bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Statistical processing of forecasts for hydrological ensemble prediction: a comparative study of different bias correction strategies
Authors: Zalachori I. , Ramos M.-H. , Garçon R. , Mathevet T. , Gailhard J.
Published: July 2012

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of statistical correction techniques in hydrological ensemble prediction. Ensemble weather forecasts (precipitation and temperature) are used as forcing variables to a hydrologic forecasting model for the production of ensemble streamflow forecasts. The impact of different bias correction strategies on the quality of the forecasts is examined. The performance of the system is evaluated when statistical processing is applied: to precipitation and temperature forecasts only (pre-processing from the hydrological model point of view), to flow forecasts (post-processing) and to both. The pre-processing technique combines precipitation ensemble predictions with an analog forecasting approach, while the post-processing is based on past errors of the hydrological model when simulating streamflows. Forecasts from 11 catchments in France are evaluated. Results illustrate the importance of taking into account hydrological uncertainties to improve the quality of operational streamflow forecasts.
Effects of cyanobacterial-driven pH increases on sediment nutrient fluxes and coupled nitrification-denitrification in a shallow fresh water estuary
Authors: Gao Y. , Cornwell J. C. , Stoecker D. K. , Owens M. S.
Published: July 2012

Abstract. Summer cyanobacterial blooms caused an elevation in pH (9 to ~10.5) that lasted for weeks in the shallow and tidal-fresh region of the Sassafras River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay (USA). Elevated pH promoted desorption of sedimentary inorganic phosphorus and facilitated conversion of ammonium (NH4+) to ammonia (NH3). In this study, we investigated pH effects on exchangeable NH4+ desorption, pore water diffusion and the flux rates of NH4+, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and nitrate (NO3−), nitrification, denitrification, and oxygen consumption. Elevated pH enhanced desorption of exchangeable NH4+ through NH3 formation from both pore water and adsorbed NH4+ pools. Progressive penetration of high pH from the overlying water into sediment promoted the mobility of SRP and the release of total ammonium (NH4+ and NH3) into the pore water. At elevated pH levels, high sediment-water effluxes of SRP and total ammonium were associated with reduction of nitrification, denitrification and oxygen consumption rates. Alkaline pH and the toxicity of NH3 may inhibit nitrification in the thin aerobic zone, simultaneously constraining coupled nitrification–denitrification with limited NO3− supply and high pH penetration into the anaerobic zone. Geochemical feedbacks to pH elevation, such as enhancement of dissolved nutrient effluxes and reduction in N2 loss via denitrification, may enhance the persistence of cyanobacterial blooms in shallow water ecosystems.
A high-resolution record of carbon accumulation rates during boreal peatland initiation
Authors: Pendea I. F. , Chmura G. L.
Published: July 2012

Abstract. Boreal peatlands are a major global C sink, thus having important feedbacks to climate. A decreased concentration in atmospheric CO2 7000–10 000 yr ago has been linked to variations in peatland C accumulation rates attributed to a warm climate and increased productivity. Yet, this period also corresponds to early stages of peatland development (as peatland was expanding) following retreat of ice sheets and increases in C storage could be associated with wetland evolution via lake filling or following marine shoreline emergence. Unravelling past links amongst peatland dynamics, C storage, and climate will help us assess potential feedbacks from future changes in these systems, but most studies are hampered by low temporal resolution. Here we provide a decadal scale C accumulation record for a fen that has begun transformation from salt marsh within the last 70 yr on the isostatically rebounding coast of James Bay, Québec. We determined time frames for wetland stages using palynological analyses to reconstruct ecological change and 210Pb and 137Cs to date the deposit. The average short-term C accumulation rates during the low and high tidal marsh and incipient fen stage (42, 87 and 182 g C m−2 yr−1, respectively) were as much as six times higher than the global long-term (millennial) average for northern peatlands. We suggest that the atmospheric CO2 flux during the early Holocene could be attributed, in part, to wetland evolution associated with isostatic rebound, which makes land for new wetland formation. Future climate warming will increase eustatic sea level, decrease rates of land emergence and formation of new coastal wetlands, ultimately decreasing rates of C storage of wetlands on rebounding coastlines.
Leakages and pressure relations: an experimental research
Authors: De Paola F. , Giugni M.
Published: July 2012

