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Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 2001"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined whether or not consumers care about ethical behavior, and investigated the effect of good and bad ethical conduct on consumer purchase behavior, concluding that although we are more sophisticated as consumers today, this does not necessarily translate into behaviour which favours ethical companies and punishes unethical firms.
Abstract: Marketing ethics and social responsibility are inherently controversial, and years of research continue to present conflicts and challenges for marketers on the value of a socially responsible approach to marketing activities. This article examines whether or not consumers care about ethical behaviour, and investigates the effect of good and bad ethical conduct on consumer purchase behaviour. Through focus group discussions it becomes clear that although we are more sophisticated as consumers today, this does not necessarily translate into behaviour which favours ethical companies and punishes unethical firms. The article concludes by some thoughts on how marketers might encourage consumers to engage in positive purchase behaviour in favour of ethical marketing.

1,538 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The pan-cultural hierarchy of values is discussed in this article, where the authors demonstrate that correctly interpreting the value hierarchies of groups requires comparison with the pancultural normative baseline, and explain its adaptive functions in meeting the requirements of successful societal functioning.
Abstract: Beyond the striking differences in the value priorities of groups is a surprisingly widespread consensus regarding the hierarchical order of values. Average value hierarchies of representative and near representative samples from 13 nations exhibit a similar pattern that replicates with school teachers in 56 nations and college students in 54 nations. Benevolence, self-direction, and universalism values are consistently most important; power, tradition, and stimulation values are least important; and security, conformity, achievement, and hedonism are in between. Value hierarchies of 83% of samples correlate at least .80 with this pan-cultural hierarchy. To explain the pan-cultural hierarchy, the authors discuss its adaptive functions in meeting the requirements of successful societal functioning. The authors demonstrate, with data from Singapore and the United States, that correctly interpreting the value hierarchies of groups requires comparison with the pan-cultural normative baseline.

1,505 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, two conceptual frameworks are introduced to guide research on the value of corporate citizenship in terms of external and internal marketing, respectively, for understanding the potential value of Corporate Citizenship as a marketing tool.
Abstract: Confronted with increasing pressures to limit government spending on social welfare, more and more public policy makers welcome the growing social involvement of corporations. Yet, inasmuch as corporate citizenship may be desirable for society as a whole, it is unlikely to be embraced by a large number of organizations unless it is associated with concrete business benefits. This paper presents past findings and proposes future research directions useful for understanding the potential value of corporate citizenship as a marketing tool. Specifically, after examining the nature of corporate citizenship, the paper discusses its potential impact, first on consumers, then on employees. Two conceptual frameworks are introduced to guide research on the value of corporate citizenship in terms of external and internal marketing respectively.

426 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a framework for thinking about trust in dynamic and practical terms, and also provide recommendations for managing relational quality in alliances as a strategy for enhancing value, where past experience and the shadow of the future play important roles.
Abstract: Management scholars have often argued that "trust" plays a key role in economic exchanges, particularly when one or another party is subject to the risk of opportunistic behavior and incomplete monitoring or when problems due to moral hazard or asymmetric information arise. These conditions are almost always present in the case of corporate alliances and joint ventures. However, one attribute of relationships—"relational quality"—is fundamental to the maintenance of good working conditions in two-party alliances where past experience and the shadow of the future play important roles. Relying on a growing body of theory and a number of case studies, the authors develop a framework for thinking about trust in dynamic and practical terms. They also provide recommendations for managing relational quality in alliances as a strategy for enhancing value.

