate of only 9.1 per cent. The next limitation is geographical location; the results in other European countries could be different. The third limitation of the research arises from the data collection, because ethical culture was evaluated by one person from each enterprise, and the average payment delay was also calculated based only on a sample of invoices. Future research should therefore attempt to confirm the correlation between ethical culture and payment discipline in other European countries. It would be interesting to compare finds among different European countries, to determine whether there are major differences among companies in the field of payment discipline.,Good payment discipline can be defined as settling obligations to the customer on time. Late payments have been one of the biggest problems in many European economies. Trade credit becomes even more important during economic crises (Guariglia and Mateut, 2006), when investments are in decline, trading volume is reduced, bank credit is harder to obtain and interest rates are increased (Vojinovic et al., 2013; Lin and Martin, 2010). Because customers do not fulfill their obligations on time, even enterprises with healthy sales growth encounter cash flow problems (Tsai, 2011). This paper’s empirical research has been implemented in Slovenia because it has some of the worst payment disciplines among European countries. Such research is unique in Slovenia as well as wider.

Late payments explained by ethical culture

Late payments have long been a problem for enterprises, and the situation only escalated following the recent global economic crisis. Even though new legislation has been adopted at the European level, the problem of late payments has not improved. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to find out whether late payments can be explained by enterprises’ ethical culture. The analysis of ethical culture was performed by Kaptein’s (2008) measurement instrument. Of the six dimensions that could be confirmed with our sample, three correlated statistically significantly with late payments: sanctionability, feasibility and transparency. Sanctionability refers to the likelihood that unethical behavior will be sanctioned and ethical behavior will be rewarded; feasibility refers to the creation of conditions that allow employees to meet normative expectations; and transparency refers to the degree to which incorrect behavior is visible to those who can have an influence on changing such behavior. The more sanctionability and feasibility are expressed in enterprises, the better their payment discipline; the more transparency is present, the worse the payment discipline. Furthermore, our research showed that the size of the enterprise, liquidity (current ratio) and financial leverage (debt to asset ratio) have no statistically significant influence on the payment discipline of the observed enterprises.