Abstract. Leaks in water systems are presently a frequent and increasing event that involves cost increase and poor service, not compliant to quality standards and modern management criteria. The most recent data available in Italy, resumed into the report issued by Control Committee for Water Resources Use (CONVIRI), shows leakages with an average value of 37%. It is important, for maintenance perspective, to investigate occurrence and evolution of water leaks and the analytical links between leaks Qp and network pressure P, for a reliable calibration of water networks quali-quantitative simulation models. The present work reports the results of an experimental campaign started at Laboratory of Hydraulic of Department of Hydraulic, Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering of University of Naples Federico II in order to analyze the features of Qp (P) relation, which are compared with principal results issued in literature.
Seasonal forecast of French Mediterranean heavy precipitating events linked to weather regimes
Authors: Guérémy J.-F. , Laanaia N. , Céron J.-P.
Published: July 2012

Abstract. Seasonal predictability of local precipitation is rather weak in the mid-latitudes. This is the case when assessing the skill of the seasonal forecast of Heavy Precipitating Event (HPE) extreme occurrence over the French Mediterranean coast during the fall season. Tropics to extra-tropics teleconnection patterns do appear when averaging analyzed fields over the years characterised by a frequency of HPE occurrence in the upper 17% of the distribution. A methodology taking weather regime occurrence into account as an intermediate step to forecast HPE extreme occurrence is presented. For the period 1960 to 2001 and four different sets of seasonal forecast, the Economical Value is doubled, compared to the score obtained with the simulated local precipitation data, when using a linear model (Linear Discriminant Analysis in this case) taking simulated 200 hPa velocity potential–stream function regime occurrences as predictors. Interestingly, larger scores are shown for this couple of fields over a large-scale domain including the tropics than for the 500 hPa geopotential height over an Euro–Atlantic domain, despite a tighter link of the latter field to the local precipitation.
Employment-at-Will, Employee Rights, and Future Directions for Employment
Authors: Radin Tara J. , Werhane Patricia H.
Published: July 2012

During recent years, the principle and practice of employment-at-will have been under attack. While progress has been made in eroding the practice, the principle still governs the philosophical assumptions underlying employment practices in the United States, and, indeed, EAW has been promulgated as one of the ways to address economic ills in other countries. This paper will briefly review the major critiques of EAW. Given the failure of these arguments to erode the underpinnings of EAW, we shall suggest new avenues for approaching employment issues to achieve the desirable goal of employee dignity and respect.
Managers as Judges in Employee Disputes: An Occasion for Moral Imagination
Authors: Moberg Dennis J.
Published: July 2012

Employee-employee conflicts are common occasions for managerial intervention. In judging such disputes, managers bring to encounters a frame that is not conducive to employee due process. Making managers aware of their legal responsibilities in resolving employee disputes is a poor substitute for managers’ understanding and implementation of their ethical due process obligations. Moreover, moral imagination is necessary in order to counter the effects of the managerial frame that employees are either not worthy of due process protections or that such protections are not a priority.
Debunking Corporate Moral Responsibility
Authors: Velasquez Manuel
Published: July 2012

I address three topics. First, I argue that the issue of corporate moral responsibility is an important one for business ethics. Second, I examine a core argument for the claim that the corporate organization is a separate moral agent and show it is based on an unnoticed but elementary mistake deriving from the fallacy of division. Third, I examine the assumptions collectivists make about what it means to say that organizations act and that they act intentionally and show that these assumptions are mistaken in their failure to understand the nature of intentional causality and of “as-if” intentionality. In exposing these mistakes I set out my own view in the form of two theses, the first of which states that individual members of an organization are always causally responsible for any corporate act, and the second of which states that attributions of intentions to corporations are always either descriptive or prescriptive attributions of “as if” intentionality.
From Accountability to Action to Amplification: Addressing our own Laryngitis
Authors: Hartman Laura P.
Published: July 2012

The following address considers the relevance of business ethics education to our students. Is our concept of ethics one of practice and application? And, if so, are we accountable to our students, our institutions and ourselves, for the practical impact that we have or, conversely, that we do not have? Aren’t we responsible in part if one of our students ventures forth and does not act in an ethical manner? Though a positive response to this query may not be popular, what is the alternative? If we are not responsible for the impact (or lack thereof) that we have on our students, then what is our purpose? The discussion further explores the nature of this impact and the process by which we can amplify the results.
Is There a Special E-Commerce Ethics?
Authors: Kracher Beverly , Corritore Cynthia L.
Published: July 2012

The speed and degree to which e-commerce is infiltrating the very fabric of our society, faster and more pervasively than any other entity in history, makes an examination of its ethical dimensions critical. Though ethical lag has heretofore hindered our explorations of e-commerce ethics, it is now time to identify and confront them. In this paper we define e-commerce and describe the characteristics that set it apart from traditional brick and-mortar business. We then examine the ethical foundation of e-commerce, focusing on the question, “Is there a special e-commerce ethics?” Our answer is “no.” We support our answer by showing that the current issues in e-commerce ethics and brick-and-mortar business are fundamentally the same, but that e-commerce issues have different manifestations and scope. We then demonstrate that ethical principles and rules in e-commerce and brick-and-mortar business are fundamentally the same, but have different manifestations at the most specific level. We elucidate this point by discussing the use of personal information and the opt-in, opt-out debate. We conclude with a call for research on trust, a key value in the success of e-commerce.
Information Requirements and the Characteristics of Sales Situations
Authors: Mooradian Norman
Published: July 2012

