Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 1999"

Consumer Value: A Framework for Analysis and Research

Abstract: As shoppers, what factors influence our decision to purchase an object or service? Why do we chose one product over another? How do we attribute value as part of the shopping experience? The theme of 'serving' the customer and customer satisfaction is central to every formulation of the marketing concept, yet few books attenpt to define and analyse exactly what it is that consumers want In this provocative collection of essays, Morris Holbrook brings together a team of the top US and European scholars to discuss an issue of great importance to the study of marketing and consumer behaviour This ground-breaking, interdisciplinary book provides an innovative framework for the study of consumer value which is used to critically examine the nature and type of value that consumers derive from the consumption experience - effiency, excellence, status, esteem, play, aesthetics, ethics, spirituality Guaranteed to provoke debate and controversy, this is a courageous, individualistic and idiosyncratic book which should appeal to students of marketing, consumer behaviour, cultural studies and consumption studies

Rethinking the value of choice: a cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation.

Abstract: Conventional wisdom and decades of psychological research have linked the provision of choice to increased levels of intrinsic motivation, greater persistence, better performance, and higher satisfaction. This investigation examined the relevance and limitations of these findings for cultures in which individuals possess more interdependent models of the self. In 2 studies, personal choice generally enhanced motivation more for American independent selves than for Asian interdependent selves. In addition, Anglo American children showed less intrinsic motivation when choices were made for them by others than when they made their own choices, whether the others were authority figures or peers. In contrast, Asian American children proved most intrinsically motivated when choices were made for them by trusted authority figures or peers. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Value co-production: intellectual origins and implications for practice and research

Abstract: This paper surveys the history of an alternative view of value creation to that associated with industrial production. It argues that technical breakthroughs and social innovations in actual value creation render the alternative - a value co-production framework - ever more pertinent. The paper examines some of the implications of adopting this framework to describe and understand business opportunity, management, and organizational practices. In the process, it reviews the research opportunities a value co-production framework opens up.

Sq - Spiritual Intelligence: The Ultimate Intelligence

Abstract: At the beginning of the twentieth century, as psychologists discovered ways and means to measure intelligence, Aristotle's definition of man as "a rational animal" developed into an obsession with IQ. In the mid-1990s, Daniel Goleman popularized research into emotional intelligence, EQ, pointing out that EQ is a basic requirement for the appropriate use of IQ. There is enough collective evidence from psychology, neurology, anthropology and cognitiv science to hsow us that there is a third "Q", "SQ" or Spiritual Intelligence. Unlike IQ, which computers have and EQ which exists in higher mammals, SQ is uniquely human and, the author argues, the most fundamental of the three. It is linked to humanity's need for meaning, an issue very much at the forefront of people's minds as the century draws to a close. SQ is what we use to develop our longing and capacity for meaning, vision and value. It allows us to dream and to strive.

Kant's ethical thought

Abstract: This is a major new study of Kant's ethics that will transform the way students and scholars approach the subject in future. Allen Wood argues that Kant's ethical vision is grounded in the idea of the dignity of the rational nature of every human being. Undergoing both natural competitiveness and social antagonism the human species, according to Kant, develops the rational capacity to struggle against its impulses towards a human community in which the ends of all are to harmonize and coincide. The distinctive features of the book are twofold. First, it focuses for the first time on the central role played in Kant's ethical theory by the value of rational nature as an end itself. Second, it shows the importance of Kant's systematic theory of human nature and history, and its implications for the structure, formulation, and application of Kant's moral principles. This comprehensive study will be of critical importance to students of moral philosophy, the history of ideas, political theory, and religious studies.

