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Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Business ethics
The ethics of data and analytics, in many ways, is no different than any endeavor to find the "right" answer. When a business chooses a supplier, funds a new product, or hires an employee, managers are making decisions with moral implications. The decisions in business, like all decisions, have a moral component in that people can benefit or be harmed, rules are followed or broken, people are treated fairly or not, and rights are enabled or diminished. However, data analytics introduces wrinkles or moral hurdles in how to think about ethics. Questions of accountability, privacy, surveillance, bias, and power stretch standard tools to examine whether a decision is good, ethical, or just. Dealing with these questions requires different frameworks to understand what is wrong and what could be better. Ethics of Data and Analytics: Concepts and Cases does not search for a new, different answer or to ban all technology in favor of human decision-making. The text takes a more skeptical, ironic approach to current answers and concepts while identifying and having solidarity with others. Applying this to the endeavor to understand the ethics of data and analytics, the text emphasizes finding multiple ethical approaches as ways to engage with current problems to find better solutions rather than prioritizing one set of concepts or theories. The book works through cases to understand those marginalized by data analytics programs as well as those empowered by them. Three themes run throughout the book. First, data analytics programs are value-laden in that technologies create moral consequences, reinforce or undercut ethical principles, and enable or diminish rights and dignity. This places an additional focus on the role of developers in their incorporation of values in the design of data analytics programs. Second, design is critical. In the majority of the cases examined, the purpose is to improve the design and development of data analytics programs. Third, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are about power. The discussion of power-who has it, who gets to keep it, and who is marginalized-weaves throughout the chapters, theories, and cases. In discussing ethical frameworks, the text focuses on critical theories that question power structures and default assumptions and seek to emancipate the marginalized.
This text is a concrete, action-based look at the ways businesses can become sustainable as moving towards a sustainable world becomes more and more important.
This book focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) records of Chinese oil investments in five Latin American countries: Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. These investments have been spearheaded by China's national oil companies and their behavior has been scantly studied. The author uses comparative case studies to empirically examine existing theories of CSR. By using oil companies as the basic unit of analysis, this project adds a micro-level dimension to the field of China-Latin America relationship. It is ideal for audiences interested in the political economy of the oil industry, China, Latin America, and corporate social responsibility.
Longlisted for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2017 Finance is shrouded in mystery for outsiders, while many insiders are uneasy with the disrepute of their profession. How can finance become more accessible and also recover its nobility? Harvard Business School professor Mihir Desai takes up the cause of restoring humanity to finance. With deft wit, he draws upon a rich knowledge of literature, film, history, and philosophy to explain finance's inner workings. Through this creative approach, he shows that outsiders can easily access the underlying ideas and insiders can reacquaint themselves with the core values of their profession. This combination of finance and the humanities creates unusual and illuminating pairings: Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope are guides to risk management; Jeff Koons becomes an advocate of leverage; and Mel Brooks' The Producers teaches us about fiduciary responsibility. In Desai's vision, the principles of finance also provide answers to critical questions in our lives: bankruptcy teaches us how to react to failure, the lessons of mergers apply to marriages, and the Capital Asset Pricing Model demonstrates the true value of relationships. The Wisdom of Finance is a wholly unique book, offering an enlivening new perspective on one of the world's most complex and misunderstood professions.
Social entrepreneurship and impact investing contribute to a more inclusive capitalism and bring innovative solutions to global challenges, such as fighting poverty and protecting planet earth. This book offers practical advice on how to best integrate entrepreneurship and capital for impact and innovation by using elea's philanthropic investing approach to fight absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means as an example. Written by two leading experts, the book summarizes insights from elea's 15-year pioneering journey, from creating an investment organization, choosing purposeful themes, and sourcing opportunities, to partnering with entrepreneurs for impact creation. This includes suggestions on how to lead impact enterprises in such areas as developing strategies, plans, and models; building effective teams and organizations; managing resources; and handling crises. Using real-life examples, this is valuable reading for entrepreneurs, investors, executives, philanthropists, policymakers, and anyone curious about entrepreneurship and inclusive capitalism.