420 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: Gomes as discussed by the authors argues that it is both possible and necessary to reconcile a life of success with the life of faith, and he advocates to "get used to it" and "get over it" to understand the value and responsibilities associated with power and wealth.
Abstract: The difficult task of achieving worldly success while also storing up spiritual treasure is perennially with us, in good times and in bad. Today, however, as the economy has cooled and companies have demonstrated their mortality, questions about meaning and value appear more relevant, even urgent. HBR associate editor David A. Light recently spoke with the Reverend Peter J. Gomes, one of the nation's best-known preachers and the minister at Harvard University's Memorial Church, about why and how it is both possible and necessary to reconcile a life of success with a life of faith. To do so, says Gomes, you must first "get used to it"--come to terms with the age-old tension between being rich in spirit and rich in worldly goods. Second, you should "get over it"--arrive at an understanding of the value and responsibilities associated with power and wealth. Finally, "get on with it"--figure out how you can live your life spiritually while continuing to lead in the business world. For those wondering how to get on with spiritual development, Gomes cites the growing phenomenon of senior executives gathering with peers--out of shared need, not shared accomplishment--to pray, study sacred texts, and share their religious life together. He counsels that it's never too late to get on with it: We can amend life at any time, whether we're 35, 45, or 75. Gomes concludes that business will continue to be one of the most significant forces in American culture, but it will always struggle against people's need for a perspective that is beyond this world's.

413 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify two key behavioral impediments that obstruct the process of value maximization, one internal to the firm and the other external, called behavioral costs, which are the costs associated with errors that people make because of cognitive imperfections and emotional influences.
Abstract: Managers and corporate directors need to recognize two key behavioral impediments that obstruct the process of value maximization, one internal to the firm and the other external. I call the first obstruction behavioral costs. Behavioral costs, like agency costs, tend to prevent value creation. Behavioral costs are the costs associated with errors that people make because of cognitive imperfections and emotional influences. The second obstruction stems from behavioral errors on the part of analysts and investors. These errors can create gaps between fundamental values and market prices. When they do, managers may find themselves conflicted, unsure of how to factor the errors of analysts and investors into their own decisions. Proponents of value based management emphasize that with properly designed incentives, managers will maximize the value of the firms for which they work. As such, either they treat behavioral costs as simply another form of agency costs, or they deny the relevance of cognitive errors. In contrast, proponents of behavioral finance argue that behavioral costs are typically large, and cannot be addressed though incentives alone. This is not to say that incentives are immaterial. On the contrary, incentives are of critical importance. The point, however, is that there are limits to incentives. If employees have a distorted view of what is in their own self-interest, or if they have a mistaken view of what actions they need to take in order to maximize their self-interest, then incentive compatibility, although necessary for value maximization, will not be sufficient.

346 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper offers a framework for deciding what values and what praxis considerations the authors should attend to and how they may advance social justice and social action in community psychology.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to articulate a rationale for value-based praxis in community psychology. Although values need to promote personal, collective, and relational wellness at the same time, it is argued that community psychologists pay more attention to personal and relational wellness than to collective wellness. In order to address this imbalance it is important to promote the value of social justice. While praxis requires that we engage in a cycle of reflection, research, and social action, community psychologists devote more resources to the first two phases of praxis than to the last one. This paper offers a framework for deciding what values and what praxis considerations we should attend to and how we may advance social justice and social action in community psychology.

291 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The argument developed is that the approach to deliberative democracy may be renewed by rethinking its motivational and cognitive elements.
Abstract: Power in communication takes two main forms. As 'external' power, it consists in the ability to acknowledge or disregard a speaker or a discourse. As 'internal' power, it is the ability of an argument to eliminate other arguments by demonstrating its superiority. A positive or negative value may be ascribed to these forms of power. Four ideal-typical positions are discussed--strategy, technocracy, constructionism, and deliberation. Public deliberation has three virtues--civic virtue, governance virtue and cognitive virtue. Deliberation lowers the propensity to, and the benefit of, strategic behaviour. It also increases knowledge, enhancing the quality of decisions. For Habermas, the unity of reason is expressed in the possibility of agreement on the most convincing argument. However, sometimes conflicts are deep-lying, principles and factual descriptions are profoundly different, and uncertainty is radical. The best argument cannot be found. There is no universal reason. The question is whether non-strategic agreement may spring from the incommensurability of languages. In search of an answer, Rawls's concept of overlapping consensus, the feminist theory of the public sphere, and the idea of deliberation as co-operation are discussed. The argument developed is that the approach to deliberative democracy may be renewed by rethinking its motivational and cognitive elements. Public deliberation is grounded on a pre-political level of co-operation. Intractable controversies may be faced at the level of practices, looking for local, contextual answers.