Social identification effects in social dilemmas : a transformation of motives

Abstract: Three experimental studies were conducted to examine two alternative explanations for the widely established positive eAect of social identification in promoting cooperation in social dilemmas. We hypothesised that social identification eAects could be either ascribed to (1) an increase in the value assigned to the collective good (i.e. goaltransformation hypothesis) or (2) an enhancement of trust in the cooperation of other group members (i.e. goal-amplification hypothesis). To disentangle these two explanations, we examined the eAects of social identification on the contributions to a public good of people with a diAerent social value orientation (i.e. pre-existing diAerences in preferred outcome distribution between self and others). Following the goal transformation hypothesis, we predicted that an increased group identification would raise contributions, in particular for people essentially concerned with their personal welfare (i.e. pro-self value orientation). Alternatively, following the goal amplification hypothesis it was expected that increased group identification would primarily aAect decisions of people concerned with the collective welfare (i.e. prosocial value orientation). The results of all three studies provided support for the goal-transformation rather than goal-amplification hypothesis, suggesting that ‘selfish’ individuals can be encouraged to cooperate by increasing the salience of their group membership. Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Autonomous agents : from self-control to autonomy

Abstract: Autonomous Agents addresses the related topics of self-control and individual autonomy. "Self-control" is defined as the opposite of akrasia-weakness of will. The study of self-control seeks to understand the concept of its own terms, followed by an examination of its bearing on one's actions, beliefs, emotions, and personal values. It goes on to consider how a proper understanding of self-control and its manifestations can shed light on personal autonomy and autonomous behaviour. Perspicuous, objective, and incisive throughout, Alfred Mele makes a convincing case for the value of individual autonomy.

The Human Relationship with Nature: Development and Culture

Abstract: Urgent environmental problems call for vigorous research and theory on how humans develop a relationship with nature. In a series of original research projects, Peter Kahn answers this call. For the past eight years, Kahn has studied children, young adults, and parents in diverse geographical locations, ranging from an economically impoverished black community in Houston to a remote village in the Brazilian Amazon. In these studies Kahn seeks answers to the following questions: How do people value nature, and how do they reason morally about environmental degradation? Do children have a deep connection to the natural world that gets severed by modern society? Or do such connections emerge, if at all, later in life, with increased cognitive and moral maturity? How does culture affect environmental commitments and sensibilities? Are there universal features in the human relationship with nature? Kahn's empirical and theoretical findings draw on current work in psychology, biology, environmental behavior, education, policy, and moral development. This scholarly yet accessible book will be of value to practitioners in the social science and environmental fields, as well as to informed generalists interested in environmental issues and children.

Ecological behavior, environmental attitude, and feelings of responsibility for the environment

Abstract: Given their definition of subjective norms, rational-choice theories must be located within the realm of social conventionality. However, subjective norms can be grounded in moral as well as conventional considerations. Not surprisingly, then, rational-choice theories insufficiently explain behaviors that are at least partially moral, such as ecological behavior. The present paper establishes an expanded rational-choice model of environmental attitude that extends into the moral domain by using feelings of personal obligation toward the environment (i. e., feelings of responsibility) as an additional predictor of intentions to behave ecologically. Findings from two studies are presented. In Study 1 a sample of Swiss adults (N = 436) was used to test the proposed model. Study 2 replicates the findings of Study 1 with a sample of California college students (N = 488). Assessments were carried out in a structural equation modeling framework. Environmental knowledge, environmental values, and responsibility f...

Values in Evaluation and Social Research

Abstract: Introduction The Problem of Values PART ONE: VALUE CLAIMS Facts and Values Evaluative Reasoning PART TWO: CRITIQUES OF OTHER VIEWS The Received View The Radical Constructivist View The Postmodern View PART THREE: DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRATIC EVALUATION The Deliberative Democratic View Good Practice Conclusion The Role of Evaluation in Society

Quantifying the Black Economy: ‘measurement Without Theory’ Yet Again?