Carbon Accounting is a vital tool in enabling organisations to measure and report on their greenhouse gas emissions. As the need to respond to the causes and impacts of climate change becomes increasingly urgent, emissions calculations and inventories are a vital first step towards mastering climatic risk. The Handbook of Carbon Accounting offers an accessible and comprehensive presentation of the discipline. The book examines the different methods or instruments implemented by countries and companies - such as carbon taxation, carbon markets and voluntary offsetting - while revealing how these stem not simply from the aim of reducing emissions for the lowest cost, but more as a compromise between divergent interests and individual world views. It also explores the historical context of the emergence of carbon accounting, assessing its evolution since the Rio Conference in 1992 and the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, to the latest Conference of Parties in 2015 in Paris.The book concludes with a very practical guide to calculate, reduce, offset and disclose your carbon footprint.Like other management tools, carbon accounting may not be an exact science, but its contribution has never been more important. The Handbook of Carbon Accounting is a vital educational resource that will help readers - including those with no prior knowledge of the field - to understand carbon flows and stocks and to take action. It forms part of a movement that heralds the start of a new economic era in which the search for prosperity can live in harmony with the environment.
Age is the silent shaper of work organizations and their human
resource practices. It has become a potent feature of how society
is structured and how it views itself. Age assumptions mould the
behaviours of young and old alike, and are used as political tools
by policy makers and managers. Organizing Age asks the perennial
question--can age ever not matter?
Does it pay for businesses to act morally? This book attempts to answer this question. Taking a positive approach, it demonstrates that, under certain conditions, organizations can act responsibly and profitably at the same time. It elaborates on these conditions and provides evidence for the assumed positive relation between responsibility and profitability. The author uses analysis of the acceptance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies across Europe, the consequences of CSR on motivation, commitment and absenteeism, and organizational responsibility and the bottom of the pyramid as evidence that organizations can be profitable and responsible at the same time. Uniquely taking an organizational perspective on CSR, scholars and students of business ethics will find this impressive book to be an invaluable resource. Business professionals will also find plenty of important information in this admirable compendium.
As the COVID-19 crisis comes to an end, leaders, organizations, and governments have to develop a "new normal" for doing business with a focus on protecting the environment, integrating new technologies and adapting to new social changes. Based on empirical studies and conceptual contributions from researchers and practitioners presented at the Griffiths School of Management & IT's 12th Annual Conference on Business, Entrepreneurship and Ethics (GSMAC), this proceedings volume provides a multifaceted perspective on the impact and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on various public and private systems including education, business organizations and consumer behavior. In particular, this book explores the impact of the pandemic on remote work and employee health, sustainable development, and economic growth, among others. It also highlights the role of data analysis in understanding trends, opportunities, and challenges in the above systems.
How can businesses and business leaders help solve the big ethical, social and ecological challenges of today? Within this context this book offers theoretical and practical approaches to making the world a better place for existing and future generations. It uses diverse, often multidimensional frames of reference and illustrates them with real-life cases to show positive solutions. The author's broad professional background and humanistic worldview are reflected in his application of psychological and virtue-oriented theories as well as philosophical approaches. Some of the articles have an essay format, others share his experiences and experiments in his ethics classes using roleplays to cultivate empathic and prudent ethical behaviour. A primary motivation of the book is to inspire leaders as well as teachers and students of leadership and business by enriching their worldviews to see ethics as a fundamental aspect at all levels of economic activity.