231 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: One of the most confusing developments in educational research over the past quarter-century has been the proliferation of epistemologies-beliefs about what counts as knowledge in the field of education, what is evidence of a claim, and what count as a warrant for that evidence as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: One of the most confusing developments in educational research over the past quarter-century has been the proliferation of epistemologies-beliefs about what counts as knowledge in the field of education, what is evidence of a claim, and what counts as a warrant for that evidence. Although the discussion of various epistemological perspectives in educational research often is highly abstract, and viewed as the prerogative of philosophers at some distance from the real world of educational research practice, the consequences of this diversity are quite real. Beliefs about what counts as knowledge are a central determinant about what a field knows about its subject matter. The variability in such beliefs can lead to small and large gaps in what various members of the educational research community hold to be true about educational phenomena. These discontinuities are partly at the root of the widespread perception that the community of educational researchers has failed to amass a cumulative body of knowledge about how schools and schooling work (National Research Council, 1999; Ravitch, 1998; Viadero, 1999). Few claims about educational research are as damning, or as damaging to the enterprise. Experienced researchers and novices alike find it hard to keep up with the cacophony of diverse epistemologies. Behind the welter of names-positivism, naturalism, postpositivism, empiricism, relativism, feminist standpoint epistemology, foundationalism, postmodernism, each with an array of subspecies-lie important questions: Is there a single, absolute truth about educational phenomena, or are there multiple truths? (Or is the concept of truth itself so problematic as to be of no value in understanding the world?) Can we count on our senses, or on reason, to distinguish that which is true about the world from that which is false? Are there methods that can lead us close to understanding, or are there inherent indeterminacies in all methods? Is knowledge of the world discovered, or constructed? Can knowledge of the world be evaluated independent of the social and historical contexts in which it exists, or is it always contingent upon, or relative to, particular circumstances?

218 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-cultural theory of corporate governance systems based on cultural value dimensions (CVD) of cross-culture psychology has been proposed for analyzing problems of the sort discussed here.
Abstract: The goal of this article is threefold. First, it points out the growing awareness among practitioners and theorists of the relevancy of national culture to corporate governance and securities regulation. It shows that efforts to treat cross-cultural aspects so far have been few and sporadic and thus posits the urgent need for a systematic cross-cultural theory of corporate governance systems. Second, this article introduces the framework of cultural value dimensions (CVD) of cross-cultural psychology and demonstrates its potential usefulness for analyzing problems of the sort discussed here. It highlights the promise held by the CVD framework for producing testable hypotheses with regard to cultural features of corporate governance systems, in a fashion similar to standard analyses of corporate finance. Third, this article sketches out an outline for a cross-cultural theory of corporate governance systems based on the CVD framework by implementing it to fundamental issues like shareholding structures and the regulation of self-dealing, insider trading, and disclosure. It concludes that national cultures can be seen, metaphorically, as the mother of path dependence dynamics in the sense that they play a role in both the origin and in future development of corporate governance systems. The mode of analysis proposed in this article could be extended to other legal fields and also looks very promising for the study of law and social norms.