Abstract: I shall argue that 'measurement without theory' is a fair description of the published empirical work aimed at guestimating the size of the 'hidden' or 'black economy'.' I shall also argue that a mere guestimate of the overall size of the black economy is of limited value for the policy maker; it is also important to know who is doing what, where, how and why. Then we can see what should and/or can be done about legislating for or against the black economy. In assessing the various attempts to measure the size of the black economy, one should also be aware of a political dimension to some of this work. Perhaps a large and growing black economy is an indication that the economy is overtaxed and over-regulated and a neo-liberal adjustment is needed to free it up? If a large part of the black economy is social security fraud, then maybe unemployment is not really as bad as it looks? Clearly such political conclusions depended on having good theoretical as well as sound quantitative foundations and both these components were generally missing.

Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value Through Business and Social Sector Partnerships

Abstract: Business firms and non-profit organizations are increasingly collaborating. Such collaborations promise substantial mutual benefits as business firms realize the extent to which their profits depend on a healthy social environment and "social entrepreneurs" begin to appreciate how applying business principles can enable them to fulfill their social missions more effectively. Nevertheless, for the benefits of crosssector partnerships to be achieved, each partner must have a realistic understanding of both the challenges and potential pitfalls of their relationship.

Two Theories of Modernity

Abstract: There seem to be at large in our culture two ways of understanding the rise of modernity. They are in effect two different "takes" on what makes our contemporary society different from its forebears. In one take, we can look on the difference between present-day society and, say, that of medieval Europe as analogous to the difference between medieval Europe and China or India. In other words, we can think of the difference as one between civilizations, each with their own culture. Or alternatively, we can see the change from earlier centuries to today as involving something like "development," as the demise of a "traditional" society and the rise of the "modern." And in this perspective, which seems to be the dominant one, things look rather different. I want to call the first kind of understanding a "cultural" one, and the second "acultural." In using these terms, I'm leaning on a use of the word culture which is analogous to the sense it often has in anthropology. I am evoking the picture of a plurality of human cultures, each of which has a language and a set of practices that define specific understandings of personhood, social relations, states of mind/soul, goods and bads, virtues and vices, and the like. These languages are often mutually untranslatable. With this model in mind, a "cultural" theory of modernity is one that characterizes the transformations that have issued in the modern West mainly in terms of the rise of a new culture. The contemporary Atlantic world is seen as one culture (or group of closely related cultures) among others, with its own specific understandings, for example, of person, nature, the good, to be contrasted to all others, including its own predecessor civilization (with which it obviously also has a lot in common). By contrast, an "acultural" theory is one that describes these transformations in terms of some culture-neutral operation. By this I mean an operation that is not defined in terms of the specific cultures it carries us from and to, but is rather seen as of a type that any traditional culture could undergo. An example of an acultural type of theory, indeed a paradigm case, would be one that conceives of modernity as the growth of reason, defined in various ways: as the growth of scientific consciousness, or the development of a secular outlook, or the rise of instrumental rationality, or an ever-clearer distinction between fact-finding and evaluation. Or else modernity might be accounted for in terms of social, as well as intellectual changes: the transformations, including the intellectual ones, are seen as coming about as a result of increased mobility, concentration of populations, industrialization, or the like. In all these cases, modernity is conceived as a set of transformations that any and every culture can go through--and that all will probably be forced to undergo. These changes are not defined by their end point in a specific constellation of understandings of, say, person, society, good; they are rather described as a type of transformation to which any culture could in principle serve as "input." For instance, any culture could suffer the impact of growing scientific consciousness; any religion could undergo secularization; any set of ultimate ends could be challenged by a growth of instrumental thinking; any metaphysic could be dislocated by the split between fact and value. So modernity in this kind of theory is understood as issuing from a rational or social operation that is culture-neutral. This is not to say that the theory cannot acknowledge good historical reasons why this transformation first arose in one civilization rather than another, or why some may undergo it more easily than others. The point rather is that the operation is defined not in terms of its specific point of arrival, but as a general function that can take any specific culture as its input. To grasp the difference from another angle, the operation is not seen as supposing or reflecting an option for one specific set of human values or understandings among others. …

Moral experience and ethical reflection: can ethnography reconcile them? A quandary for "the new bioethics.