The focus of this paper is the ethics of information giving in the context of complex sales. It is argued that, while current theories provide a broad framework for describing the responsibilities of sales agents, they lack adequate descriptions of the conditions characteristic of complex sales situations. Without an adequate model of complex sales, ethical theories will fail to provide guidance to sales agents facing issues that arise from features of sales situations not accounted for in the theories. To motivate this claim, I develop a brief case study in the area of information system sales. The problem can be remedied, however, if the theories take into account the features of complex sales. A tentative list of such features is presented and their relevance to the case is discussed. One of the most important to emerge is the epistemic role of the buyer as the judge of competing information.
Does Type of Wrongdoing Affect the Whistle-Blowing Process?
Authors: Near Janet P. , Rehg Michael T. , Van Scotter James R. , Miceli Marcia P.
Published: July 2012

We analyzed data from a survey of employees of a large military base in order to assess possible differences in the whistle-blowing process due to type of wrongdoing observed. Employees who observed perceived wrongdoing involving mismanagement, sexual harassment, or unspecified legal violations were significantly more likely to report it than were employees who observed stealing, waste, safety problems, or discrimination. Further, type of wrongdoing was significantly related to reasons given by employees who observed wrongdoing but did not report it, across all forms of wrongdoing. However, the primary reason that observers did not report it was that they thought nothing could be done to rectify the situation. Finally, type of wrongdoing was significantly related to the cost of the wrongdoing, the quality of the evidence about the wrongdoing, and the comprehensiveness of retaliation against the whistle-blower. These findings suggest that type of wrongdoing makes a difference in the whistle-blowing process, and it should be examined in future research.
Does the Consumer Have an Obligation to Cooperate with Price Discrimination?
Authors: Rakowski James J.
Published: July 2012

Price discrimination is widespread in the American economy and sometimes can be defended as achieving socially preferable economic outcomes. However, the separation of markets required for price discrimination is often difficult to sustain. Sometimes those whom the seller wishes to charge higher prices are identified by imprecise markers. (Thus, as one example, airlines have traditionally attempted to identify business travelers willing to pay higher fares as those travelers unwilling to stay at their destination over a Saturday night.) Imprecise targeting complicates efforts to prevent strategies of circumvention and sellers sometimes resort to claiming that buyers are morally bound to observe rules which sellers cannot otherwise enforce. This paper examines whether buyers can be morally bound by sellers to put themselves into discriminated-against classes.

This paper takes the position that if, as often seems to be the case, there is a social consensus that consumers would not be morally obliged to sort themselves into categories precisely designed to achieve the goals of price discrimination, then there is, a fortiori, a social consensus that consumers are not morally obliged to sort themselves into categories which are only crudely designed to achieve the goals of price discrimination, and which may in fact be counterproductive.
Ethical Principles vs. Ethical Rules: The Moderating Effect of Moral Development on Audit Independence Judgments
Authors: Herron Terri L. , Gilbertson David L.
Published: July 2012

Recent calls have been made to move professional standards to a more principles-based perspective, supposing that emphasizing broad principles would eliminate the legalistic focus that rules may encourage, and accountants’ behavior would be more ethical and uniformly so. However, this supposition has yet to be empirically tested. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (Code) provides guidance in both forms: principles and rules. This experiment examines how the form of the Code affects independence judgments in a client acceptance context. We also examine the potential for levels of moral development to influence the effectiveness of the Code. We find that subjects are more likely to consider their independence impaired, and are more likely to reject a questionable audit engagement, when rules-based (principles-based) reasoners are provided with Code rules (principles). Given the popularity of the view that rules-based standards are undesirable, these findings have significant implications for the profession as principles-based ethical standards are discussed.
An Investigation of Social Influence: Explaining the Effect of Group Discussion on Consensus in Auditors’ Ethical Reasoning
Authors: Thorne Linda , Massey Dawn W. , Jones Joanne
Published: July 2012

This study introduces Moscovici’s (1976, 1985) model of social influence to the accounting research domain, and uses an experiment to assess whether his theory explains how different types of discussion affects consensus in auditors’ ethical reasoning. Moscovici’s theory proposes three modalities of influence to describe how consensus is achieved following discussion: conformity, innovation, and normalization. Conformity describes the situation where individuals in the minority (e.g., auditors that do not accept the dominant view) accede to the majority (e.g., auditors that hold the dominant view) as a result of group discussion. Innovation describes the situation where individuals in the majority accede to the minority. Normalization describes the situation where there is reciprocal influence.

