Patrick Maclagan

Corporate social responsibility as a participative process

Corporate social responsibility is frequently defined primarily in terms of the social and environmental impact of systemic organisational activity. This misses the point. To be applicable, corporate responsibility should be understood as a process, through which individuals’ moral values and concerns are articulated. Moreover, there are important grounds for asserting that such a process should be participative, involving employees (and perhaps other stakeholders). It seems inconsistent not to respect such groups’ right to an opinion, while at the same time purporting to be ethical and responsible; also, a better alignment of organisational policy and employees’ values holds possibilities for enhanced motivation and work performance. Through such a participative process, matters of social responsibility may be identified in the expectations and moral claims of an organisation’s stakeholders. Such claims constitute prima facie obligations to which those responsible for corporate policy should attend, and where such demands conflict then dialogue is required in order to establish an appropriate course of action.

Management development and business ethics: A view from the U.K.

This article is written in the context of current British interest in management training and development, in which an emphasis on “competency” is viewed critically, as technically oriented, with little attention paid to ethics and moral values. It is suggested that a concern for ethics in management development can be expressed in terms of four requisite management “attributes” or “qualities”: theoretical knowledge and understanding; affective qualities; personal and interpersonal skills; and self-knowledge. Following Kohlbergs work on moral development, the cultivation of these attributes is viewed as a life-span process involving three broadly defined forms of management development practice, each appropriate to different circumstances and stages in a learners career. It is concluded that the conventional teaching of theory, learning from experience and counselling/mentoring, are equally important in the contribution which management development can make to the resolution of ethical dilemmas in business practice.

REFLECTIONS ON THE INTEGRATION OF ETHICS TEACHING INTO A BRITISH UNDERGRADUATE MANAGEMENT DEGREE PROGRAMME

This paper is concerned with the incorporationof ethics teaching into an undergraduatemanagement degree. It is argued that thecontribution of this teaching to the overallprogramme can be understood in terms ofparticular characteristics common to bothmanagement/organisational studies modules andthose in ethics. These characteristics reflecta model for degree curriculum design concernedwith organisational processes in general, aswell as an institutional culture favourable tocritical perspectives on the subject matter.The emphasis on generic processes distinguishesthis curriculum from those which focus more onfunctional areas of business organisations. Thepaper considers these contrasting models forcurriculum design, the question of moduleevaluation, the institutional context, therationale and content of the ethics modules,and their relationship to other elements of thedegree programme. It concludes with aparticular emphasis on the case for a criticalperspective in business ethics teaching.

Education and Development for Corporate Ethics

Business and management ethics have assumed a high profile in recent years. This has sometimes provoked a sceptical, even cynical, reaction from those who express doubt concerning the feasibility or relevance of teaching the subject. Addresses some common misconceptions and offers clarification. The general aims of ethics programmes are considered, and the importance of experiential learning, in addition to lecture‐based inputs, is stressed. Discusses the importance of feelings, emotions and interpersonal skills, as well as theoretical understanding, as components of the overall learning experience in relation to ethics in organizations. This is then related to the practice of management development. Addresses the difference between the rather dramatic, if rarely encountered, cases often used in ethics programmes, and the more routine character of the everyday ethical issues actually confronting managers for much of the time.