The authors posit that one should not take a binary approach to business ethics because there are gradations. They propose that firms may be classified according to the following metric: Level I: The Totally Unethical Organization; Level II: The Legalistic Unethical Organization; Level III: The...

We are no longer an industrial economy characterized by assembly lines; we are now in a knowledge economy where creativity is what matters and the old ways of running a firm simply do not work. This paper discusses a new paradigm for corporate ethics and leadership that includes factors that...

Companies that are going to thrive must have a soul. Those that are only concerned with “maximizing shareholder wealth” or “maximizing profit” will find themselves going the way Enron went. CEOs will have to lead the revolution and should be the ones exhorting executives to make...

This paper studies the impact of gender and religiosity on the attitudes towards business ethics of a sample of 437 Italian business students. Data were collected through a survey analysis in March-April 2013. We grouped our 18 items into four key areas of analysis and calculate an index that...

This article explains problems and opportunities created by standardized ethics initiatives (e.g., the UN Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative, and SA 8000) from the perspective of stakeholder theory. First, we outline differences and commonalities among currently existing initiatives...

Despite the fact that numerous studies have been conducted exploring possible relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability, there is no research focusing on the relationship between code of conduct and financial performance. For this reason, the following research...

Corporate social networking sites provide employees and employers with considerable opportunity to share information and become friends. Unfortunately, American and international laws do not directly address social networking site usage. The National Labor Relations Act, civil rights laws, and...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly becoming a popular business concept in developed economies. As typical of other business concepts, it is on its way to globalization through practices and structures of the globalized capitalist world order, typified in Multinational...

In the past few years a growing consideration of enterprises’ social role has brought public opinion, management scholars and companies themselves to give more and more attention and space to the concept of ethics. Over the decades, the doctrine has made some considerable progress in defining...