Over the past decade, socially responsible investment (SRI) has changed from being a niche market to become a core consideration for mainstream investors. As such, pension fund advisers, trustees of charitable foundations and other investment professionals want to understand this new phenomenon. Up to now they have lacked any reference book to teach them what they need to know about SRI. This gap is now filled by the publication of Socially Responsible Investment: A Global Revolution, the first book on SRI specifically written for investment professionals and their clients. The book will also help business executives and business schools looking at better corporate governance and business ethics. Socially Responsible Investment describes how SRI has moved from fringe to mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic, and its current explosive growth rate in Asia and Europe. The book consists of three parts:
"To newcomers and veterans of the SRI movement, Russell Sparkes’ "Socially Responsible Investment, a Global Revolution" is a "must read". You will come away with a fresh appreciation of the history, evolution, and potential of socially responsible investing. The book is well researched. To Russell Sparkes--thank you!" Patricia Wolf, RSM, Executive Director, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility "The next few years will be crucial for the long term future of Socially Responsible Investment. Russell Sparkes’ timely book sets the scene very clearly for those who are shaping the agenda, but it will also be of value to people who are responding to the challenge of investing responsibly" Helen Wildsmith, Executive Director, UK Social Investment Forum "The Ethical Investor (1995) changed my views on what could done to harness investment to social responsibility in the UK context. This book now moves the agenda to the world stage and is essential reading for all those who can see the need to harness capitalism to SRI objectives in the post Sept. 11th world, and that after the Enron and Worldcom scandals, SRI can deliver the better world we need" Tony Colman MP, House of Commons International Development Select Committee "The growth of SRI has been one of the most important - but often misunderstood - investment trends of the past decade. Russell Sparkes provides an invaluable analysis of the main SRI developments and issues for both professional and private investor alike, writing with true authority and insight" Stuart Bell, Research Director, PIRC Ltd "At just the moment when the relationship between corporations and society is coming dominate political agendas, Russell Sparkes has produced an invaluable sequel to The Ethical Investor. Global in scope, Socially Responsible Investment is a practical, authoritative, readable guide that will well-serve both institutional and individual investors. Sparkes’ twenty plus years in the field and his understanding of cross-cultural issues give his work a unique depth and application wherever investors want to effect positive social change" Peter D. Kinder, Chief Executive Officer of KLD Research & Analytics, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts "Russell Sparks has filled a huge need. In this magisterial volume, he has brought together the history, language and lore of shareholder activism and responsibility into coherence. For everyone searching for ways for owners to make corporations part of the solution for global problems, this book is a must read" Robert A.G. Monks, Chairman, Lens Investment Management and Publisher of www.ragm.com concerned with corporate governance and shareholder responsibility "…a useful tool for investors and managers. Not the untested ideals of someone wishing to jump on the ethical band wagon but the considered and tested observations of a successful institutional investor of conviction" "…having compared Socially Responsible Investment to an iceberg, Russell Sparkes explains many of those aspects of the subject not obvious on the surface." J E Rogers, Chief Executive, UKSIP The Society of Investment Professionals
Businesses and the accounting profession have never been under such close ethical scrutiny because of the ethics scandals that have prevented organizations and people from reaching their objectives. Understanding why ethical behavior is so important to success and knowing potential pitfalls are key to your own success. Business & Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives & Accountants, 9e demonstrates that it's not just about learning rules. You must learn how to use ethical strategies, make ethical decisions, and integrate the latest information on ethics and governance scandals, legal liability and professional accounting and auditing issues. You must understand why developing an ethical corporate culture is essential to maintaining stakeholder support, and for auditors to audit financial statements. To keep learning interesting and underscore the importance of ethical issues, this edition provides more than 130 cases, including classic frauds, bankruptcies, loss of reputation, and unprofessional practices. Cases provide excellent opportunities for role playing and for developing your understanding of soft skills, including communications, persuasion, presentation, leadership and a global mindset.
This book brings together the refereed proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Australian Association of Professional and Applied Ethics (AAPAE) 'Applied Ethics in the Fractured State', held at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney in June 2017. The book is eclectic, with chapters on health regulation in Australia, Eastern ethical theorising (Confucianism; Buddhism), euthanasia and community engagement, all of which are examined from the unique perspective that Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations affords its contributors.
This book opens up a critical dimension to the interdisciplinary field of Industrial Ecology (IE) and one of its four areas - Industrial Symbiosis (IS). Presenting the concept of closed-loop thinking, this timely book explains how industries and societies can achieve environmental sustainability, a necessity for today's businesses. Providing a critical review of the definitions and developments of both IE and IS, this study establishes their fundamental role in improving environmental sustainability. The author identifies valuable lessons to be learned and presents conceptual frameworks to guide future IE and IS applications. Transforming industrial systems into closed-loop industrial ecosystems dramatically reduces the negative impact of industrial activities on the environment. Therefore, this book is an important read not only for operations management scholars, but also those who are interested in ensuring an environmentally sustainable future.