We find that conformity occurs when auditors are asked to prescriptively discuss what ideally “should” be the resolution to an ethical dilemma. Normalization occurs when auditors are asked to deliberatively discuss what realistically would be the resolution to an ethical dilemma. The results of this study suggest that prescriptive discussion of an ethical dilemma encourages auditor groups to strive to find the best response to a moral dilemma if it is represented by the majority view. In contrast, deliberative discussion of an ethical dilemma may encourage the elimination of multiple viewpoints. The results of this study have important implications for understanding the social influence process that affects auditors’ ethical reasoning.
The Impact of Ethical Development and Cultural Constructs on Auditor Judgments: A Study of Auditors in Taiwan
Authors: Jeffrey Cynthia , Dilla William , Weatherholt Nancy
Published: July 2012

This research examines in a collectivist culture the influence of cognitive moral development, attitudes toward rule-directed behavior, and the perceived importance of codes of conduct and professional standards on auditor judgments about ethical dilemmas. Taiwanese audit professionals were asked to respond to two ethical dilemmas. The first dilemma concerns a situation in which the auditor is asked to acquiesce to a controller’s request to conceal an irregularity. The probability that the auditor’s acquiescence is discovered (i.e., the threat of a sanction) was manipulated in this scenario. The second dilemma involves a case in which the auditor has information that a write-down of obsolete inventory will have a material effect on the earnings of a corporation, and must consider whether or not to inform an individual who is heavily invested in the corporation. The individual’s ingroup status (i.e., whether the individual was a relative or friend of the auditor) was manipulated in this scenario.

Auditors were more likely to agree with violations of ethical standards in the first scenario (concealing a client employee’s irregularity) than in the second (revealing confidential information to parties outside the client). In the first scenario, auditors with lower levels of cognitive moral development were less likely to agree with violations of ethical standards when the threat of a sanction was present, while the judgments of those with higher levels of cognitive moral development were not affected by the presence of sanctions. Contrary to expectations, auditors were more likely to agree with violations of ethical standards when the individual involved was a close friend, rather than a relative. In general, as the perceived importance of rules increased, the propensity to violate the Code of Conduct decreased.
Stakeholder Conceptions of the Corporation: Their Meaning and Influence in Accounting Research
Authors: Roberts Robin W. , Mahoney Lois
Published: July 2012

In this paper we develop a categorization scheme for stakeholder research based on differences in studies’ primary level of analysis (managerial agency, organizational, or societal) and use this scheme to review and critique genres of stakeholder-based accounting research. We draw three primary conclusions: 1) stakeholder research in accounting should more clearly incorporate the business ethics stakeholder literature, 2) ethical issues are much less likely to be considered in stakeholder-based accounting research when a managerial agency level of analysis is adopted, and 3) the accounting discipline can learn from debates within the business ethics literature concerning shareholder dominance and stakeholder legitimacy. These conclusions, taken together, demonstrate the need for accounting researchers to become more focused on ethical considerations in the design of accounting information systems, performance measurement criteria, and financial reporting models.
Introduction: Special Issue on Accounting Ethics
Authors: Gaa James
Published: July 2012

This special issue of Business Ethics Quarterly was organized for two reasons. First, the academic fields of business ethics and accounting ethics have developed without close theoretical or empirical connections. This is the case even though the profession of accounting is an important component of the organizational world. For this reason, it is important to foster attempts to build a bridge between the two fields, so that research in accounting ethics is more closely related to business ethics. Second, the recent deluge of business scandals (primarily, but not only, in the United States) in which financial reporting and auditing were central elements suggests that a special issue on accounting ethics is timely.

The original hope was that the special issue would contain a balance of papers from researchers in “accounting ethics” and those in “business ethics.” In line with the hope that the papers would be responsive to both fields, almost every paper submitted was reviewed by one person who is identified with business ethics and one person who is identified with accounting ethics. As it turns out, most of the papers in this issue were written by people whose academic home is the accounting department. The mix of papers reflects the emphasis in the accounting literature on empirical research on ethical behavior.
The Identification and Categorization of Auditors’ Virtues
Authors: Libby Theresa , Thorne Linda
Published: July 2012

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.
Polishing up the Pinto: Legal Liability, Moral Blame, and Risk
Authors: Danley John R.
Published: July 2012

This paper revisits the Pinto case not merely for the purpose of demythologizing the case, but as an opportunity to examine the broader issue of the logic of blame, the ascription of legal and moral responsibility. Three issues are addressed in the contexts of fault and liability in tort, criminal liability and product liability: 1) To what extent can judgments of moral wrongdoing or blame be inferred from legal judgments? 2) What are the strengths and weaknesses of attempting to model moral arguments upon legal ones? and, 3) What is the nature and role of judgments of risk evaluation in legal and moral judgments?
Humanizing Business: A Modern Virtue Ethics Approach
Authors: Moore Geoff
Published: July 2012

The paper begins by exploring whether a “tendency to avarice” exists in most capitalist business organisations. It concludes that it does and that this is problematic. The problem centres on the potential threat to the integrity of human character and the disablement of community.