192 citations


Book
30 Apr 2001
TL;DR: In this paper, two problems of practical reason are discussed: rational control: freedom of the will and the heart, and deliberation about value: care, values, preferences and preferences.
Abstract: Acknowledgements 1. Two problems of practical reason Part I. Felt Evaluations: 2. Emotions and the cognitive-conative divide 3. Constituting import 4. Varieties of import: cares, values and preferences Part II. Practical Reason: 5. Single evaluative perspective 6. Rational control: freedom of the will and the heart 7. Deliberation about value 8. Persons, friendship and moral value Select bibliography Index.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the effect of personal values on auditors' ethical decision making and found that personal value preferences did not influence auditors perceptions of the moral intensity of the ethical dilemma.
Abstract: This study investigates the effects of personal values on auditors’ ethical decision making. Previous accounting research has investigated the value profiles of practicing CPAs and accounting students, and the effects of values on accounting students’ ethical decisions. However, the current study is the first to empirically address the role of values in the ethical decision processes of professional auditors. We surveyed a random sample of AICPA members to assess their value preferences and reactions to an ethical dilemma involving client pressure for aggressive financial reporting. Contrary to our hypothesis, personal value preferences did not influence auditors’ perceptions of the moral intensity of the ethical dilemma. As hypothesized, perceptions of moral intensity influenced both ethical judgments and behavioral intentions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that more monitoring is nof always better, and explore, through a six-sector framework, how more extensive use of information benefits or damages value creation and affects its distribution.
Abstract: We evaluate how changes in information use affect agency relationships. Information asymmetry redistributes value, but imperfect monitoring also encourages agents to take inefficient actions to influence this redistribution, thereby reducing joint agency value. Changing focus, from minimizing principals' costs to maximizing joint agency value, we argue that more monitoring is nof always better, and we explore, through a six-sector framework, how more extensive use of information benefits (or damages) value creation and affects its distribution.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors express a skepticism about whether repeated applications of a value concept can be made out to be cases of going on in the same way, consistently with this kind of non-cognitivism, by explaining them as repeated responses to instances of a non-evaluatively specifiable kind.
Abstract: A supposed ground for non-cognitivism about values lies in a conception according to which descriptions of the world must be intelligible from no special point of view, whereas ascriptions of value are essentially made from within an affectively and conatively shaped form of life (§ 1) This paper expresses a skepticism about whether repeated applications of a value concept can be made out to be cases of going on in the same way, consistently with this kind of non-cognitivism, by explaining them as repeated responses to instances of a non-evaluatively specifiable kind (§ 2) Wittengstein's discussions of rule-following undercut a motivation for supposing that consistency in the application of a value concept would have to be like that ( § 3)The paper considers how this connects with a familiar argument that recommends non-cognitivism on the ground that moral judgments are action-guiding ( § 4) Finally, it urges that this conception of consistency in evaluative thinking cannot easily be rebutted by proponents of non-cognitivism( § 5)

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: Levi as discussed by the authors discusses the nature and uses of Normative theory and the validation of normative Propositions, and the utility axioms as Norms as a Normative Theory and Empirical Research.
Abstract: Acknowledgments Note to Reader Foreword, Isaac Levi 1. Ambiguity and Risk Vagueness, Confidence, and the Weight of Arguments The Nature and Uses of Normative Theory The Validation of Normative Propositions The Utility Axioms as Norms Normative Theory and Empirical Research 2. The Bernoulli Proposition A Possible Counterexample: Are there Uncertainties that are Not Risks? Vulgar Evaluations of Risk 3. The Measurement of Definite Opinions von Neumann-Morgenstern Utilities Probability as Price "Coherence" and "Definiteness" of Probability-Prices Appendix to Chapter Three On Making a Fool of Oneself: The Requirement of Coherence Acceptable Odds: Definite, Coherent, and Otherwise 4. Opinions and Actions: Which Come First? The Logic of Degrees of Belief Opinions that Make Horse Races Postulate 2: the "Sure-Thing Principle" Intuitive Probabilities and "Vagueness" Appendix to Chapter Four The Savage Postulates The Koopman Axioms 5. Uncertainties that are Not Risks The "Three-Color Urn" Example Vulgar Evaluations of Ambiguity Appendix to Chapter Five 6. Why Are Some Uncertainties Not Risks? Decision Criteria for "Complete Ignorance" Decision Criteria for "Partial Ignorance" 7. The "Restricted Hurwicz Criterion" The "Restricted Bayes/Hurwicz Criterion" Boldness and Prudence: the "n-Color Urn" Example Ignorance, Probability, and Varieties of Gamblers 8. Ambiguity and the Utility Axioms The Pratt/Raiffa Criticisms and the Value of Randomization Rubin's Axiom Allais and the Sure-Thing Principle Winning at Russian Roulette Bibliography

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the United States, institutional review boards, the bodies responsible for protecting human subjects in research, are required to have a member "not otherwise affiliated with the institution."
Abstract: n the United States, institutional review boards, the bodies responsible for protecting human subjects in research, are required to have a member "not otherwise affiliated with the institution." It is the responsibility of this member to represent the interests of research participants and, as much as possible, to reflect the community. While other members of the committee share in review responsibility, the federal government reasoned that a person who is independent of the research and of the institution can bring a particularly valuable perspective to review.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work proposes a value-based conceptualization of partnership, defining partnership as relationships between community psychologists, oppressed groups, and other stakeholders, which strive to achieve key community psychology values.
Abstract: We propose a value-based conceptualization of partnership, defining partnership as relationships between community psychologists, oppressed groups, and other stakeholders, which strive to achieve key community psychology values (caring, compassion, community, health, self-determination, participation, power-sharing, human diversity, and social justice). These values guide partnership work related to the development of services or supports, coalitions and social action, and community research and program evaluation. We prescribe guidelines for building such partnerships and conclude by considering some of the challenges in implementing value-based partnerships.

