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Although whistleblowing is thought to represent an effective mechanism for detecting and uncovering doping in sport, it has yet to become a widely adopted practice. Understanding the factors that encourage or discourage whistleblowing is of vital importance for the promotion of this practice and the development of pedagogical material to enhance the likelihood of whistleblowing. The current study employed a qualitative methodology to explore the personal and organisational factors that underpin intentions to blow the whistle or that may lead to engagement in whistleblowing behaviours in sport. Thirty-three competitive athletes across a range of sports took part in a semi-structured interview which sought to explore what they would do should they encounter a doping scenario. Content analysis revealed that whistleblowing is a dynamic process characterised by the interaction of a range of personal and organisational factors in determining the intention to report PED use. These factors included moral reasoning, a desire to keep the matter "in-house", perceived personal costs, institutional attitudes to doping, and social support. Analysis revealed a number of "intervening events", including a perceived lack of organisational protection (e.g., ethical leadership) within some sporting sub-cultures, which present an important obstacle to whistleblowing. The intention to report doping was underpinned by a "fairness-loyalty trade-off" which involved athletes choosing to adhere to either fairness norms (which relate to a sense that all people and groups are treated equally) or loyalty norms (which reflect preferential treatment towards an in-group) when deciding whether they would blow the whistle. The promotion of fairness norms that emphasise a group's collective interests might encourage athletes to view whistleblowing as a means of increasing group cohesiveness and effectiveness and thereby increase the likelihood of this practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we investigate a philosophical problem for normative business ethics theory suggested by a phenomenon that contemporary psychologists call “bounded ethicality,” which can be identified with the putative fact that well-intentioned people, constrained by psychological limitations, make ethical choices inconsistent with their own ethical beliefs and commitments. When one combines the idea that bounded ethicality is pervasive with the idea that a person morally ought to do something only if she can, it raises a doubt about the practical relevance of the moral principles that business ethics theory prescribes. We call this doubt the Radical Behavioral Challenge. It consists in the idea that people cannot generally conform to the normative ethical principles that business ethics theorists prescribe, and that these principles are therefore practically irrelevant. We answer the Radical Behavioral Challenge and explore normative implications of our answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language of virtue is gaining wider appreciation in the philosophical, psychological, and management literatures. Ethicists and social scientists aim to integrate normative and empirical approaches into a new “science of virtue.” But, I submit, they are talking past each other; they hold radically different notions of what a virtue is. In this paper, I shall examine two conflicting conceptions of virtue, what I call the reductive and the non-reductive accounts of virtue. I shall critically study them and argue that the non-reductive view is the best philosophical account of virtue and the only one that can account for the way we talk about virtue in business and in everyday life. We can only understand what it means to act virtuously through the examination of the attitudes, beliefs, desires, and inclinations of the virtuous agent. I shall illustrate the differences between the reductive and non-reductive accounts by considering the virtue of gratitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior experimental studies have investigated factors affecting the honesty of managerial reporting in contexts where managers have no discretion in determining what information to acquire before making their reports. In many organizations, however, responsibility for acquiring information is delegated to local managers. Such delegated decision rights give managers discretion regarding what information to supply to the accounting system on which their reports are based. We predict that discretion may promote opportunistic reporting behavior because it allows managers to avoid relevant information and, in turn, report so as to maximize personal wealth without being knowingly untruthful. We investigate this prediction via two experiments. Results of Experiment One suggest that whether discretion in information acquisition affects reporting behavior is influenced by an individual’s preference for honesty (i.e., ethical type). We conduct Experiment Two to investigate whether this is the case. Results show that, although discretion does not affect the reporting behavior of participants with low or high honesty preferences, participants with moderate honesty preferences tend to exploit discretion in order to avoid relevant information and report opportunistically. Our results suggest that the ability to exploit opportunities afforded by discretion in information acquisition is a potential cost when weighing the costs and benefits of assigning decision rights to managers. Our results also highlight the importance of considering a manager’s ethical type when assigning decision rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executives misbehave. In recent years, the world has been outraged and appalled by the shocking misbehavior of corporate executives. Some of their behavior have been plainly unethical; others have been deeply offensive; and still others have been simply criminal. Regardless of the misbehavior, such executive private misconduct--when made public--has frequently damaged their public reputations, harmed their company's market values, destroyed investor portfolios, and raised serious legal and policy issues. This Article provides one of the first comprehensive examinations of executive private misconduct and its wide-ranging effects on law, business, and society. It begins by providing context for how we got