Qualitative studies are an important component of business ethics research. This large amount of research covers a wide array of factors and influences on ethical decision making published between 2004 and 2014. Following the methodology of past critical reviews, this work provides a synopsis of the diverse array of qualitative studies in ethical decision making within the business ethics literature. We highlight the distinct and investigative nature of qualitative research, synthesize and summarize findings, and suggest opportunities for future research. We (...) conclude with a recommendation for developing qualitative studies in business ethics and a call for an increased openness when considering this valuable and underrepresented strategy of inquiry. (shrink)

The emerging field of responsible management learning is characterized by an urgent need for transdisciplinary practices. We conceptualize constellations of transdisciplinary practices by building up on a social practice perspective. From this perspective, knowledge and learning are ‘done’ in interrelated practices that may span multiple fields like the professional, educational, and research field. Such practices integrate knowledge across disciplines and sectors in order to learn to enact, educate, and research complex responsible management. Accordingly, constellations of collaborative transdisciplinary practices span the (...) three layers of the responsible management field: Professional responsible management, responsible management education, and responsible management research. We apply this framework to map both recent responsible management learning publications and contributions to this special issue. We notice that although the responsible management field’s aspiration for transdisciplinarity is high the degree to which it has been realized is low. This results in our proposal for a research agenda, which points out impediments to transdisciplinary, and research directions for the responsible management learning field. We also highlight theoretical implications of our conceptual framework for the larger transdisciplinarity discussion. (shrink)

The compliance officers' (CO) profession has been evolving over the last few decades. The expectations placed upon the individuals holding such a position vary across jurisdictions, but they are all expected to ensure employees and management of the business entity comply with the law. Given the limited research on CO in Europe, and the increasing public interest in this profession, the current authors have carried out a survey in Cyprus in an effort to map out and contextualize the CO' profession. (...) The findings illustrate CO's academic and professional qualifications, their awareness of their legal liability, the level of knowledge and job performance of their duties as prescribed by law, as well as gaps in the performance of duties as expected by management, boards, and regulators. The policy implications derived from the study suggest coherence and synergies to be found through common exam and postgraduate qualification in the field of financial compliance. (shrink)

Notwithstanding empirical evidence that combining ethics and compliance into one function or programme is likely to erode an ethical culture in organisations, the praxis to coalesce ethics and compliance conceptually and structurally remains attractive and continues in many organisations. Drawing on systems psychodynamic theory, this study enquires into unconscious complexities and drivers that may contribute to adverse consequences when combining ethics and compliance. Whereas previous research demonstrates that compliance dominates ethics because of self‐regulation issues, this research provides deeper insight into (...) why this happens. On explicating the unconscious dynamics that underlie the apparent lure of combination, it becomes clear that this praxis remains attractive because of its function to repress anxieties, maintain phantasies, and provide psychological comfort. In recognising the role of unconscious dynamics in the decision to combine ethics and compliance and the consequences thereof, cognition of this combination and its outcomes is moved beyond a conscious rational process. This elucidates the commanding opposing unconscious forces potentially at play in this decision. Insights could lessen adverse outcomes by prompting organisations to think of the combination of ethics and compliance as unconsciously motivated systemic processes that require sincere consideration before pursuing them. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

Concern for NGO accountability has been intensified in recent years, following the growth in the size of NGOs and their power to influence global politics and curb the excesses of globalization. Questions have been raised about where the sector embraces the same standards of accountability that it demands from government and business. The objective of this paper is to examine one aspect of NGO accountability, its discharge through annual reporting. Using Habermas’ theory of communicative action, and specifically its validity claims, (...) the research investigates whether NGOs use their annual reporting process to account to the host societies in which they operate or steer stakeholder actions toward their own self-interests. The results of the study indicate that efforts by organizations to account are characterized by communicative action through the provision of truthful disclosures, generally appropriate to the discharge of accountability and in a manner intended to improve their understandability. At the same time, however, some organizations exhibit strategically oriented behaviors in which the disclosure content is guided by the opportunity to present organizations in a particular light and there appears a lack of rhetor authenticity. The latter findings cast doubt on the ethical inspiration of NGOs and the values they demand from business communities, and questions arise as to why such practices exist and what lessons can be learnt from them. (shrink)