Abstract: ITH hastening pace, bioethics in America is moving in manifold ways to deal with serious problems in its modus operandi. These problems have become so well known they are by now clich?s. In previous studies I have attempted to characterize them by means of three "isms": ethnocentrism, medicocentrism, psychocentrism.1 By this awk ward-sounding trio I meant to encompass past criticism of bioethics on account of its Eurocentric orientation and grudg ingly limited engagement with non-Western and ethnic value orientations. I also meant to conjure its tendency to prioritize often esoteric professional formulations over ordinary, commonsensical patient and family perspectives, as well as to critique the way ethicists psychologize moral issues that in everyday life are more often expressed by ordinary people via religious, social, and somatic idioms. Others have so flayed the principle-based methodology still in command today that this

A Theory of Contract Law Under Conditions of Radical Judicial Error

Abstract: This paper introduces an informal model of contracting where courts are assumed to be radically incompetent, that is, they are unable to determine whether a party in a contract dispute has engaged in opportunistic behavior (breach), although they can determine whether parties intended to enter a legally enforceable contract. Under this assumption courts cannot perform their normal function in standard economic analysis of contract law, where they deter opportunistic breach because they can verify the promisor's behavior. Nonetheless, the model shows that despite judicial incompetence people will voluntarily enter legally enforceable, jointly valuable contracts. The reason is that when parties care about their reputations, and are engaged in repeated interaction, they can deter certain forms of otherwise profitable opportunism by credibly threatening a mutually destructive lawsuit. The law, on this theory, generates value not by directly deterring bad behavior, but by supplying parties with the ability to retaliate when they are harmed. The paper explores the model's implications for understanding contracting and contract law.

A New Manifesto for Management

Abstract: The corporation has emerged as perhaps the most powerful social and economic institution of modern society. Yet, corporations and their managers suffer from a profound social ambivalence. Believing this to be symptomatic of the unrealistically pessimistic assumptions that underlie current management doctrine, Ghoshal et al. encourage managers to replace the narrow economic assumptions of the past and recognize that: ? Modern societies are not market economies; they are organizational economies in which companies are the chief actors in creating value and advancing economic progress. ? The growth of firms and, therefore, economies is primarily dependent on the quality of their management. ? The foundation of a firm's activity is a new "moral contract" with employees and society, replacing paternalistic exploitation and value appropriation with employability and value creation in a relationship of shared destiny. In the 1980s, managers concentrated on enhancing competitiveness by improving their operating efficiencies. They cut costs, eliminated waste, downsized, and outsourced. They extracted value ? as reflected in shareholder returns ? but at what price? In contrast, firms that seem to continuously proliferate new products and technologies (for example, HP, 3M, Disney, and Microsoft) have never accepted this logic of auto-dismemberment. They have escaped what the authors term "the deadly pincer of dominant theory and practice": an almost exclusive focus on appropriation and control. A different management model is now taking shape, based on a better understanding of individual and corporate motivation. As companies switch their focus from value appropriation to value creation, facilitating cooperation among people takes precedence over enforcing compliance, and initiative is valued more than obedience. The manager's primary tasks become embedding trust, leading change, and establishing a sense of purpose within the company that allows strategy to emerge from within the organization, from the energy and alignment created by that sense of purpose. The core of the managerial role gives way to the "three Ps": purpose, process, and people ? replacing the traditional "strategy-structure-systems" trilogy that worked for companies in the past.

The Effects of Cultural Dimensions on Ethical Decision Making in Marketing: An Exploratory Study

Abstract: As more and more firms operate globally, an understanding of the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making becomes increasingly important for avoiding potential business pitfalls and for designing effective international marketing management programs. Although several articles have addressed this area in general, differences along specific, cultural dimensions have not been directly examined. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in ethical decision making within Hofstede's cultural framework. The results confirm the utility of Hofstede's cultural dimensions and place ethical decision making within an overall theoretical framework. Sales agents from a high power distance, uncertainty avoidant, Confucian, collectivist culture (i.e., Taiwan) placed more value on company and fellow employee interests (vis-a-vis self interests) than did managers from a masculine, individualistic culture (i.e., the United States). American and Taiwanese managers did not differ in their deontological norms or on the importance that they placed on customer interests. The theoretical and managerial importance of these findings are also discussed.

