The Ethics of Organizational Politics

Linking Linear/Nonlinear Thinking Style Balance and Managerial Ethical Decision-Making

“…Fritzsche and Becker (1984) provided one of the first attempts at applying welldeveloped ethical theories from the field of philosophy to specific managerial dilemmas, including (1) coercion and control, (2) conflict of interest, (3) physical environment, (4) paternalism, and (5) personal integrity. They utilized three core ethical theories as a means to explain the possible responses to each dilemma: act or rule utilitarian theories proposing that individuals evaluate behavior in terms of its social consequences; theories of rights that emphasize the entitlements of individuals; and theories of justice that address the distributional effects of actions, behaviors, or policies (Cavanagh et al, 1981). According to act utilitarianism, an individual bases decisions solely on their outcomes by selecting the act that provides the greatest social good.…”

An Exploration into the Developmental Psychology of Ethical Theory with Implications for Business Practice and Pedagogy

“…In particular, this approach is useful because it pays far more attention to the ''micro-morality'' questions mentioned above by Rest et al (1999) than other meta-ethical proposals (Cavanaugh et al, 1981;Garofalo and Gueras, 1999;Sheeran, 1993;). Business ethicists can no longer afford to ignore the profound contributions of such micro-moral theorists as Caputo (1993), Derrida (1995), Norton (1976), Badiou (2001), or Gilligan (1982), to name a few.…”

“…His use of axiology as a third general type of ethical theory may seem unusual to those unfamiliar with his work. Far more popular recently is the deontology/teleology/virtue ethics approach adopted in many texts (during the 80s and 90s it was the ''justice/rights/utility model'' promoted by Cavanaugh et al, 1981). Surprisingly, though each meta-ethical model was widely accepted in the field of business ethics in its time, we are aware of no arguments in either case for the soundness of the model, other than general usefulness, and we are aware of no arguments at all for the soundness of the currently popular deontology/ teleology/virtue ethics model.…”

Nurturing the Whole Person: The Ethics of Workplace Spirituality in a Society of Organizations

“…First, business ethics scholars would surely recognize that ''business is, above all, a social activity'' (Solomon, 1992, p. 335) with mutual stakeholder responsibilities. In the above example, from the perspective of deontological, Kantian ''moral rights,'' the forum respondent's work organization has apparently failed him in its responsibility to provide minimal levels of social satisfaction in the workplace setting (Cavanagh et al, 1981). The field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) might approach these questions by plumbing the implications of an apparent breach of the Lockean notion of social contract between business and society as embodied in this employee and many others who voice similar frustrations.…”