Patrick Primeaux

Profit maximization: The ethical mandate of business

The authors propose a model for business ethics which arises directly from business practice. This model is based on a behavioral definition of the economic theory of profit maximization and situates business ethics within opportunity costs. Within that context, they argue that good business and good ethics are synonymous, that ethics is at the heart and center of business, that profits and ethics are intrinsically related.

Cultural Insights to Justice: A Theoretical Perspective Through A Subjective Lens

Distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are constructs that are increasingly being recognized as important factors that affect individual perceptions in the workplace environment. This paper presents a theoretical perspective that suggests that justice is perceived through a subjective lens that consists of individualized beliefs and proposes that cultural attributes and demographic characteristics play an integral part in determining the perception of justice. The distinctions between these three constructs are presented in context with the core beliefs of individual employees – affected by a multitude of perceptual and demographic factors that we briefly identify herein. Based on the theoretical perspective, an instrument that measures the constructs of justice as perceived by individuals was developed. With a focus on justice within the business setting, hypotheses about attitudes related to justice were tested. Survey results confirm that the three constructs of justice are distinct but correlated. Significant differences were found in the perceptions of African-American respondents with regard to procedural justice. Although the empirical findings do not support all the hypotheses, this research highlights the need for further development of measures to assess the perception of justice in business settings and at an applied level, underscores the importance of recognizing cultural attributes and demographic characteristics in understanding how justice is perceived.

Experiential Ethics: A Blueprint for Personal and Corporate Ethics

There is a tendency to think of ethics as a universal body of principles governing human behavior. Richard R. Niebuhr challenges this universalist perspective by examining the development of human consciousness as an individual enterprise originating in immediate human experience. His conclusions lead us towards an understanding of conscience as likewise individual and experiential. It also enables us to identify a corporate consciousness or conscience which accounts for, yet prescinds, individual differences. In effect, Niebuhrs thinking in these matters provides us with a chart or blueprint for better ethical decision-making in business situations.

Double Bookkeeping: Hierarchical Obedience and Participative Cooperation

Rather than eliciting behavioral expectations of individuals for an appreciation of organizational ethics, we are focusing on the organization itself and the manner in which distinctive organizational structures assume their own respective behavioral expectations. The hierarchical organizational structure emphasizes obedience while the participative organizational structure emphasizes cooperation. Imposing the ethical virtues of one organizational structure onto another leads to conflict, and that conflict is reflective of a basic injustice which is (indirectly) organizational in cause but (directly) personal in effect. This more conceptual argument is readily identified in the difficulties encountered by pastoral ministers in Catholic hospitals, especially by women chaplains.

Managing Business Ethics and Opportunity Costs

Economic profits differ from accounting profits. Accounting profits are usually defined as revenues minus costs, and those costs as fixed and variable. Economic profits enlist a third cost, opportunity costs. While these costs are difficult to determine with mathematical precision, they are nonetheless significant, especially for decision making in business. They reflect social costs and benefits, tensions between individual and corporate interests, and all internal and external considerations which enter into decision making in business. It is precisely within opportunity cost decision making that Primeaux and Stieber situate business ethics.

Operationalizing Maslow: Religion and Flow as Business Partners

Maslow and Csikszentmihalyi interpret human experience through a broad application of stakeholder theory to provide an expanded framework for ethical business. The aggressive search for mutuality of interest can reconcile conflicting stakeholder needs. Maslows religious peak experiences work in tandem with Csikszentmihalyis psychological optimal experiences (flow) to support the proposition that transcendence is an achievable goal, both for individuals and for corporations.

When MR = MC: Ethical efficiencies in valuing and pricing

How do we determine value? What are the ethical implications of valuing goods and services with respect to economic profit maximization? To answer those questions, Primeaux and Stieber move their discussion of the ethical principles inherent to economic profit maximization from production to distribution, from internal costs to external pricing and consumer demand.

RELIGION AND BUSINESS ETHICS: HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE

Andrew Greeley draws a distinction between serious literature and popular literature, and locates theological and moral insight in the latter rather than the former. An overview of modern writing leads him to conclude that, while “‘serious’ literature realizes that life is pointless and absurd…popular fiction or fairy stories…reassure their readers that there is meaning and purpose in life” (Greeley, 1988, p. 11). He readily acknowledges that this has not always been the case. However, to find “happy endings” revealing “paradigms of meaning” and hopeful, encouraging answers to the important questions of life the contemporary reader turns to popular literature (Greeley, 1988, p. 11).

Business Ethics in Transitional Economies: Introduction

This paper introduces the special issue of papers selected from those presented at the International Conference on Business Ethics in Transitional Economies, held March 20–22, 2002 in Celakovice and Prague, Czech Republic. A brief background on the conference is given, and a summary of the papers offered in this special issue is provided.