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller An insider's revealing and in-depth examination of Big Tech's failure to keep its foundational promises and the steps the industry can take to course-correct in order to make a positive impact on the world. Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It explores how technology has progressed humanity's most noble pursuits, while also grappling with the origins of the industry's destructive empathy deficit and the practical measures Big Tech can take to self-regulate and make it right again. Author Maelle Gavet examines the tendency for many of Big Tech's stars to stray from their user-first ideals and make products that actually profoundly damage their customers and ultimately society. Offering an account of the world of tech startups in the United States and Europe--from Amazon, Google, and Facebook to Twitter, Airbnb, and Uber (to name a few)--Trampled by Unicorns argues that the causes and consequences of Big Tech's failures originate from four main sources: the Valley's cultural insularity, the hyper-growth business model, the sector's stunning lack of diversity, and a dangerous self-sustaining ecosystem. However, the book is not just an account of how an industry came off the rails, but also a passionate call to action on how to get it back on track. Gavet, a leading technology executive and former CEO of Ozon, an executive vice president at Priceline Group, and chief operating officer of Compass, formulates a clear call to action for industry leaders, board members, employees, and consumers/users to drive the change necessary to create better, more sustainable businesses--and the steps Western governments are likely to take should tech leaders fail to do so. Steps that include reformed tax codes, reclassification of platforms as information companies, new labor laws, and algorithmic transparency and oversight. Trampled by Unicorns' exploration of the promise and dangers of technology is perfect for anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship, tech, and global commerce, and a hope of technology's all-empowering prospect. An illuminating book full of insights, Trampled by Unicorns describes a realistic path forward, even as it uncovers and explains the errors of the past. As Gavet puts it, "we don't need less tech, we need more empathetic tech." And how that crucial distinction can be achieved by the tech companies themselves, driving change as governments actively pave the road ahead.
Behavioural ethics in business is an emerging field that has challenged some of the established wisdom about ethics and added some truly new insights into our understanding about decision-making and behaviour. Why do seemingly responsible employees and managers sometimes act in bad ways? This book explains how people behave in real situations and what action can be taken to nudge behaviour in a more ethical direction. This concise textbook is ideal for use in the classroom as core or additional reading on courses in business ethics and corporate social responsibility; organisational behaviour and psychology; and any module with ethics content (for example, accounting ethics and strategic management). Each chapter is presented as a story with details about the experimental designs and related research findings. The key features include learning outcomes, suggested class activities, mock assessment questions, and an annotated list of key readings and these provide a one-stop text for tutors and students interested in this increasingly important area of study.
This book confronts business managers with media accounts of alleged ethical misconduct by business people and the low opinion the public has of the honesty of business people in general. Gerald J. Williams agrees that greed and self-interest are surely at work here, but he points out that these vices can be found in just about every area of human endeavor. He asks whether business people might think there is some special characteristic of the business enterprise that sometimes justifies acting in ways that would be considered immoral if they were done in nonbusiness situations. Does the impact, for instance, that a business may have on the economic welfare of its shareholders, employees, and the social and political communities in which it operates sometimes require its managers to follow a double ethic, one that applies to their business lives but not to their private lives? Not so, according to the author, who argues that there is no such thing as business ethics; there are only ethical principles applicable to all circumstances and conditions of human life. It is Williams' belief that only business people can restore their tarnished reputation by acting ethically, but that they have to first know something about moral theory and understand how different theoretical approaches to morality may yield different moral principles. Business people need to reflect on the set of moral principles they hold, conscientiously satisfy themselves that they are comfortable with those principles, and, if not, modify them and apply them consistently in both business and nonbusiness situations. This book is designed to help managers with the process of education and moral reflection by describing three approaches to morality: cultural moral relativism, utilitarianism, and Thomistic natural law. The book then goes on to show how each approach can address and attempt to solve concrete, real-life ethical conflicts in the business world. In short, the book offers a somewhat unique hands-on technique for teaching business ethics. It should interest business managers at all levles as well as teachers and students of business ethics.
The book considers how to make the methodology of business ethics more scientific, especially its normative branch. Storchevoy explores the attempts of economic theory to contribute to the scientific normative analysis of economic behavior, particularly the welfare economics of 1910-1950 and methodological discussions of economics and ethics from 1980-2015. He then examines the development of the methodological structure of business ethics in general since the 1980s and the scientific validity of normative business ethics, including stakeholder theory, the separation thesis, integral social contract theory, corporate social responsibility, virtue ethics and other frameworks. He concludes by suggesting an additional step to make business ethics a more systematic discipline by developing a typology of moral issues and dilemmas. Business Ethics as a Science will be a thought-provoking resource for students and practitioners of business ethics and economists alike.