Private Broadcasters and the Public Interest: Notes Toward a 'Third Way'

Abstract: The communications revolution has thrown into question the value of public interest obligations for television broadcasters. But the distinctive nature of this unusual market--with "winner- take-all" features, with viewers as a commodity, with pervasive externalities from private choices, and with market effects on preferences as well as the other way around--justifies a continuing role for government regulation in the public interest. At the same time, regulation best takes the form, not of anachronistic command-and-control regulation, but of (1) disclosure requirements, (2) economic incentives ("pay or play"), and (3) voluntary self-regulation through a privately administered code. Some discussion is devoted to free speech and antitrust issues, and to the different possible shapes of liability and property rules in this context, treating certain programming as a public "good" akin to pollution as a public bad.

Judgments of Deservingness: Studies in the Psychology of Justice and Achievement

Abstract: This article presents a review and conceptual analysis of the concept of deservingness that incorporates the effects of personal values, perceived responsibility, ingroup-outgroup relations, and like-dislike relations. Selected studies show that reactions to another's success or failure and to the rise or fall of "tall poppies" or high achievers depends on the degree to which the positive or negative outcome is seen to be deserved; that individual differences in personal values and in value syndromes may be assumed to affect deservingness via the subjective values assigned to actions and outcomes; that group membership, status, interpersonal liking-disliking, and perceived moral character also affect judgments of deservingness; and that deservingness is a key variable that mediates how observers react to penalties imposed on the perpetrators of different kinds of offense. It is argued that the inclusion of deservingness goes beyond approaches in which perceived responsibility is accorded central status by adding a further link in the causal chain, thus enabling a more complete consideration of the effects of justice and value variables on how people react to positive and negative outcomes for both self and other.

A value‐based paradigm for creating truly healthy organizations

Abstract: This paper proposes a set of universal values, drawn from the world’s major religions, which are the basis for creating healthy organizations These values are argued to be essential to enable both economic and spiritual ideals to thrive and to grow in modern organizations In addition to articulating these values we propose a set of supporting activities which are necessary to foster these values The paper is intended to shape and to guide the aspirations of organizations, their leaders and their members – to help them to identify and to articulate desirable values and behaviors rather than reflect currently realized organizational norms

Reconsidering Restorative Justice: The Corruption of Benevolence Revisited?:

Abstract: Restorative justice has emerged as an increasingly popular correctional paradigm that is drawing support not only from conservatives but also from liberals. Although this approach has value, its ready embrace as a progressive reform is potentially problematic in two respects. First, the risk exists that restorative justice programs will be corrupted to serve nonprogressive goals and thus do more harm than good. Second, there is little reason to anticipate that restorative justice programs will have a meaningful effect on offender recidivism. Thus, restorative justice should be viewed and implemented with caution.

Virtue Ethics: A Misleading Category?

Abstract: Virtue ethics is standardly taught and discussed as a distinctive approach to the major questions of ethics, a third major position alongside Utilitarian and Kantian ethics. I argue that this taxonomy is a confusion. Both Utilitarianism and Kantianism contain treatments of virtue, so virtue ethics cannot possibly be a separate approach contrasted with those approaches. There are, to be sure, quite a few contemporary philosophical writers about virtue who are neither Utilitarians nor Kantians; many of these find inspiration in ancient Greek theories of virtue. But even here there is little unity. Although certain concerns do unite this disparate group (a concern for the role of motives and passions in good choice, a concern for character, and a concern for the whole course of an agent's life), there are equally profound disagreements, especially concerning the role that reason should play in ethics. One group of modern virtue-theorists, I argue, are primarily anti-Utilitarians, concerned with the plurality of value and the susceptibility of passions to social cultivation. These theorists want to enlarge the place of reason in ethics. They hold that reason can deliberate about ends as well as means, and that reason can modify the passions themselves. Another group of virtue theorists are primarily anti-Kantians. They believe that reason plays too dominant a role in most philosophical accounts of ethics, and that a larger place should be given to sentiments and passions -- which they typically construe in a less reason-based way than does the first group. The paper investigates these differences, concluding that it is not helpful to speak of “virtue ethics,” and that we would be better off characterizing the substantive views of each thinker -- and then figuring out what we ourselves want to say.

