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  Ethical Code in the Public Accounting Professions

  Jamnik, Anton (Center for International Business Ethics, 2011)

  "The American Heritage Dictionary defines profession as "the body of qualified persons in an occupation or field." A major characteristic of a "qualified person" is the specialized knowledge of the profession: medical knowledge for medical doctors, accounting knowledge for certified public accountants (CPAs). Professionals have an ethical responsibility to have acquired the specialized knowledge before offering their professional services. Professionals are also expected to keep abreast of the knowledge enhancements through continuing professional education. Another characteristic of professionals is that they possess the mental attitude of serving the public with the best of their ability so as to earn the public trust. How does a profession enforce these ethical responsibilities? It should be achieved by self-monitoring, supported by a viable code of conduct. In fact, the existence of a code of professional conduct is considered a hallmark of any profession."
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  Open Letter from Thomas A. Myers to Occupy Wall Street

  Myers, Thomas A. (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  I am offering this letter of support to all of you who have contributed so selflessly to the Occupy Wall Street ("OWS") movement. You are steadfast examples of the fortitude and conviction that represents the quintessential American dedication to what is right, what is just, and what is fair. Such commitment stems from well before the time of the famous New England activist and brilliant philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, who in 1849 asserted in his celebrated essay on civil disobedience: "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for what is right."
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  Exposing “The Perfect Crime”: Thomas A. Myers’ Open Letter to the Occupy Wall Street (Ows) Movement

  McCann, Dennis P. (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  The Journal of International Business Ethics (JIBE) is proud to publish this open letter from Thomas A. Myers, the principal of one the USA‟s top firms specializing in forensic accounting.
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  Book Review

  Jacques, Martin (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  “When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order” is the provocative the title of Martin Jacques’ assessment of China’s future role as the dominant global power. For more than a decade Jacques was editor of “Marxism Today” -having first transformed it from an obscure ideological organ of the Marxist Left into a broad platform for wide ranging political and social debate. Not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union “Marxism Today” was also wound up and Jacques went on to become deputy editor of The Independent, an engaging newspaper columnist and author.
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  Ethical Numbness: Some Glimpses of Lawyers Across Asia and The South Pacific

  O’Brien, Roderick (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  Business and professional schools often include ethics instruction, and graduating students are often idealistic about their ethics. But this can change to ethical numbness. The paper examines five causes of ethical numbness among lawyers in the Asia and South Pacific region. How can we counteract this numbness, and maintain a strong sense of ethics among legal professionals? The paper identifies five strategies which are employed across the region to maintain the early ideals. (The paper was presented at the Eighth Annual International Business Ethics Conference; “Rule of Law and International Business Ethics Conference”; 21-22 October 2011: University of International Business and Economics, Beijing.)
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  Development For the People By the People

  Krug, Barbara (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  The business ethics which we find in firms, implemented by managers and facilitated by formal economic institutions is socially embedded in the general perception of what economic development stands for. A country where monetary rewards get allocated to those who produce increasing market shares of their firms, and where social reputation is linked to conspicuous consumption as for example the US (or China?) follows another development path than, let‟s say the Netherland in the 16th century where prudency in management, modesty in consumption and long-term wealth accumulation led to the “Embarrassment of Riches” (Schama, 1987). This paper is to examine the concept of development and happiness for a better social and economic progress.
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  Human Rights And Corporations

  Gan, Shaoping (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  China is undergoing a great change from a traditional society based onobligations to a modern society based on rights. In modern society human rights are basicbehavior codes and values needed, and everyone’s rights should be respected, which is afundamental principle to the whole society, individuals and corporations. Therefore,corporation respecting human rights have become a national legal requirement withmandatory. The company that respects human rights could ride the trend of socialexpectations and earn inestimable business profits. In other words, corporation should notonly focus on short-term profits but also commit itself to assure all the others’ interestsrespected, in this way, maximum profits could be reached in the long term.
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  Ethics and Economics: How Can They Be Integrated Into Good Business Decision-Making? An Eastern European Perspective

  Jamnik, Anton (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  Can there be any doubt nowadays that business ethics is of extreme importance? The economic crisis in the entire world, as well as in Europe, where its impact has been especially acute, prompts us to reconsider the relation between material possessions (wealth) and man. Based on what has actually happened, it is evident that man has become enslaved to material goods, when in fact the opposite should have happened. However, to avoid empty moralising, the problem does not lie in contesting a person’s right to personal possession, which was clearly defined by John Locke (and many great thinkers before him). The real problem arises when personal possessions take over man’s freedom and his dignity, when man is overwhelmed by greed, gluttony, and arrogance, when he is confident of being the centre of the world with his economic power. This article will analyze the extent situation and hope to stimulate personal reflection in the field of business ethics, as well as on the level of personal relationships in our society, in Europe and throughout world.
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  Correlates of Ethical intentions: A Critical Review of Empirical Literature and Suggestion for Future Research