What, then, can be done about it? Building on previous work (Moore, 2002) in which MacIntyre’s notions of practice and institution were explored (MacIntyre, 1985), the paper offers a philosophically based argument in favour of the rediscovery of craftsmanship by those who work in business organisations, and the exercise of craftsmanship in community.

The practical implications for individuals of this way of conceptualising business, and the virtues which must then come to the fore, are discussed.
Do CEOS get Paid too much?
Authors: Moriarty Jeffrey
Published: July 2012

In 2003, CEOs of the 365 largest U.S. corporations were paid on average $8 million, 301 times as much as factory workers. This paper asks whether CEOs get paid too much. Appealing to widely recognized moral values, I distinguish three views of justice in wages: the agreement view, the desert view, and the utility view. I argue that, no matter which view is correct, CEOs get paid too much. I conclude by offering two ways CEO pay might be reduced.
A Search for Standards to Monitor Labor Conditions Worldwide - Monitoring International Labor Standards: Techniques and Sources of InformationNational Research Council Washington: National Academies Press, Paperback, 291 pages; ISBN: 0309091349, $43
Authors: Prakash Sethi S.
Published: July 2012

A strong argument can be made that globalization and the unrestricted flow of capital, goods, and services leads to the creation of wealth and prosperity among participating nations. Comparative advantage allows both the industrially advanced nations and developing countries to maximize their gains from trade and investments. The current wave of globalization is not the first, nor is it likely to be the last. There have been waves of globalization in the past: in the United States (1870–1890 and circa 1970), Western Europe (1890–1913 and 1950–1992), and Japan (1913–1938). They all eventually petered out because of their adverse impact on the social infrastructure of the countries involved.
Interactive Effects of External Environmental Conditions and Internal Firm Characteristics on MNEs’ Choice of Strategy in the Development of a Code of Conduct
Authors: Sama Linda M.
Published: July 2012

Effects of globalization have amplified the magnitude and frequency of corporate abuses, particularly in developing economies where weak or absent rules undermine social norms and principles. Improving multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) ethical conduct is a factor of both the ability of firms to change behaviors in the direction of the moral good, and their willingness to do so. Constraints and enablers of a firm’s ability to act ethically emanate from the external environment, including the industry environment of which the firm is a resident, and the host country environment in which it operates. A firm’s willingness to engage in ethical conduct is determined by the effective bundling of internal resources and the commitment of those resources to social ends. The interaction of external and internal conditions carves out categories of expected firm behaviors and suggests interventions that would push these behaviors in a more positive ethical direction. With reference to integrative social contracts theory (ISCT), these categories of firms are examined, and a conceptual model for analysis is developed to explain the drivers of corporate choices in the adoption and implementation of codes of conduct, and the relative power of relevant communities to the process.
Are Codes of Conduct in Global Supply Chains Really Voluntary? From Soft Law Regulation of Labour Relations to Consumer Law
Authors: Sobczak André
Published: July 2012

Labour and employment law no longer has a monopoly on regulating labour relations and is facing a crisis as its effectiveness is questioned. Codes of conduct adopted by companies to recognise their social responsibility for the global supply chain are instruments that can usefully complement labour and employment law. The aim of this paper is to analyse in depth the legal nature of codes of conduct and their impact on labour and employment law. Will the use of codes of conduct reinforce the crisis of labour and employment law in the era of globalisation or will these codes be part of a solution to this crisis? Do we have to consider codes of conduct as competitors to labour and employment law or as an opportunity for rethinking the way that labour and employment law norms should be produced and applied?
Do Firms with Unique Competencies for Rescuing Victims of Human Catastrophes Have Special Obligations? Corporate Responsibility and the Aids Catastrophe in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Dunfee Thomas W.
Published: July 2012

Firms possessing a unique competency to rescue the victims of a human catastrophe have a minimum moral obligation to devote substantial resources toward best efforts to aid the victims. The minimum amount that firms should devote to rescue is the largest sum of their most recent year’s investment in social initiatives, their five-year trend, their industry’s average, or the national average. Financial exigency may justify a lower level of investment. Alternative social investments may be continued if they have an equally compelling rationale. These duties apply to the global pharmaceutical companies in the context of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
Practical Wisdom and Business Ethics
Authors: Moberg Dennis J.
Published: July 2012