here. It investigates how the unfolding #MeToo movement, shifting social understandings of public and private, and changing corporate social expectations have all fostered a new landscape that is less tolerant of executive private misconduct. Next, it examines why legal gaps and tensions in current business law complicate executive private behavior discussions. It reveals how corporate law principles of fiduciary duties and securities law principles of disclosures were not structurally designed to confront the hard issues and questions raised by executive private misconduct. Moving from causes to consequences, this Article next examines the larger implications of executive private misconduct on corporate governance, corporate policies, and corporate purpose. Finally, this Article recommends pragmatic next steps for corporate stakeholders, regulators, and policymakers in a changing business environment. Specifically, it proposes a new baseline framework for working through perplexing executive private misconduct issues, along with concrete business policy reforms concerning nondisclosure agreements, mandatory arbitration, and annual misconduct reports. Ultimately, this Article seeks to provide an original, workable roadmap and compass for conceptualizing, navigating, and addressing executive private misconduct and its impact on law, business, and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the article "Managers' Use of Language Across Alternative Disclosure Outlets: Earnings Press Releases versus Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A)," by A. Davis and I. Tamara-Sweet, which appeared in the periodical "Contemporary Accounting Research" in 2011 is presented.

Unfair offers in bargaining may have disruptive effects because they may reduce interpersonal trust. In such situations future trust may be strongly affected by social accounts (i.e., apologies vs. denials). In the current paper we investigate when people are most likely to demand social accounts for the unfair offer (Experiment 1 ), and when social account, will have the highest impact (Experiment 2). We hypothesized that the need for and impact of social accounts will be highest when the intentions of the other party are uncertain. The results provided support for this reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus on two fundamental dimensions of corruption in organizations: (1) whether the individual or the organization is the beneficiary of the corrupt activity and (2) whether the corrupt behavior is undertaken by an individual actor or by two or more actors. We use these dimensions to define a new conceptualization of corruption at the organization level: the organization of corrupt individuals. We contrast this conceptualization with the prevailing concept of organizational corruption and develop propositions that highlight their differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporate scandals of the past few years have brought renewed attention to the problem of curtailing dishonest and fraudulent business practices, a problem on which strategic, ethical, and law enforcement interests should be aligned. Unfortunately, several features of federal criminal law and federal law enforcement policy have driven a wedge into this alignment, forcing managers to choose between their ethical obligations and their obligation to obey the law or aid law enforcement. In this article, I examine the nature and implications of the growing divergence between managers' ethical and legal obligations. After describing the traditional approach to business ethics analysis, I identify the features of federal criminal law and law enforcement policy that are responsible for the divergence and show how they are undermining the efficacy of the traditional approach. I illustrate this effect with the issue of workplace confidentiality. I then argue that the traditional approach must be reformed to give explicit recognition to the legal dimension of normative analysis, and demonstrate how such a reformed approach would function by applying it to three illustrative issues—organizational justice, privacy, and ethical auditing—and supplying a case study—KPMG's allegedly abusive tax shelters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a multilevel theoretical model to understand why business organizations are increasingly engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and thereby exhibiting the potential to exert positive social change. Our model integrates theories of organizational justice, corporate governance, and varieties of capitalism to argue that organizations are pressured to engage in CSR by many different actors, each driven by instrumental, relational, and moral motives. We conclude by highlighting empirical questions for future research and discussing some managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on cultural adaptation has focused on the challenges and outcomes associated with long-term adaptation to a foreign culture. Little has focused on the dynamics of cultural adaptation within single interactions, which are the building blocks of these long-term patterns. I fill this gap by introducing the concept of cross-cultural code-switching and providing an account of the psychological challenges people face in successfully adapting their behavior in foreign cultural interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that managerial overconfidence can account for corporate investment distortions. Overconfident managers overestimate the returns to their investment projects and view external funds as unduly costly. Thus, they overinvest when they have abundant internal funds, but curtail investment when they require external financing. We test the overconfidence hypothesis, using panel data on personal portfolio and corporate investment decisions of Forbes 500 CEOs. We classify CEOs as overconfident if they persistently fail to reduce their personal exposure to company-specific risk. We find that investment of overconfident CEOs is significantly more responsive to cash flow, particularly in equity-dependent firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a typology of auditors' virtues through in-depth interviews with nine exemplars of the audit community. We compare this typology with prescribed auditors' virtues as represented in the applicable Code of Professional Conduct. Our comparison shows that