  Rajeev, Priya Nair (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2012)

  Research efforts have continually been focused on the triggers behind (un)/ethical conduct and the cognitive processes individuals use while evaluating dilemmas in order to ascertain why individuals behave unethically in workplaces. These efforts have mainly focused on examining individual characteristics (“bad apples”), moral issues (“bad cases”), and the organizational environment (“bad barrel”) as antecedents of unethical choices (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010). In an attempt to comprehend the complexities of ethical decision-making, this paper reviews literature on a few key constructs used in explaining ethical decision-making, its various antecedents and consequents. Three categories of factors are looked at: individual antecedents, organizational context and the influence of the external environment on ethical intentions for the purpose of developing a coherent and integrated portrait of work done and identifying directions for further research.
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  Book Review

  Thiam, Low Siew (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  This is a singular book that only Dr. Henry Kissinger could have written. Dr. Kissinger titled the firstchapter of his book “On China”, “The Singularity of China” to contrast this “civilisational state” (in thewords of Martin Jacques, author of “When China Rules the World”) with American claim to“exceptionalism”. This is the belief that as the US was founded on democratic values, such as freedom and individual rights, it had the duty to proselytize these values to all of mankind. What makes this book so singular in the view of this reviewer, is that the author provides at least fourperspectives on US-China differences. These may have been written up by others separately, but only theinimitable Kissinger could have put together so cogently. Collectively, they make a powerful case for theneed to develop a foundation of trust and to build bridges of understanding between erstwhile opponents such as the US and China which are surrogates for the different ideas that spring from the Socratic andConfucian traditions.
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  Book Review

  Hou, Shengtian (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  Competition exists everywhere in business as well as in our daily life. The positive value of competition by which millions of people live their daily occupations is recognized as a latent energy lies at the heart of many economies of the world. Competition is a powerful driver of responsibility, and many other workers of regulated industries, monopolies and public administration, or government are less accountable to positive social or economic forces. However, Paolo D‘Anselmi indicated that tapping the energy of competition is a difficult task. In fact, competition is quite often preceded by a ―cut-throat‖, hence cut-throat competition. Thus economic units subject to competition fail to bring that value to bear in the social and political arena and thus fail to turn their weakness – being subject to competition - into an opportunity.
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  The I Ching: An Ancient Chinese Handbook Suitable for Achieving Corporate Responsibility

  Young, Stephen B. (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  Use of the I Ching as a guide to business social responsibility can be recommended. Roughly speaking, the I Ching presents 64 states of yin and yang intermingled in different combinations of each. One state is pure yang; another ispure yin. The 62 other states have some part yang and some part yin; some have moreyang, and others more yin. Each combination of yin and yang is a movement of theTao, or the Way of Heaven. Human ingenuity cannot master the Tao by suborning itto human purposes, but must instead align with the Tao to experience success in thephysical world. Business seeks such success in the physical world because it workswith tangible things – such as raw materials – and produces material wealth. Business is, therefore, especially sensitive to movements in the Tao. Free markets can also besaid to follow movements in the Tao. Such markets are not pre-determined, but flow from the ebbs and flows of human desires and efforts. Prices, for example, are not setin free markets by willful organizers, but result from interactions of different andindependent orientations towards needs, desires, wants and values.
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  Personal Values, Behavior and Conflict Resolution Styles: A Study of Contemporary Mainland Chinese business Students

  Bowlby, Ken; McDermott, E. Patrick; Obar, Ruth (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  This article presents analysis from surveying 766 Chinese students over six years, 2005 to 2010. All data were derived from self-assessment questionnaires on four measurements: personal values, Machiavellianism, conflict resolution approaches and leadership beliefs. We report that Confucian values for family and social (―guanxi‖) relationships remain entrenched, and see low levels of commitment to ―community‖, defined as those outside the spheres of family and social relationships. We note that Chinese students displaying higher levels of Machiavellianism also place less emphasis on all personal values measured, except financial success. We see an equally strong, but direct relationship, between Theory Y proponents and all personal values except financial; however, Theory X beliefs do not appear significantly correlated with personal values. Finally, we note significant male/female differences on Machiavellianism levels and a compromising approach to conflict resolution, yet on only two personal value measures: family and physical pursuits.
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  Capitalism's Global Financial Crisis: Re-visiting the State and Industrial Policy

  Chong, Ju Choi; Berger, Ron (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  The bankruptcy and merger of three major American investment banks, Bear Stearns, Lehmann Brothers, and Merrill Lynch, in 2008 have shocked the United States government to undertake dramatic market intervention and a $700 billion U.S. dollar bailout that resembles ―industrial policy‖ in many other countries. Many global policymakers have discussed the end of laissez faire capitalism in the 21st century; others will blame investment bankers and financial institutions for their greed and lack of ethics as the root causes of the first global financial crisis of the 21st century. Critics of market intervention, often called industrial policy in many countries, point out to two potential weaknesses: governments may have less knowledge than markets on how to pick winners, and industrial policy creates possibilities of corruption and rent seeking. Our conceptual paper introduces the idea that industrial policy helps to overcome three key aspects of ―institutional infrastructure‖ in all countries of the world. These three institutional infrastructures are financial, knowledge, and physical.
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  Heads I Win, Tails You Loose