Practical wisdom has received scant attention in business ethics. Defined as a disposition toward cleverness in crafting morally excellent responses to, or in anticipation of, challenging particularities, practical wisdom has four psychological components: knowledge, emotion, thinking, and motivation. People's experience, reflection, and inspiration are theorized to determine their capacity for practical wisdom-related performance. Enhanced by their abilities to engage in moral imagination, systems thinking, and ethical reframing, this capacity is realized in the form of wisdom-related performance. This can be manifested either in wise business decisions or through their performance as mentors, advice givers, or dispute handlers.
Lies and Capitalism
Authors: Collins Denis
Published: July 2012

The moral foundation of capitalism holds that the wealth of a nation is enhanced (utilitarianism) by providing individuals with the freedom and liberty to do what comes natural, pursuing their own self-interests (egoism). When alignment between individual interests and general welfare is achieved, even if unintentionally achieved, minimum paternalistic governmental oversight and intervention is needed.
Introduction to the Special Section on Accountability
Authors: Phillips Robert , Berman Shawn L.
Published: July 2012

Accountability, it would seem, is something that everyone would like to see more of. Citizens would like to have a more accountable government; teachers and parents would like to have more accountable students and schools; and clearly, stakeholders and commentators appear to desire more accountable corporations. One of the leading organizations concerned with improving the social and ethical performance of business is called simply, “AccountAbility” (http://www.accountability21.net/). The uniformity of such calls for greater accountability tempts one to see it as an unalloyed benefit to organizational performance and societal advancement.
Flatland, Ethicsland, and Legalland
Authors: Prentice Robert A.
Published: July 2012

John Hasnas's fine article, “Up from Flatland: Business Ethics in the Age of Divergence,” fails in its stated goal of challenging the mainstream business ethics community's methods of analyzing normative issues. However, it achieves what is likely Hasnas's true goal of alerting both business ethicists and managers of the bigger stakes now in play when the federal government indicts employees and seeks their employers’ cooperation in establishing the prosecutor's case. While prosecutorial overreaching is a legitimate concern that deserves to be highlighted, it requires no qualitative change in normative ethical analysis. That analysis now involves different inputs (greater stakes for firms and employees), but continues to involve a familiar but complicated weighing of shareholder interests against employee interests and, sometimes, a weighing of both against the requirements of the law.
Law, Ethics, and Divergent Rhetoric
Authors: Laufer William S.
Published: July 2012

This response to Professor Hasnas recasts the apparent divergence between the legal and ethical obligations of managers in light of the rhetorical claims and counterclaims that accompany the interaction between regulators and the regulated. It is argued that this divergence is more apparent than real, and that the convincing but often empty rhetorical statements that accompany reforms should be seen in context and largely disregarded. This rhetoric is designed to claim integrity, and reclaim legitimacy with the hope that “burdensome” reforms will be minimized.
The World is Flat in the Twenty-First Century: A Response to Hasnas
Authors: Dunfee Thomas W.
Published: July 2012

Hasnas is correct that ethicists should pay attention to law and be on guard for perverse effects from regulation and legal interpretations that may encourage or require unethical behavior. He is not correct that the business ethics literature assumes that law and ethics consistently pull in the same direction. Analysis of the relationship between law and ethics requires nuanced, in-depth treatment. An example is provided regarding the well-known case of United States v. Park. Ultimately, there is a need for more serious consideration of ethical principles and norms in legal policy making and practice.
Corporate Scandals and Spoiled Identities: How Organizations Shift Stigma to Employees
Authors: Warren Danielle E.
Published: July 2012

I apply stigma-management strategies to corporate scandals and expand on past research by (a) describing a particular type of stigma management strategy that involves accepting responsibility while denying it, (b) delineating types of stigma that occur in scandals (demographic versus character), and (c) considering the moral implications of shifting stigmas that arise from scandals. By emphasizing the distinction between character and demographic stigma, I make progress in evaluating the moral implications of shifting different types of stigma.
The Conditions of Our Freedom: Foucault, Organization, and Ethics
Authors: Crane Andrew , Knights David , Starkey Ken
Published: July 2012