Journal ArticleDOI
Charles R. Beitz1
TL;DR: The authors explores several reasons for concern about global inequality that derive from nonegalitarian values, such as poverty and material deprivation, humiliation, the impact of inequality on the capacity for self-control and self-government, and the unfairness of political decision making procedures with large economic inequalities in the background.
Abstract: Global economic and political inequalities are in most respects greater today than they have been for decades. From one point of view inequality is a bad thing simply because it involves a deviation from equality, which is thought to have value for its own sake. But it is controversial whether this position can be defended, and if it can, whether the egalitarian ideal on which the defense may depend applies at the global level as in individual societies. Setting aside directly egalitarian reasons for concern about global inequality, this paper explores several reasons for concern that derive from nonegalitarian values – primarily those associated with poverty and material deprivation, humiliation, the impact of inequality on the capacity for self-control and self-government, and the unfairness of political decision-making procedures with large economic inequalities in the background.

Book
15 Oct 2001
TL;DR: The creation of the future is no defense or promotion of the status quo as discussed by the authors, but rather a call for renewal through the application of old virtues to new realities and a rededication to teaching as a moral vocation.
Abstract: Is the university a dinosaur: huge, lumbering, endearing in its own way, yet unsuited to today's world? Is it a thing of the past, unnecessary in an age of the Internet and online learning? In a book likely to provoke people who are loyal to the ideal of the university as well as those who foresee its demise, Frank H. T. Rhodes acknowledges that the university is an imperfect institution, but argues that it plays an essential role in modern society. In the process, he articulates strong opinions on a range of difficult issues. The Creation of the Future is no defense or promotion of the status quo. Focusing on American research universities, Rhodes makes the case that they are an irreplaceable resource, quite literally a national and international treasure, whose value must be preserved through judicious renewal and reform, beginning with a rededication to teaching as a moral vocation. Rhodes discusses where the research university is today and how it got here, as well as where it must go in the future. In the process, he addresses a wide range of contemporary challenges facing the institution, including *why universities can no longer be "ivory towers" *why post-tenure review of professors is desirable *whether grading standards have become too lax *why unionization of graduate students is inappropriate *why affirmative action is necessary *how governance and leadership can be improved *how to maintain a sense of commitment to the university in the face of increasing disciplinary specialization *why faculty must affirm that university membership has not only its privileges, but also its price. *what should and should not be done to control the rapid rise in tuition. *whether curricula of professional schools should be more heavily weighted toward the liberal arts. *why service is a social obligation of all universities, not just land-grant institutions. *why research is vital to effective teaching. His eighteen-year tenure as president of Cornell University gives Rhodes a unique perspective on a system he finds both invaluable and in need of change. Although he is an enthusiastic advocate, he pulls no punches in recommending sweeping changes. The greatest catastrophe facing universities today, he writes, is loss of community: "Without community, knowledge becomes idiosyncratic. The lone learner, studying in isolation, is vulnerable to narrowness, dogmatism, and untested assumption; pursued in community, learning will be expansive and informed, contested by opposing interpretations, leavened by differing experience, and refined by alternative viewpoints." In championing a new relevance for the American research university, Rhodes argues for renewal through the application of old virtues to new realities. Campus culture, he says, must embrace the human experience in all its richness, breadth, and ambiguity if it is to survive and thrive.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article integrated a broad range of gift-giving literature into a conceptual framework that put the all too often overlooked construct of personal value at its core and established clear categories for breaking the giving process into easily examinable elements, and argued that although the concept of value is not a simple one, it should be central to any examination of the gift giving phenomenon.