Educação popular, saúde comunitária e apoio social numa conjuntura de globalização

Abstract: The author discusses difficulties experienced by working-class groups in a crisis context, relating to the demands they make on authorities. Popular participation has traditionally referred to activities resulting in pressure on authorities for improved basic services. One can contend that activities commonly known as popular education and community health are currently at a stalemate. The social support theory is proposed as a form of not only discussing the crisis in health services, but also the health model as being basically curative. In this sense, concepts such as "control over one's life", "life making sense", and "solidarity" are discussed as important factors for prevention and maintenance in the field of health education. Although it was a context of crisis which led to the discussion of the social support theory, the latter's value does not depend on such a context.

Contemporary Ethics: Taking Account of Utilitarianism

Abstract: Preface and Acknowledgments. 1. Introducing Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism, Law and Society. Understanding Utilitarianism. Two Rival Nonconsequentialist Theories. The Deathbed Promise. Consequences, Actual and Probable. Average versus Total Happiness. 2. Welfare, Happiness, and the Good. Bentham's Hedonism. Mill's View of Pleasure and Happiness. A Problem for Mental-State Accounts of Well-Being. Well-Being as the Satisfaction of Desire. Objective Theories of WellBeing. Where This Lack of Consensus Leaves Utilitarianism. 3. Arguing for Utilitarianism. Bentham and the Principle of Utility. Mill: Proof and Sentiment. Self-Evidence and the Language of Morality. Utilitarianism and Commonsense Morality. The Case against Deontology. The Appeal of Utilitarianism. 4. Objections to Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism Condones Immoral Conduct. Promises and Particularity of Obligation. The Distribution of Welfare. Is Utilitarianism Too Demanding? 5. Refining Utilitarianism. Second-Order Moral Judgements. Moives, Dispositions, and Traits of Character. The Importance of Secondary Rule. The Rules of the Ordinary Morality. Two Levels of Moral Thinking. Rule Utilitarianism. 6. Rights, Liberty, and Punishment. The Criminal Justice System. The Nature and Function of Rights. The Nature and Function of Rights. Personal Liberty. 7. Justice, Welfare, and Economic Distribution. Some facts about Poverty and Inequality. Thinking about Justice. Nozick's Libertarianism. Rawl's Theory of Justice. Utilitarianism and Distributive Equality. 8. Virtue, Personal Life, and the Demands of Morality. Good-Bye to Normative Theory? Utilitarianism and the Virtues. Moral Fanacticism and the things we value. Those Who Are Near and Dear. The Personal Point of View. The Needs of Strangers. Bibliography. Index.

The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology

Abstract: For far too many organizations, investments in information technology (IT) fail to provide equivalent long-term value. Taking an overall organizational governance approach, "The Information Paradox" addresses the issues companies often face with IT value as symptoms of a broader business value problem. Updated to confront current organizational questions and issues, this insightful book introduces the author's Enterprise Value Management model, which allows decision makers to address IT questions in relation to overall organizational governance and manage all of their assets-including information technology-to derive full value from each.