the Code places a primary emphasis on mandatory virtues including the virtues of "independent," "objective," and "principled." While the non-mandatory virtues, which involve "going beyond the minimum" and "putting the public interest foremost," were identified by our exemplars as essential to the auditor's role, they received little or no emphasis in the Rules of Professional Conduct. We find this particularly alarming, given that the exemplars interviewed for this study viewed these virtues are essential to the auditors' role. If the audit profession wishes to uphold public confidence by encouraging the possession of non-mandatory auditors' virtues, our research suggests that non-mandatory auditors' virtues should be explicitly described and included in rules of professional conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from two different firms, this study tested a new construct, creative self-efficacy, tapping employees' beliefs that they can be creative in their work roles. Results support the discriminant validity of the construct and indicate that job tenure, job self-efficacy, supervisor behavior, and job complexity contribute to creative efficacy beliefs. Creative self-efficacy also predicted creative performance beyond the predictive effects of job self-efficacy. Differences in results between white-collar and blue-collar samples suggest considerations for both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on justice theory, the author examined the consequences of abusive supervisor behavior. As expected, subordinates who perceived their supervisors were more abusive were more likely to quit their jobs. For subordinates who remained with their jobs, abusive supervision was associated with lower job and life satisfaction, lower normative and affective commitment, and higher continuance commitment, conflict between work and family, and psychological distress. Organizational justice mediated most of these effects, and job mobility moderated some of the deleterious effects of abusive supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the ethical perceptions of business people and the current state of business ethics in east China. After surveying 800 business people in 59 enterprises and interviewing 42 chief executive officers, chairs and senior managers among them, the following conclusions can be drawn: First of all, business ethics has become a new and popular topic in east China. Second, quite a lot of business people are pessimistic about the ethical standards of their superiors and co-workers, and about the ethical climate of their enterprises. Third, more and more business leaders begin to realize the importance of business ethics. Finally, in east China, the establishment of the market economy and the improvement of business ethics will depend on each other In short, business people in east China have various ethical perceptions, and the current state of business ethics in east China is also complex and changeable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the business ethics literature has devoted a tremendous amount of discussion in recent years to the question of whether the corporate manager has obligations to parties other than shareholders, it has failed to apply any of its insights to particular ethical concerns. This leaves the corporate manager with almost no guidance for resolving particular dilemmas he or she encounters. I bridge the gulf between theory and practice by focusing on the issue of corporate downsizing. I argue that corporate downsizing is, in many instances, morally contentious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many contemporary American corporations continue to exemplify high levels of corporate social responsibility, virtually all publicly held firms are finding themselves under growing pressure from the investment community to maximize shareholder value. As a result, the interests of the firm's non-shareholder constituencies are being neglected. The government must step in and function as arbiter, enacting rules and regulations that define what we expect of corporations in the way of such things as working conditions, environmental protection, and job training. But since the political process constitutes the only remaining vehicle for the expression of non-shareholder stakeholders, if corporate managers wish to be free to maximize shareholder value, it is inappropriate for them to also participate in shaping public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents results from a study of how young managers define ethical issues, think about these issues, and resolve them. Several patterns emerge from this study. First, in many cases, young managers received explicit instructions from their middle- manager bosses or felt strong organizational pressures to do things that they believed were sleazy, unethical, or sometimes illegal. Second, corporate ethics programs - codes of conduct, mission statements, hot lines, and so forth - proved to be of little help to these young managers. Third, many of them believed that their companies' executives were out-of-touch on ethical issues, either because they were too busy or because they sought to avoid responsibility. Fourth, the young managers resolved the dilemmas they faced largely on the basis of personal reflection and individual values, not through reliance on corporate credos, company loyalty, the exhortations and examples of senior executives, or philosophical principles or religious reflection. Ironically, however, while the interviewees typically described their experiences as difficult or even traumatic, many believed they had learned important lessons about themselves and the world of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study pertaining to U.S. marketing executives' ethical beliefs. The data was collected from a 1975 sample of over 250 U.S. marketing managers. According to the results the respondents felt some behaviors were more unethical than others. Among the behaviors found most unethical were claiming credit for someone else's work and divulging confidential information. The managers surveyed indicated that taking extra personal time and doing personal business on company time were minor offenses. Researchers say the survey was an attempt to develop insight into the organizational relationships which influence a marketing practitioner's ethical beliefs and behavior.