Abstract: This article integrates a broad range of gift-giving literature into a conceptual framework that puts the all too often overlooked construct of personal value at its core Although there have been substantial contributions from the fields of anthropology, sociology, economics, and consumer behavior, efforts to model gift giving have failed to put the value of the gift-giving experience at the center of the exchange Within this article, a model of the gift-giving experience that overcomes this critical shortcoming is proposed The model establishes clear categories for breaking the giving process into easily examinable elements, and it is argued that although the concept of value is not a simple one, it should be central to any examination of the gift-giving phenomenon © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Gastronomy, the selection, preparation, presentation, and participation with culinary and gastronomic aspects of food, falls squarely into this category of fine art activity as discussed by the authors since most societies seek to differentiate their food preparation into either the purely utilitarian or the highly developed and stylised methods of presentation and participation which, in many instances, are not designed for consumption merely, but also for status, ritualistic and aesthetic purposes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that “balance of nature” has constricted the meaning ofmathematical equilibrium in population ecology, and suggests that themetaphor was and continues to be a constitutive part of ecological theories.
Abstract: I claim that the "balance of nature" metaphor is shorthand for a paradigmatic view of nature as a beneficent force. I trace the historical origins of this concept and demonstrate that it operates today in the discipline of population ecology. Although it might be suspected that this metaphor is a pre-theoretic description of the more precisely defined notion of equi- librium, I demonstrate that "balance of nature" has constricted the meaning of mathematical equilibrium in population ecology. As well as influencing the meaning of equilibrium, the metaphor has also loaded the mathematical term with values. Environmentalists and critics use this conflation of meaning and value to their advantage. This interplay between the "balance of nature" and equilibrium fits an interactionist interpretation of the role of metaphor in science. However, it seems the interaction is asymmetric, and the "balance of nature" metaphor has had a larger influence on mathematical equilibrium than vice versa. This disproportionate influence suggests that the metaphor was and continues to be a constitutive part of ecological theories.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article used data from a national telephone survey to test a model of how various value trade-off measures influence citizens' initial tolerance decisions, as well as their willingness to stick to that judgment in the face of counterarguments.
Abstract: While students of political tolerance often view tolerance decisions as a trade-off between opposing values (civil liberties versus other values), there have been few explicit attempts to formulate and test such a multiple-values model. With rare exception, researchers typically examine linkages between tolerance judgments and a single value constellation (civil liberties or general norms of democracy) without examining directly the way people rank competing values. In this essay, we use data from a national telephone survey to test a model of how various value trade-off measures (e.g., value conflict) influence citizens' initial tolerance decisions, as well as their willingness to stick to that judgment in the face of counter-arguments (i.e., the pliability of the initial baseline judgment). We find that while value conflict is often associated with greater political forbearance of disliked groups (e.g., the Klan, flag burners), greater conflict also makes individuals more susceptible to counter-argument...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that teachers and school administrators tend to subscribe to the dominant beliefs that low-income parents do not care about their children's schooling, are not competent to help with homework, do not encourage achievement, and do not place a high value on education.
Abstract: This article addresses the responses likely to be received by low-income parents from teachers and staff in their children’s public schools in the United States. A review of the relevant literature reveals that teachers and school administrators tend to subscribe to the dominant beliefs that low-income parents do not care about their children’s schooling, are not competent to help with homework, do not encourage achievement, and do not place a high value on education. This article presents examples of such middle-class bias in the words and actions of individual teachers, and research findings that tend to contradict these stereotypes. The barriers that exist for low-income parents in interacting with the schools are discussed, and suggestions are offered for ways in which schools can recognize and respect the standpoint and potential contributions of these parents.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Although its advocates tout EBP as an imperative for social workers, others have raised questions regarding potential drawbacks of this approach, and issues that social workers should consider are identified.