There is a revival of interest by economists in ethical issues and beliefs, and by moral philosophers and theologians in economics. This book is intended to make a contribution to this cross-fertilisation of ideas. Rodney Wilson has undertaken an extensive survey of Jewish, Christian and Muslim views on economics, and reviewed the rapidly expanding business ethics literature from a religious perspective. The juxtaposition of the work of theologians and moral philosophers with that of economists results in some interesting comparisons.
Artificial intelligence is the most discussed and arguably the most powerful technology in the world today. The very rapid development of the technology, and its power to change the world, and perhaps even ourselves, calls for a serious and systematic thinking about its ethical and social implications, as well as how its development should be directed. The present book offers a new perspective on how such a direction should take place, based on insights obtained from the age-old tradition of Buddhist teaching. The book argues that any kind of ethical guidelines for AI and robotics must combine two kinds of excellence together, namely the technical and the ethical. The machine needs to aspire toward the status of ethical perfection, whose idea was laid out in detail by the Buddha more than two millennia ago. It is this standard of ethical perfection, called "machine enlightenment," that gives us a view toward how an effective ethical guideline should be made. This ideal is characterized by the realization that all things are interdependent, and by the commitment to alleviate all beings from suffering, in other words by two of the quintessential Buddhist values. The book thus contributes to a concern for a norm for ethical guidelines for AI that is both practical and cross-cultural.
The world's people and their leaders face a complex and multifaceted set of 'eco-social questions'. As the productivity of humanity increases, the negative external environmental effects of production and consumption patterns become increasingly problematic and threaten the human welfare. As the regulating power of national and international governments is limited, this challenge has generated a strong interest in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of companies. Firms find it increasingly important to meet the expectations of stakeholders with respect to the company's contribution to profit, planet, and people. The primary aim of this book is to introduce the reader to the impacts and drivers of CSR, with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Research into the social and environmental impacts of CSR is rare. This is a serious gap because if CSR were to fail to have favourable social and environmental impacts on society, the whole concept may become redundant. If societal impacts of CSR are substantial, it is important to know the drivers of CSR. This book considers (1) factors internal to the company, (2) the competitive environment of the company, (3) institutions external to the company, and (4) how the impacts of institutions are mediated or moderated by company internal factors. This book will fill this gap by estimating various types of models that integrate external and internal factors driving CSR and its impacts on environment, innovation, and reputation, making it a valuable resource for researchers, academics, and students in the fields of business management and CSR.
The world's people and their leaders face a complex and multifaceted set of 'eco-social questions'. As the productivity of humanity increases, the negative external environmental effects of production and consumption patterns become increasingly problematic and threaten the human welfare. As the regulating power of national and international governments is limited, this challenge has generated a strong interest in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of companies. Firms find it increasingly important to meet the expectations of stakeholders with respect to the company's contribution to profit, planet, and people. The primary aim of this book is to introduce the reader to the impacts and drivers of CSR, with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Research into the social and environmental impacts of CSR is rare. This is a serious gap because if CSR were to fail to have favourable social and environmental impacts on society, the whole concept may become redundant. If societal impacts of CSR are substantial, it is important to know the drivers of CSR. This book considers (1) factors internal to the company, (2) the competitive environment of the company, (3) institutions external to the company, and (4) how the impacts of institutions are mediated or moderated by company internal factors. This book will fill this gap by estimating various types of models that integrate external and internal factors driving CSR and its impacts on environment, innovation, and reputation, making it a valuable resource for researchers, academics, and students in the fields of business management and CSR.
This volume explores the management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interactions with their stakeholders. This practice also benefits the company and helps it to reach its strategic goals. This volume takes interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives to exploring a multitude of themes in CSR, including corporate social responsibility in conjunction with employee quality of life, globalization, industry sustainability, environmental accountability, academic spin-off, education, empowerment of women, corporate reputation, expenditures for CSR purposes, and more. The chapter authors consider the impacts and outcomes along with the emerging challenges of incorporating CSR in an organization's business strategy. This volume is an important academic journey into some of the most relevant yet understudied issues of today. This volume will be a valuable resource for faculty and students in business as well as for industry professionals, researchers, and others.
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