The article presents the results of a study designed to measure leadership behavior as a function of leaders' interpersonal trust orientation. According to the study, leader interpersonal trust is a variable that could possibly affect the way in which subordinates perceive the behavior of leaders. Using as an instrument the Ohio State Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire and the complete Job Descriptive Index, the study determined that leader interpersonal trust is related to consideration and tolerance of freedom.

A new instrument for measuring the beliefs, attitudes, or values held by the management of a firm with respect to its various publics is used in a field study of managers in 19 firms. This instrument is effective in differentiating between the management teams in different kinds of business organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mail survey reports on ethical problems faced by 330 advertising agency executives. The most frequently cited difficult ethical problem is "treating clients fairly." Creating honest advertisements and representing clients whose products or services are unhealthy or not needed were also frequently mentioned. Many agency executives reported that such ethical problems affect both their performance and their relationships with co-workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses managerial values of managers within the United States. A study conducted in 1992 on American managers' values, ethical pressures and strategies for aligning personal and organizational values is looked at. It found that, in contrast to a similar study from 1981, certain values had stayed the same, some had changed, and a few new value issues and dilemmas had emerged. The intention of both studies was to take a look at the managerial values that are such powerful forces in organizational life. Values are at the core of our personality, influence the choices we make, the people we trust, and the way we invest our time and energy.

The article presents information on business ethics as they relate to the responsibilities of executives. Four different spheres of morality are discussed. The commitments of private life consists of duties and responsibilities that are stated as abstract and universal principals such as the keeping of promises or telling the truth. The commitments of economic agents comprise of the job of executives as economists and corporate attorneys serving in the best interests of shareholders. Commitments as company leaders concerns the use of power by managers in helping to direct the lives of employees, seen as members of an organization. Responsibilities beyond a firm's boundaries deal with ethical decisions that exist outside of a firm's stated purpose, such as the ethics of a drug produced by a pharmaceutical company.

This article investigates the values and ethics of managers in the U.S. through an analysis of data and behavior patterns. The authors polled 6,000 executives' response to ethical dilemmas and the principles that guide behavior through a survey by the American Management Association. The authors sought to find out how managers assign priority to their organizational goals. Additional topics include the priorities of stakeholders, managers' relationships with others, and a description of pressures on managers.

An analysis of 119 corporation conduct codes suggests that top executives of American corporations only weakly shared the concern for social responsibility so often voiced by business leaders in the mid-1970s, when most of the codes were written. The documents give more attention to unethical conduct likely to decrease a firm's profits than to similar conduct that might increase profits. Familiarity with changing societal values is evident, but the executives that authored the codes tended to consider themselves, not the society or even apart of it, to be the conscience of the corporation. The codes have neither relieved organizational pressures to be unethical nor convinced opinion leaders that corporations have become more socially responsible in recent years [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scenario study and a field survey were used to investigate why managers often lay off employees in a curt, abrupt fashion. The extent to which mismanagement (versus external conditions) caused the need for layoffs was found to affect managers' reported feelings of discomfort and the time designated for dismissal meetings with employees. Further results showed that mismanagement was also related to managers' anticipation of negative consequences from actions by layoff victims, such as hostile confrontations and sabotage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theorists In various fields have discussed characteristics of top managers. This paper attempts to synthesize these previously fragmented literatures around a more general "upper echelons perspective." The theory states that organizational outcomes-strategic choices and performance levels-are partially predicted by managerial background characteristics. Propositions and methodological suggestions are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By distinguishing among managerial behaviors according to the time interval over which they are learned and performed and the specificity with which they can be described, three types of skills are identified, and a phased approach to skill training is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chester Barnard's treatment of the functions of the executive climaxes in his largely neglected consideration of executive morality. A high priority needs to be given to the study of executive morality, in efforts to better understand executive behavior. Barnard provides a promising point of departure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unanticipated departures of CEOs place demands upon interim leaders. From the literature a model is derived that illustrates problems of sense-making, enactment, communication, and organizational learning faced by these leaders and their internal and external stakeholders. A case, which focuses on the sudden resignation of the president of American University for making obscene phone calls to an area day-care worker, is used to illustrate the model. Comparisons are made in the corporate world with executive transitions at Kodak and American Express. Alternatives are