Abstract: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is one of the predominant new ways of thinking about what social workers should do in their practice and how they should decide to do it. EBP involves using the "best available" evidence, often interpreted to mean research-based "knowledge," about specific types of practices with particular problems. Although its advocates tout EBP as an imperative for social workers, others have raised questions regarding potential drawbacks of this approach. This editorial is intended neither to advocate nor to oppose EBP, but rather to identify issues that we believe social workers should consider. Origins and Characteristics of EBP Before there was EBP, there was EBM--"evidence-based medicine"--a didactic approach first used with medical students in Canada and later applied to the solution of clinical problems. Widely adopted in the United Kingdom, and increasingly in the United States, EBM is used to determine the most desirable ways to promote health and especially to treat illnesses. Its more general form, EBP, has become a major dimension of professional education in the United Kingdom and a way of attempting to arrive at a consensus about what collective bodies of research findings have to recommend. Gambrill's (1999) thoughtful and informative article advocating EBP in social work documents some of these fundamental and influential British sources. The medical origins of EBP are evident in the value placed on randomized clinical trials, similar to what social workers call experimental designs. Information generated by randomized clinical trials is taken to be the "gold standard" of evidence. Although results from studies using less traditional research controls such as case accounts are used by EBP, they occupy a lower status in the hierarchy of credible evidence. Judgments about evidence also are based on systematic reviews of treatment-outcome studies and meta-analyses that aggregate several research studies statistically. Assessing such evidence is a complex process requiring a high level of research sophistication and knowledge of the subject matter. For example, even with a large group of randomized clinical trials on a topic, small alterations in the definitions of problems or "interventions" can lead to changes in what is considered best practice. A review of readily accessible online reports of EBP or evidence-based medicine studies (see, for e xample, Research Triangle Institute, 2000) shows that various types of "psychosocial" treatments are sometimes aggregated across studies, and that medically precise definitions of "outcomes" may be hard to reconcile with social workers' espoused views of taking into account all relevant aspects of a social situation. Social Work and EBP Today, EBP has become a common term in many professions, including social work. Attempts to deal seriously with systematic evidence as a way to reduce uncertainty and improve practice have a long history in social work, as anyone familiar with the extended and legally oriented presentation concerning evidence as a basis for social work in Mary Richmond's Social Diagnosis (1917) will recall. Similarly, social surveys historically have provided evidence of the existence and effects of structural inequalities in society, often with suggestions for reform and documentation of the social benefits of reforms. The contemporary social work version of EBP (like its predecessor, empirical clinical practice) is focused more on weeding out ineffective therapies and practices and recommending interventions that logically are related to predetermined changes. Social workers' current advocacy or adoption of EBP can be thought of as an expression of the profession's recent attention to research activities and ways of thinking. The idea of systematically basing our practice on scientific evidence is appealing in our "tell me what works" society. Paralleling medicine to a degree not seen in years, recent concerted efforts to place social work in the mainstream of scientifically oriented professions can be considered the enactment of cultural beliefs about what a profession should do and be. …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the terminal and instrumental value systems of leaders with those of leaders who are less transformational, using a sample of 95 pairs of leaders and subordinates of a non-profit organization in the United States.
Abstract: This study attempts to draw a value profile of a transformational leader – the leader who transforms people and organizations. It compares the terminal and instrumental value systems of leaders who are more transformational with those of leaders who are less transformational, using a sample of 95 pairs of leaders and subordinates of a non‐profit organization in the United States. Findings reveal that transformational leaders do have some identifiable patterns in their value systems. They give relatively high priority to “a world at peace” and “responsible”, and relatively low priority to “a world of beauty”, “national security”, “intellectual”, and “cheerful”. Results also suggest that transformational leaders might give greater importance to values pertaining to others than to values concerning only themselves.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: One principle and three fallacies of disability studies are illustrated, which show that all persons are equal and none are less equal than others and that exercising choice in reproduction with the aim of producing children who will be either less damaged or diseased, or more healthy, or who will have enhanced capacities, violates the principle.