The paper examines the contribution of the French philosopher Michel Foucault to the subject of ethics in organizations. The paper combines an analysis of Foucault’s work on discipline and control, with an examination of his later work on the ethical subject and technologies of the self. Our paper argues that the work of the later Foucault provides an important contribution to business ethics theory, practice and pedagogy. We discuss how it offers an alternative avenue to traditional normative ethical theory that both converges and diverges with other extant alternatives. By situating ethics as practices of the self, and by demonstrating the conditions under which freedom in organizations can be exercised, Foucault’s ethics attempt to connect an understanding and critique of power with a personal project of self. He therefore provides a theory of subjectivity that potentially informs a reshaping of contemporary virtue ethics theory, value-based management, and business ethics teaching.
The Private Equity-Leveraged Buyout Form of Finance Capitalism: Ethical and Social Issues, and Potential Reforms
Authors: Nielsen Richard P.
Published: July 2012

This article explains how the private equity-leveraged buyout type of financial institution (PE-LBO) operates as a form of finance capitalism. PE-LBO capitalism is described and compared with other types of capitalism such as family business capitalism, managerial capitalism, and other forms of finance capitalism such as shareholder value capitalism. Ethical and social issues structurally related to the PE-LBO form are analyzed. Potential reforms and/or solutions are considered.
Hedge Fund Ethics
Authors: Donaldson Thomas
Published: July 2012

Hedge funds are targets of mounting ethical criticism. The most salient focuses on their opacity. Hedge funds are structured to block transparency for strategic reasons: that is, they systematically deny information to their own investors and to governments in order to protect their competitive advantage, even though the information they hide holds tremendous significance for the interests of both groups. In this article I will detail the ethical allegations made against hedge funds, showing why their opacity creates intractable conflicts that cannot be resolved through government regulation. Sometimes opacity be regulated away; but with hedge funds I show why it cannot because of “regulatory recalcitrance.” In the end a form of voluntary moral coordination, a form of “microsocial contract” instituted as an industry standard, is required relief. In a word, the solution to hedge fund opacity is ethical.
Organizational Justice and Behavioral Ethics: Promises and Prospects
Authors: Cropanzano Russell , Stein Jordan H.
Published: July 2012

Scholars studying organizational justice have been slow to incorporate insights from behavioral ethics research, despite the fields’ conceptual affinities. We maintain that this stems from differences in the paradigmatic approaches taken by scholars in each area. First, justice research historically has assumed that individuals are motivated by a desire for instrumental control of worthwhile outcomes or by a concern with social status, while behavioral ethics has paid more attention to the role of internalized moral convictions and duties. Second, organizational justice researchers have investigated one set of individual differences, behavioral researchers have examined another. Third, justice scholars focus on social identities while behavioral ethics scholars also investigate moral identities. As an impetus to future inquiry, our review attends to contemporary organizational justice research that takes into account concepts derived from behavioral ethics. In so doing we hope to highlight an avenue for integrative scholarship that will further our understanding of organizational justice.
Does Global Business Have a Responsibility to Promote Just Institutions?
Authors: Hsieh Nien-hê
Published: July 2012

Drawing upon John Rawls's framework inThe Law of Peoples,this paper argues that MNEs have a responsibility to promote well-ordered social and political institutions in host countries that lack them. This responsibility is grounded in a negative duty not to cause harm. In addition to addressing the objection that promoting well-ordered institutions represents unjustified interference by MNEs, the paper provides guidance for managers of MNEs operating in host countries that lack just institutions. The paper argues for understanding corporate responsibility in relation to the specific institutional environment in which MNEs operate.
What's the Matter with Price Gouging?
Authors: Snyder Jeremy
Published: July 2012

When prices for basic commodities increase following a disaster, these price increases are often condemned as 'price gouging.’ In this paper, I discuss what moral wrongs, if any, are most reasonably ascribed to accusations of price gouging. This discussion keeps in mind both practical and moral defenses of price increase following disasters. I first examine existing anti-gouging legislation for commonalities in their definitions of gouging and then present arguments in favor of the permissibility of gouging, focusing on the economic benefits of price increases following disasters. I argue that gouging takes the form of a specific failure of respect for persons by undercutting equitable access to essential goods. While I discuss anti-gouging legislation throughout this paper, my aim is to give an account of the moral wrongs associated with gouging rather than guidance for developing morally defensible anti-gouging legislation.
Dialogue on Price Gouging: Price Gouging, Non-Worseness, and Distributive Justice
Authors: Zwolinski Matt
Published: July 2012

This commentary develops my position on the ethics of price gouging in response to Jeremy Snyder's article, “What's the Matter with Price Gouging.” First, it explains how the “nonworseness claim” supports the moral permissibility of price gouging, even if it does not show that price gougers are morally virtuous agents. Second, it argues that questions about price gouging and distributive justice must be answered in light of the relevant possible institutional alternatives, and that Snyder's proposed alternatives to price gouging fare worse on the dimension of justice than a system in which goods are allocated by a system of market prices.
Efficiency, Equity, and Price Gouging: A Response to Zwolinski
Authors: Snyder Jeremy
Published: July 2012

