Johannes Brinkmann

Enron Ethics (Or: Culture Matters More than Codes)

This paper describes and discusses the Enron Corporation debacle. The paper presents the business ethics background and leadership mechanisms affecting Enrons collapse and eventual bankruptcy. Through a systematic analysis of the organizational culture at Enron (following Scheins frame of reference) the paper demonstrates how the companys culture had profound effects on the ethics of its employees.

Business and Marketing Ethics as Professional Ethics. Concepts, Approaches and Typologies

Marketing ethics is normally marketed as a sub-specialization of business ethics. In this paper, marketing ethics serves as an umbrella term for advertising, PR and sales ethics and as an example of professional ethics. To structure the paper, four approaches are distinguished, with a focus on typical professional conflicts, codes, roles or climates respectively. Since the moral climate approachis more inclusive than the other approaches, the last part of the paper deals mainly with moral climates, within the above-mentioned marketing sub-professions.

Stakeholder-Sensitive Business Ethics Teaching

Well-established, well-intended and well-designed business ethics teaching can still have little effect. This is not surprising, as long as business ethics does not undertake a business-school-wide dialogue about goals and obstacles, not least as an example of stakeholder participation. The article elaborates such views in a systematic fashion and formulates a list of thirteen premises and nine recommendations in thesis format.

Business ethics curriculum design: Suggestions and illustrations

Designing business ethics teaching as anintegrated part of business school curriculashould start with a school-wide dialogue aboutgoals and working conditions. This articlesuggests different premises that can serve asnext steps to follow the school-widedialogue about goals and working conditions. The paper also provides several experienceswith offering business ethics modules withinother courses. Since the article is written asan invitation to a dialogue, assumptions andsuggestions are formulated in a discussionthesis format.

Good intentions aside: Drafting a functionalist look at codes of ethics

‘‘A code of ethics by most definitions is a written, distinct, formal document which consists of moral standards which help guide employee or corporate behavior.’’ (Schwartz 2001). Codes are maps of expected moral conflicts, expected or suggested solutions and, perhaps, predictable sanctions (Brinkmann 2002a). ‘‘A profession’s code of ethics is perhaps its most visible and explicit enunciation of its professional norms. A code embodies the collective conscience of a profession and is testimony to the group’s recognition of its moral dimension’’ (Frankel 1989: 110).

On business ethics and moralism

Business ethics as an academic field is, not least, about moral criticism and self-criticism, of business and of business education. However, the business ethics discourse appears to shift between a critique of immorality (which deserves criticism) and a crude moralism. The article explores the concept of moralism with reference to the relevant literature and illustrates its various manifestations with reference to empirical studies. This is followed up by theses for further discussion and research.

Real‐estate agent ethics: Selected findings from two Norwegian studies

The article discusses selected findings from two Norwegian studies among real-estate agents and real-estate students, and their relevance for real-estate education in professional ethics. The survey data set indicates that the industry morality of real-estate agents is more peer-group oriented, less individualistic and more intersubjective than in other comparable Norwegian industries. The qualitative material shows how respondents perceive and discuss three professional role conflict scenarios in a rule, or consequence focused pattern. The findings are followed by several suggestions relating to conflict handling approaches and professional ethics training among future and present real-estate agents.

Moral Reflection Differences among Norwegian Business Students. A Presentation and Discussion of Findings

This article presents findings from aqualitative study among Norwegian businessstudents carried out in 1997. In this study thestudents were asked to write 1/3 to 3/4 page essaysabout six moral dilemma scenarios inbusiness-life and in private-life contexts.After a summary of main results the responsesto two scenarios are examined more thoroughly,for identification of consequence vs. ruleorientation, personal vs. impersonal andnormative vs. non-normative orientation. In anext step, such response tendencies arecompared by gender and age (using comparableessays of managers as a point of reference).The conclusions focus on the potential use ofthe study for business ethics teaching.

Moral conflicts among Norwegian advertising professionals

Presents a pilot study on the frequency and seriousness of role conflict among 152 advertising professionals carried out in autumn 1993 in Norway. Other questions dealt with our reactions to such conflicts, and what the respondents would expect from a “beaware code” as an aid to conflict solution. Conflicts related to professional quality standards, personal ethics, environment, clients and consumers were reported as most frequent and most serious. Almost half of the respondents claimed they would speak up in such cases. About one‐third of the respondents said they would probably ask their peers; one‐third said they would ask more experienced colleagues or superiors, whereas one‐quarter would seek advice from their private network. Concludes by suggesting future research foci and design triangulation, especially by using qualitative strategies as a next step.

A Survey of Moral Conflicts among Norwegian Public Relations Professionals

Our project is an experiment in bridge-building between theory and practice. This paper presents the results of a pilot-survey carried out in spring 1994 among Norwegian information and PR professionals. The survey tried to measure major role conflicts, how the respondents claim to handle such conflicts, and then to reconstruct what is typical for the moral self-conception within this industry, both on its own premises and compared with the Norwegian advertising industry.