Stephen L. Payne

Social Psychological Approaches to the Perception of Ethical Dilemmas

Moral psychology and social psychology theories are examined to illustrate their usefulness for evolving research on topics of business and organizational ethics. The authors believe that social psychological concepts such as attribution, cognitive distortion, and impression management can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of processes of moral perception and judgment. The organizational stakeholder concept and stakeholder mapping methods found in the strategic planning literature may also be particularly valuable for business ethics research. Using an organizational stakeholder model and considering the effects of cognitive and self-presentational biases of these stakeholders should allow researchers to better explain social controls and actions undertaken in cases of managerial misconduct in work organizations.

Social Accounts and Metaphors about Cheating

College student cheating, or aca demic dishonesty, has been a topic of much interest to education re searchers. A thorough, multidisciplinary literature search on the subject reveals at least 200 journal articles and reports. The research literature on college cheating might be divided into the following cate gories: reporting and defining types of cheating or academic misconduct; reac tions by researchers to academic cheating (How serious is the problem?); methodol ogies for studying academic dishonesty; causes (or self-reported reasons) for cheating; and prevention and control measures.

New Directions for the Business Curriculum.

Abstract More than three decades have passed since the last major revision of the business curriculum. Since then, corporate restructuring, industry downsizing, growth of small-business opportunities, and business and government “reinvention” have taken place. Business curricula have also been undergoing reexamination. In this article, we analyze the current state of affairs and offer recommendations for a cross-functional curriculum that provides the foundation students need for career success.

Values and ethics-related measures for management education

Various measures related to individual values, ethical attitudes and moral reasoning exist and are being increasingly applied for research in business and professional ethics. The England Personal Values Questionnaire, the Rokeach Value Survey, and Rests Defining Issues Test have received stronger support and application for management and organizational behavior research than other instruments, such as Gordons Survey of Personal Values and Hogans Survey of Ethical Attitudes. Beyond research usage, many of these measures offer potential for instructional purposes. Knowledge of the characteristics and limitations of values and ethics-related measures allows business educators to make better selections of possible supplements to traditional instructional methods.

Critical systems thinking: A challenge or dilemma in its practice?

Emerging descriptions of critical systems thinking (CST) have yet to provide much information on how consultants with such a philosophy should act as potential organizational change agents in actually gaining opportunities to introduce CST applications. Issues of professional activism and advocacy need to be explored in the recommended actions taken by such change agents to challenge the dominant ideology and aspects of a coercive political climate that exists in many organizations. Theory development and the creative potential of CST may be enhanced by its advocates studying related critical theory development in other management and social science subfields.

Employment‐at‐Will Statements: Perceptions of Job Applicants

Employers in the USA often use employment‐at‐will statements in the employment application process to minimize their vulnerability in post‐discharge litigation. Reports survey results of job seekers′ attitudes towards such statements. The findings suggest that applicants would prefer to join organizations that do not include employment‐at‐will statements in the application process and that job‐seekers′ perceptions of the greater risk involved, greater expectations of employees, and a lack of company concern regarding its employees would significantly influence their views of an employment‐at‐will organization.

Management and Values/Ethics Education

Increasing interest in a better understanding of personal and corporate values systems is occurring in the study of management. Despite earlier efforts by many management theorists to maintain a values-free approach to this discipline, convincing arguments concerning an inherent values dimension to management have been presented (Keeley, 1983). Heightened awareness of values systems in organizations can be observed in books such as In Search of Excellence (Peters & Waterman, 1982) and Corporate Cultures (Deal & Kennedy, 1982). Peters and Waterman, in particular, focus on the critical nature of shared values in the corporation and the executive’s role in managing these values. Pervasive changes in employee values over the past few decades explain why Cooper, Morgan, Foley, and Kaplan claim that the crucial management issue is the extent to which managers &dquo;can successfully identify, anticipate, and address these changing values as they surface, or before they surface in their own organization&dquo; (1979, p. 125). Feather, describing efforts toward more careful analysis of values, makes the following statements: &dquo;It would be wrong to underestimate the importance of discovering just where the differences in values priorities lie be-

Ethics Integration: The Management/Organizational Behavior Fundamentals Course and Broader Concerns

Efforts in business colleges to integrate topics of ethics and social responsibility across all business curricula often face serious obstacles. Faculty members given the responsibility for ethics integration in a particular business discipline or for the business college as a whole should try to anticipate and respond to explicit and implicit faculty reservations about ethics integration. Counseling and curricular suggestions for undertaking this challenge are suggested along with specific recommendations for improved ethics integration in the introductory management/organization behavior course.

Doctoral Programs in Management and Business Administration: Investigation of Criticisms and Reforms

or Thrust into the 21st Century? (Porter & McKibbin, 1988). Not since Higher Education for Business (Gordon & Howell, 1959) and The Education of American Businessmen: A Study of University-College Programs in Business Administration (Pierson, 1959) has there been a more comprehensive investigation of higher education in the business and management disciplines. Porter and McKibbin describe changes occurring in manage-

American Competitiveness: Dysfunctional Stakeholder Communications

Among the factors contributing to competitiveness problems for many American firms is the presence of excessive and inaccurate self-presentations and resulting defensive communication routines among managers in these firms. Suggestions are provided to identify and reduce conduct leading to these dysfunctional tendencies, but caution is urged in recognizing the difficulties and potential ethical dilemmas that may occur in trying to resolve these problems. Any discussion of future American competitiveness should involve global changes and economic patterns, national trade policies, and manufacturing and quality control. However, executives should also examine questionable managerial communication in firms.