In this response, I reiterate my argument that price gouging undercuts the goal of equity in access to essential goods whereas Zwolinski emphasizes the importance of the efficient provision of essential goods above all other goals. I agree that the efficient provision of essential goods is important as I argue for the goal of equitable access to sufficient of the goods essential to living a minimally flourishing human life. However, efficiency is a means to this goal rather than the end itself. Finally, I offer additional arguments against the non-worseness claim.
From Hired Hands to Co-Owners: Compensation, Team Production, and the Role of the CEO
Authors: Boatright John R.
Published: July 2012

In the 1990s, the role of the chief executive officer (CEO) of major United States corporations underwent a profound transformation in which CEOs went from being bureaucrats or technocrats to shareholder partisans who acted more like proprietors or entrepreneurs. This transformation occurred in response to changes in the competitive environment of U.S. corporations and also to the agency theory argument that high levels of compensation by means of stock options helped to overcome the agency problem inherent in the separation of ownership and control. Some critics charge that this new CEO role is objectionable for a variety of reasons, which may also be applicable to the current financial crisis in which CEO misconduct may have played a part. These objections are based largely on a team production model of corporate governance, which is held by these critics to be superior to the standard agent-principal model. This article examines the objections offered by critics of the changed role of the CEO and argues that their negative assessment of this development and their use of the team production model to support their conclusions are not warranted. CEOs have changed from hired hands to co-owners, and this change may have contributed in some measure to the current financial crisis. However, in determining the morally preferable role of the CEO, care must be taken not to discard what is sound in the changed role.
Evolutionary Psychology and Business Ethics Research
Authors: Wasieleski David M. , Hayibor Sefa
Published: July 2012

In this article, we describe evolutionary psychology and its potential contribution to business ethics research. After summarizing evolutionary theory and natural selection, we specifically address the use of evolutionary concepts in psychology in order to offer alternative explanations of behavior relevant to business ethics, such as social exchange, cooperation, altruism, and reciprocity. Our position is that individuals, groups, and organizations all are affected by similar natural, evolutionary processes, such that evolutionary psychology is applicable at multiple levels of analysis (e.g., individual and group). We introduce a variety of experiments and instruments employed by evolutionary psychologists to illustrate how ethics-relevant cultural norms and practices evolve and are regulated, and to raise the prospect that these experiments and instruments can be useful in future business ethics research.
Concise Review: Clinical Prospects for Treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with Regenerative Approaches
Authors: Kubo Hiroshi
Published: July 2012

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is becoming a major cause of death worldwide. COPD is characterized by a progressive and not fully reversible airflow limitation caused by chronic small airway disease and lung parenchymal destruction. Clinically available drugs improve airflow obstruction and respiratory symptoms but cannot cure the disease. Slowing the progressive lung destruction or rebuilding the destroyed lung structure is a promising strategy to cure COPD. In contrast to small animal models, pharmacological lung regeneration is difficult in human COPD. Maturation, aging, and senescence in COPD lung cells, including endogenous stem cells, may affect the regenerative capacity following pharmacological therapy. The lung is a complex organ composed of more than 40 different cell types; therefore, detailed analyses, such as epigenetic modification analysis, in each specific cell type have not been performed in lungs with COPD. Recently, a method for the direct isolation of individual cell types from human lung has been developed, and fingerprints of each cell type in COPD lungs can be analyzed. Research using this technique combined with the recently discovered lung endogenous stem-progenitor populations will give a better understanding about the fate of COPD lung cells and provide a future for cell-based therapy to treat this intractable disease.
Best Practices Cleaning Mains: Clean, Pig, or Dig?
Authors: Friedman Melinda , Lakin Brian , Moore Randy
Published: July 2012

Based on a series of AWWA webcasts, this article is the second of three on important distribution system issues. This article details best practices for cleaning water mains, as regular main cleaning can help extend distribution system service life. Last month's article focused on storage tank operations and maintenance. The final article will provide operations and maintenance options for complying with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule.
Commissioning Process Ensures Security System Performance
Authors: Mix Nelson , Pickard Brian , Gist Forest , Siczka John
Published: July 2012

When utilities discover that sophisticated security systems don't operate as expected, those systems are often abandoned. Proper commissioning of a security system can eliminate this situation.
Control Nitrification With Online Monitoring
Authors: Cook John B. , Roehl Edwin A. , Daamen Ruby C.
Published: July 2012

Historically, distribution system water quality monitoring was limited to regulatory compliance. The need for more comprehensive monitoring is now well known. This article discusses how online, real‐time monitoring provides early detection and a key to controlling the spread and severity of nitrification.