  Purcell, Noel (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  Executive compensation and incentives systems have been shown to be dysfunctional, misaligned and short-sighted. Greed and narrow self-interest have thrived, and risk and stewardship have been too often ignored. Added to this, the enormous disparities in remuneration levels between top executive pay levels and average wages is raising serious questions about equity and fairness that poses material risks to corporations. Reform of executive compensation is essential and if blunt and problematic regulation is to be avoided it needs to be led by boards. In the reform process, boards need to embrace responsible stewardship, enlightened governance, and sound risk management in reining in the excesses and realigning the incentives. In particular, incentives need to be restructured to better align executive behaviors with long-term value creation and to remove pressures and temptations on executives to pursue narrow self-interests.
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  Ignatian Spirituality & Management a Study of "Ignatian Executives"

  Lecourt, Virginie; Pauchant, Thierry C. (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  We describe the results of a first empirical study conducted on the relationships existing between the fact that executives experienced St. Ignatius of Loyola‘s Spiritual Exercises and their managerial practices. Based on in-depth interviews of 20 senior managers and top executives who have practiced the Ignatian Spirituality for many years, we describe six general categories where these relationships appear to be the most important: Decision-making, Human Resource management, the organizational mission, social responsibility, career development, and the meaning of work. These results demonstrate that their leadership attitudes are influenced by discreet spiritual values. These values influence the organizations.
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  Growth Through Financial Inclusion in India

  Bihari, Suresh Chandra (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  Financial inclusion is the ease of access, availability and use of the formal financial system by all members of the economy. The growing literature on financial inclusion has provided plenty of evidence of the merits of an inclusive financial system. However, we notice an absence of a comprehensive measure that can be used to measure the extent of financial inclusion in an economy. This study is an attempt to fill this gap, and, thus, make an original contribution. We propose an index of financial inclusion (IFI) following a multidimensional approach. The IFI developed here can be used to compare levels of financial inclusion across economies at a particular point of time. It can also be used to monitor the progress of policy initiatives for financial inclusion over a period of time. And, most important, such an index can be of interest to the research community in order to investigate empirical questions on relationship between development and financial inclusion. The IFI developed here incorporates information on various dimensions of an inclusive financial system, and it is easy to compute. The promotion of an inclusive financial system is considered a policy priority in many countries. While the importance of financial inclusion is widely recognized, literature fails to offer a comprehensive measure to measure the extent of financial inclusion across economies. This study attempts to fill this gap by proposing an index of financial inclusion (IFI). The IFI is a multi-dimensional index that captures information on various dimensions of financial inclusion in one single digit between 0 and 1, where 0 denotes complete financial exclusion and 1 indicates complete financial inclusion in an economy. The proposed index is easy to compute and is comparable across countries.
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  Ethical Code in the Public Accounting Profession

  Jamnik, Anton (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  The American Heritage Dictionary defines profession as "the body of qualified persons in an occupation or field." A major characteristic of a "qualified person" is the specialized knowledge of the profession: medical knowledge for medical doctors, accounting knowledge for certified public accountants (CPAs). Professionals have an ethical responsibility to have acquired the specialized knowledge before offering their professional services. Professionals are also expected to keep abreast of the knowledge enhancements through continuing professional education. Another characteristic of professionals is that they possess the mental attitude of serving the public with the best of their ability so as to earn the public trustHow does a profession enforce these ethical responsibilities? It should be achieved by self-monitoring, supported by a viable code of conduct. In fact, the existence of a code of professional conduct is considered a hallmark of any profession.
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  Achieving Social License To Operate Using Stakeholder Theory

  Wilburn, Kathleen M.; Wilburn, Ralph (The American Scholars Press, Inc, 2011)

  The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is gaining support in the global business environment. Some companies are adopting a model, the Social License to Operate (SLO), as part of their CSR strategy. This paper provides background on the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility and Social License to Operate with examples supporting the business case for them. It proposes a process based on stakeholder theory for identifying and classifying stakeholders that divides stakeholders into two groups: vested and non-vested. Vested stakeholder groups have a vote in the awarding of a social license to operate, while non-vested stakeholder groups have only a voice. By using a process based on alignment of the norms and values of the company, and the stakeholder groups, social licenses to operate can be negotiated that can allow a company to succeed in different countries and cultures.
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  Book Review

  D'Anselmi, Paolo (American Scholars Press, 2011-03)

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