suggested for improvements in communication and interim leadership when traumatic executive departures place severe and unfamiliar pressures on governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of a careerist orientation to work, which is defined as the propensity to pursue career advancement through non-performance-based means. A scale is developed to measure this concept using a sample of 227 business school alumni. Exploratory empirical data suggest that careerism is associated with consistently more negative job attitudes, a greater desire to advance and to change jobs, and more frequent promotions. Implications of a careerist orientation to work for both individual career management and organizational career development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What drives executives has a great deal to do with how they lead. Executives generally are highly motivated to attain mastery—to achieve at a high level, to be exceptionally capable, to be acknowledged as masterful, and so on. An intense drive to mastery is certainly a prerequisite to effective executive leadership. But in some executives there can be virtually no limit to the extent of their ambition for themselves and their organizations. These driven individuals are capable of going to counterproductive extremes to satisfy their appetites for mastery. So, based on intensive research on character and leadership on senior managers, this article shows how the "expansive" temperament can be a boon or a bane to an organization's existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent results of experimental studies in decision-making cast doubt on the validity of interpreting business behavior using nonbusinessmen subjects, indicating the need to involve managers in business-related, decision-making research. This paper describes some differences between R & managers' and students' information processing and choice behavior exhibited in a simple decision game, providing further evidence to support this conclusion. The experimental findings revealed that R & D managers were more rational decision-makers, superior information processors, and greater risk-takers than students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, data are reported comparing the beliefs of managers from five regional clusters (Greece, Spain, Central Europe, Scandinavia, and U.S.A.) on four basic attitudes (risk, self-determination, conciliation, and trust). The relative standings of the clusters are attitude specific, and the findings are compared to those of an earlier study by Haire, Ghiselli, and Porter. Only about 5 percent (which is significantly different from zero) of the total attitudinal variance is accounted for by regional grouping. Three additional factors are, therefore. examined in relation to attitudinal differences: (1) functional identification within a firm, (2) location within a single region, and (3) employment sector (private vs public) within a single country. The findings are interpreted within the context of a broad framework of possible causes of attitudinal differences across national groupings. Suggested implications for organizational practice are explicated with caution throughout the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers' choice of goals, their rating of subordinates, and various organizational and biographical data were related to the managers' Religion Value score as measured by judging religious terms against semantic differential scales. Broadly, the more religious managers were found to be more socially and humanistically oriented and relatively disinterested in personal earnings and company profits. They appeared to be less "self-actualizing." The managers with high Religion Value scores tended to be most frequently in marketing, to have studied business administration, to be generally less well educated, to tend to come from lower classes, to participate in community and professional activities, to engage in active rather than sedentary hobbies, to be higher rated in all-around competence, but not to hold the top position in the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The personal value systems of 1072 American managers are studied for their contribution to the understanding of managers and their behavior. A theoretical model for analyzing the impact of values on behavior is presented and utilized. Major results are explored with respect to the impact of personal values systems on the behavior of managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses creative approaches to solving scientific and technological dilemmas. The article focuses on the relationship between a research and development (R&D) manager and his employees. Problems within the R&D environment such as a subordinate's loss of respect and the dilemmas an R&D manager might face, such as friction between himself and a bench scientist or feeling a loss of control, are considered. The article considers ways of solving these dilemmas through understanding the unique role of R&D scientists and motivating them to achieve, sometimes at the cost of the R&D manager's own technical advancement.

The article presents a comparative analysis of managers and entrepreneurs. The article defines entrepreneurs as those who are goal and action-oriented, and managers who carry out policies and procedures in order to meet these goals. The roles of independent motel owners and chain motel managers are used to explore the difference, focusing the study on motels in northern Arizona. The article defines the motel industry, outlines the selected personality variables, discusses the risk preference, presents the research methodology, proposes a series of hypotheses and measures, and analyzes the findings.

The article discusses aspects of executive promotion. The search for both individual executives and answers for corporations as to what types of people to place in top-level executive positions has led to an intense interest in the elements of executive promotion. The promotion process involves a wide variety of interrelated elements both inside and outside the plant. Experts suggest that there a number of personal characteristics, activities, and circumstances which assist the executive in gaining promotion. These include a college education, an applicant's chances to improve, and whether or not the candidates' value system matches well with social norms.