Cosmopolitan Business Ethics Towards a Global Ethos of Management Finance, Governance and Sustainability Series

In Cosmopolitan Business Ethics: Towards a Global Ethos of Management, Jacob Dahl Rendtorff maps the concept of global business ethics, related to sustainability and corporate governance, via an examination of the major theories of business ethics and the philosophy of management.

The book is based on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the European tradition, which is applied as the foundation for the analysis of the contemporary European and Anglo-American debate on business ethics in order to formulate an up-to-date theory of global business ethics. The book will compare the different schools of business ethics, corporate citizenship, and the philosophy of management and will address the modern-day issues of sustainability, business and human rights, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management, and corporate governance, offering insights on how to deal with these international challenges of global economics, the development and protection of human rights, and the environment.

This book proposes a decision-making model for cosmopolitan business ethics as the foundation of management and leadership in dealing with the complexities of globalization. The case studies will address the efforts of businesses to work with global and cosmopolitan business ethics at the levels of maintaining corporate integrity. Both the theoretical argument and case studies presented in the book are based on exchanges with notable business ethicists, philosophers of management, business managers, and public policy-makers.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Themes for cosmopolitan business ethics

Cosmopolitan business ethics as future management science

CHAPTER 1. What is cosmopolitan business ethics?

Business ethics in private and public organizations

Cosmopolitan business ethics and creation of trust

Focus on global social responsibility

Social responsibility in Scandinavia: The inclusive labor market

Business ethics in practice

Business ethics in organization and management

Is business ethics profitable?

The purpose of the programs for ethics and values-driven leadership

CHAPTER 2. Business Ethics in the age of globalization

Ethics and globalization of the market economy

Neoliberalism, competition states, and globalization

Strengths and weaknesses of globalization

Social responsibility as risk management

Values and globalization

International codes of ethics and codes of conduct

International business ethics as a first dimension of cosmopolitan business ethics

Caux Round Table Principles: Guidelines for global ethics

CHAPTER 3. What are values?

Values in the late modern society

Business Ethics in experience society

Values in business organizations

Values-driven management as a strategic management communication

Values and values-driven management

Requirements for an ethical culture in the organization

Values-driven leadership, ethics, and organization theory

Code of conduct for leadership in the public sector

Organization, perceptions, values, and ethics

Different theoretical approaches to values-driven management

CHAPTER 4 Values-driven management in practice

Values-driven leadership as change management

Case 1: Novozymes

Ethics and bioethics in biotechnology companies

Case 2: Aalborg Municipality

Case 3: Lockheed Martin

Criticism of values-driven management

CHAPTER 5 Theories and principles of business ethics

A new business understanding?

Corporate ethics and institutional theory

Institutional theory and business ethics

Existentialist basis for corporate ethics

The classical theories of business ethics

Utilitarianism and consequentialism

Duty Ethics and contract theory

Virtue ethics and communitarianism

Republican business ethics and ethical principles

The ethical principles

Judgment and moral thinking in management

Ethics and economics. What is the connection?

CHAPTER 6 Historical foundations of cosmopolitan business ethics

How was cosmopolitanism defined historically?

From historical cosmopolitanism to Kantian cosmopolitanism

Stoic philosophy and the origins of cosmopolitanism

CHAPTER 7 The citizen of the world and education of humanity for world citizenship

The concept of the citizen of the world

The history of the world citizen in the framework of the history of cosmopolitanism

Modern cosmopolitanism

Educational philosophy as philosophical hermeneutics

Educational philosophy as based on mimesis

Cosmopolitanism as political philosophy

CHAPTER 8 Responsibility, ethical economy, and order ethics in globalization

European schools of business ehics and philosophy of mnagement

The ethics of responsibility

Ethics and economics or ethical economy: A framework for business ethics

The definition of the ethical economy

Order ethics and framework conditions

Order ethics and the problem of globalization

CHAPTER 9 Republicanism, integrative economic ethics, and global governance

Republican business ethics and corporate citizenship

Philosophical foundations: Constructivism and republican business ethics

Integrative economic ethics

Basic income for all and integrative business ethics

Governance ethics and values-driven management

Governance ethics in practical business life

Global business ethics

Critical theory of economic markets

Cosmopolitan business ethics: Global ethos and corporate citizenship

CHAPTER 10 What is corporate social responsibility?

Corporate social responsibility

The company's four responsibilities

Overlapping CSR between economics, law, and ethics/philanthropy

Criticism of corporate social responsibility

Arguments for and against social responsibility

The case for CSR

Arguments against CSR

Is the company a moral person?

Values-driven management and the company's collective decision-making structure

CHAPTER 11 Sustainability, social responsibility, and corporate governance

Sustainability and responsibility

Sustainability and the triple bottom line

Kofi Annan’s Global Compact principles

Business and the 17 UN development goals

Ethics and values-driven management in the US

Seven formal requirements for ethics and compliance programs according to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines

Main features of the Sarbanes–Oxley legislation

Ethics and values-driven management in Europe

Corporate governance based on corporate social responsibility

From ethics and responsibility to corporate governance

Corporate governance in a small EU country

CHAPTER 12 Business ethics as stakeholder management

The stakeholder model

The socially responsible business

Dimensions of stakeholder theory

Definitions of the term stakeholder

Stakeholder management and fairness

Social responsibility of some Danish companies as cosmopolitan global actors

CHAPTER 13 Shareholders, management, and employees

Finance ethics

The company's finance and ethics

Ethical investments

Should large companies have an ethics employee?

Management with integrity

Integrity, judgment, and ethics

Corporate ethics and ethical formulation competence

Employee ethics

The banality of evil in organizations

CHAPTER 14 Consumers, public relations, and ethical accounting reports

Consumer ethics

Marketing and ethics

The company and the local community

Public relations and legitimacy

Managing legitimacy and the public sphere

Construction of public relations in different companies

Ethical accounting and sustainability reports

Ethical accounting as a strategic management tool

CHAPTER 15 Cosmopolitanism, religion, and legitimacy

Protestant ethics and business

Protestant ethics and secularization

The religion of the economy

Economic existentialism

Towards new legitimation forms

Cynical approaches to business ethics and corporate social responsibility

CHAPTER 16 Cosmopolitan business ethics as global corporate citizenship

Cosmopolitan business ethics and civil society

Human rights and universal ethical guidelines for multinational corporations

Corporate citizenship as global cosmopolitan citizenship

CHAPTER 17 Decision-making model for cosmopolitan business ethics

Dimensions of a model for decision-making

Phenomenological and critical hermeneutical analysis

Analysis from the perspective of the different ethical theories

Analysis from the perspective of the ethical principles

Analysis with values, codes of conduct, and compliance programs

Decisions, decision-making, and evaluation

CHAPTER 18 Strategy for cosmopolitan business ethics

The basis of the company's strategy for ethics

Social responsibility as a practical strategy

Corporate governance and stakeholder management

Basic ethical principles in values-driven management

Bibliography

Index

Jacob Dahl Rendtorff is Senior Associate Professor of Responsibility, Ethics and Legitimacy of Corporations at the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University, Denmark. Rendtorff is Member of the Executive Committee of EBEN (European Business Ethics Network), a Member of the Academy of Management, and European Editor of the Journal of Business Ethics Education. He has been a visiting professor at universities in Europe and the United States and has published several books.