When Good Companies Do Bad Things: Responsibility and Risk in an Age of Globalization

Abstract: A good reputation is certainly an asset for any company, but to a public that has raised its expectations of business' responsibility to society, being good just isn't good enough More than public relations posturing or kowtowing to political correctness, social responsibility in corporations is proving essential to the long-term success of companies in today's globalized economy Businesses must now contend with a globalized public that is increasingly aware of business' obligations to society and expects a level of accountability that most companies cannot meet Good companies must go beyond merely being good-they must have integrity and a strategy aligned with it Integrity in business has traditionally meant being honest, upright, and ethical, but in response to globalization, companies are being forced to move beyond this definition and add to it another fundamental quality-integration with society Corporations must anticipate and respond directly to the demands of public opinion rather than waiting for government intervention, mediation, and regulation to force them into action When Good Companies Do Bad Things explores the strategic relationship between know-how, integrity, and integration, demonstrating how companies that fail to embrace the deeper meanings of these terms jeopardize their reputations and future prosperity The notion of corporations taking on social issues for the greater good is gaining momentum, not only because of political correctness but because it can strengthen a company's long-term strategy Peter Schwartz and Blair Gibb examine well-known cases of companies like Shell, Nike, Texaco, and Nestle, illustrating the huge financial risks of corporate assumptions that lead many companies to make poor choices The authors present new approaches that demonstrate how it is possible to translate social value into business value

A Taxonomy of Organizational Impression Management Tactics

Abstract: INTRODUCTION As the information highway makes ever increasing inroads through the internet into our homes and offices, thousands of commercial, academic, and government organizations have discovered a new medium for conveying information about their products, services, and achievements to interested parties world wide (Cronin, 1994). However, computer-mediated promotions are just the latest manifestation of organizational efforts to favorably shape their organizations' impressions. More conventional media and presentations include: 1) corporate advertising (Sethi, 1977), 2), glossy annual reports (Smilowitz and Pearson, 1989), 3) well orchestrated "pseudo-events" that promote organizational achievements and are covered by the mass media (Alvesson, 1990), and 4), and concerted efforts at "damage control" following image-threatening predicaments (Dutton and Dukerich, 1991; Ginzel, Kramer, and Sutton, 1992). While the circumstances and purposes for which these presentations are used clearly vary, each represents a means whereby organizations attempt to manage the impressions they make on key audiences. Organizational leaders and representatives engage in impression management because they believe such behavior will improve the organization's relations with key constituencies. Indeed, as Pfeffer (1981, p. 26) observed, "Every organization has an interest in seeing its definition of reality accepted, ... for such acceptance is an integral part of the legitimation of the organization and the development of assured resources." Hence, in addition to striving to achieve organizational performance, top management is expected to manage constituent perceptions of performance by making sense of the organization's actions and projecting a favorable image (Ginzel et al., 1992). PRIOR RESEARCH The last decade has witnessed growing academic interest in the impression management behaviors exhibited both within, and by, organizations. The term "impression management" refers to the regulation of actions and/or information to shape others' perceptions of oneself (Schlenker and Weigold, 1992). Increasingly, scholars have adapted impression management theory from social psychology and applied it to organizational settings. While most focus on individual behaviors (Bozman and Kacmar, 1997; Gardner and Martinko, 1988; Giacalone and Rosenfeld, 1989, 1991; Wayne and Liden, 1995), a few researchers have shown the applicability of this construct at the macro-organizational level. For example, Sutton and Kramer (1990) demonstrated how President Reagan's administration was able to manage the impressions of the world's press in the Iceland arms control talks with the Soviet Union. Elsbach and Sutton (1992) concluded that socially controversial organizations use image management tactics to manipulate external constituencies' interpretations of members' illegitimate actions. Similarly, Elsbach (1994) showed how the California cattle industry uses impression management to gain legitimacy following controversial events. The case of a Swedish consulting firm was described by Alvesson (1990) to illustrate how the value of events, actions and structures may be designed to positively impact the firm's image. Ginzel et al. (1992) have illustrated the process whereby organizations explain predicaments to diverse audiences in order to minimize damage to their images. The quality of the above research is impressive. It clearly illustrates that organizations attempt to regulate and control information and influence constituents' impressions to gain specific rewards. Nevertheless, a taxonomy of the basic types of organizational impression management (OIM) tactics employed by organizations is lacking. In contrast, a number of taxonomies of impression management behaviors have been advanced at the micro-level (Cialdini, 1989; Jones and Pittman, 1982; Tedeschi and Melburg, 1984; Tedeschi and Normam, 1985), which have contributed to both the theory and subsequent research in this area. …

Toward a broader view of values in cost-effectiveness analysis of health.

Abstract: The promise of cost-effectiveness analysis in health care is that it allows policymakers to compare what at first blush are apples and oranges. CEA purports to show how much health benefit is likely to be produced by very different investments. It attempts to express the effectiveness of health care interventions and programs in common units of health-related value, such as "quality adjusted life years" (QALYs), that allow the benefits of various treatments to be quantified on the same scale of measurement.[1] The work CEA can do is indeed remarkable. It can take programs with qualitatively very different outcomes--life-saving dialysis and quality-enhancing hip replacements, for example--and inform us of their costs in relation to their comparable effects--their QALYs. This ability to compare disparate effects is one of several respects in which CEA is the child of utilitarian welfare economics. In that larger discipline too, a huge range of values gets collected into one common and measurable notion, "utility." Moreover, welfare economics' conception of "value to society" is typically built up out of individuals' utilities, combined in some way. In all of these respects--its one scale of value, its quantifying of that value, and its combining of individual pieces of value into aggregate wholes for society--conventional health economics is just what one would expect of a specialty within economics. How does CEA in health care obtain its single metric of value for comparing widely different effects? Typically three factors are incorporated. The first, and by far the most conceptually complex, is the size of the quality improvement that treatment produces: the saving of life and its maintenance at a certain level. This change is expressed as a savings or improvement of health-related quality of life. Call it the "size of treatment effect." It is here that mortality and morbidity are compared and combined. Death is assigned the value 0, full health the value 1.0, and all other health states better than death are arrayed in between, from most to least severe, on the basis of responses that interview subjects give to certain questions. Various types of questions are used to elicit opinions about quality of life. In "time trade-off" questions, for example, respondents may be asked how many of an anticipated twenty remaining years of their lives they would be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain the complete cure of a specified health condition. Suppose that on average their answer is four--that is, 20 percent of their remaining time. Then they have rated the quality of life in that state of health at 0.8, a 20 percent reduction from 1.0. The second factor used to construct comparable units of value is the duration of that health improvement, and the third factor is the number of persons receiving it. Conventional CEA simply multiplies these factors: the size of treatment effect is multiplied by both the duration of that benefit and the number of beneficiaries. For example, if hip replacements generally raise recipients' health-related quality of life from 0.8 to 0.98, effectively last 10 years, and cost $18,000 each, they typically produce 1.8 QALYs at a cost of $10,000 per QALY. If a year of inpatient hemodialysis typically costs $32,000 and saves a life of 0.8 health-related quality, it produces 0.8 QALYs at a cost per QALY of $40,000. If the medical demand for these two procedures were not being met, these numbers suggest that it would be better to invest in additional hip replacements rather than in expanded dialysis. The quantified effects used in CEA are classic expressions of a form of "utility"--what might be called "health-related utility." While CEA is technically a descriptive analysis because it does not actually tell decisionmakers to maximize health-related utilities, it reveals which categories of health care investments will maximize them. Utilitarianism is its philosophical parent. …

Ethical issues across cultures: managing the differing perspectives of China and the USA

Abstract: US marketers know the US standard of ethics. However, that standard can lead to ethical conflict when Americans encounter the emerging market giant, China. As smaller US companies enter China, the potential for ethical conflict increases. Reducing that potential requires knowledge. Knowing the nature and history of the two cultures can lead to an understanding of the foundation of their ethical systems. Ethics and the expectations within cultures affect all business transactions. It is vital for Western marketers to understand the expectations of their counterparts around the world. Understanding the cultural bases for ethical behavior in both the USA and China can arm a marketer with knowledge needed to succeed in cross‐cultural business. Implementing that knowledge with a clear series of managerial guidelines can actualize the value of that understanding.