Abstract: My critics in this symposium illustrate one principle and three fallacies of disability studies. The principle, which we all share, is that all persons are equal and none are less equal than others. No disability, however slight, nor however severe, implies lesser moral, political or ethical status, worth or value. This is a version of the principle of equality. The three fallacies exhibited by some or all of my critics are the following: (1) Choosing to repair damage or dysfunction or to enhance function, implies either that the previous state is intolerable or that the person in that state is of lesser value or indicates that the individual in that state has a life that is not worthwhile or not thoroughly worth living. None of these implications hold. (2) Exercising choice in reproduction with the aim of producing children who will be either less damaged or diseased, or more healthy, or who will have enhanced capacities, violates the principle or equality. It does not. (3) Disability or impairment must be defined relative either to normalcy, "normal species functioning", or "species typical functioning". It is not necessarily so defined.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the use of a concept of progress in the writing of history from the eighteenth century, and analysed its use, together with that of evolution, in "traditional" accounting history.
Abstract: The "new" accounting historians that emerged from the mid-1980s characterised their predecessors as relying heavily on a view of accounting as progressive and accounting change as evolutionary. From a social science perspective, progress is a problematic concept, as it implies not just change but also improvement, and thus seems to imply the making of a value judgement. As accounting has become an object of study less as a technical and more as a social phenomenon, consensus as to what constitutes an improvement becomes harder to secure. However, from a perspective grounded in historiography, this paper reviews the use of a concept of progress in the writing of history from the eighteenth century, and analyses its use, together with that of a concept of evolution, in "traditional" accounting history. Appealing to recent developments in the understanding of the role of narrative in history, the paper suggests that the use of narratives of accounting progress should not be ruled out on a priori grounds.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The notion of milieu is in the process of becoming a universal and obligatory means of registering the experience and existence of living things, and one could almost speak of its constitution as a basic category of contemporary thought as mentioned in this paper. But until now, the historical stages of the formation of the concept, its diverse uses, as well as the successive reconfigurations of the relationships in which it takes part, whether in geography, biology, psychology, technology or social and economic history, all make it rather difficult to make out a coherent whole.
Abstract: The notion of milieu is in the process of becoming a universal and obligatory means of registering the experience and existence of living things, and one could almost speak of its constitution as a basic category of contemporary thought.' But until now, the historical stages of the formation of the concept, its diverse uses, as well as the successive reconfigurations of the relationships in which it takes part, whether in geography, biology, psychology, technology, or social and economic history, all make it rather difficult to make out a coherent whole. For this reason philosophy must, here, initiate a synoptic study of the meaning and value of the concept. By "initiate" I do not simply mean the pretense of an initiative that would consist in taking a series of scientific investigations for reality and then confronting expectations with results. Rather, it is a question of using several approaches and engaging them in a critical confrontation with each other to locate, if possible, their common point of departure and to explore its potential richness for a philosophy of nature that focuses on the problem of individuality. It is therefore appropriate to examine the simultaneous and successive elements of the notion of milieu each in turn, the various usages of this notion from 1800 to the present, the many inversions of the relationship between organism and milieu, and finally the general philosophical impact of these inversions. Historically considered, the notion and the term "milieu" are imported from mechanics to biology in the second half of the eighteenth century. The mechanical idea, but not the term, appears with Newton, and the word "milieu" is present in d'Alembert and Diderot's Encyclopedia with its mechanical meaning, in the article of the same name. It is introduced to biology by Lamarck, who was himself inspired by Buffon, though he never used the term other than in the plural. De Blainville seals this usage. Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1831 and Comte in 1838 use the term in the singular, in an abstract sense. Balzac opens the gates to literature in 1842, in the preface of the Comrdie Humaine, and it is Taine who first uses it as one of the three analytical principles used to explain history, the two others being race and event, as is well known. It is more due to Taine than Lamarck himself that neoLamarckian biologists in post-1870 France, such as Giard, Le Dantec, Houssay, Costantin, Gaston Bonnier, and Roule, use this term. They get the idea, in a sense, from Lamarck, but the

Journal Article
TL;DR: The body is made for earthly space, as--in an immediate sense--earthly space becomes manifest through the perceiving and feeling body as discussed by the authors, which is why traditional geographies or pictures of the earth are deeply imprinted by the body.
Abstract: TRADITIONALLY," which is to say in most times and places prior to the "New Geography" of early modern Europe, the tie between the body and geography ("description of the earth") has been primordial, intimate, and manifold. According to modern phenomenology, the body is made for earthly space, as--in an immediate sense--earthly space becomes manifest through the perceiving and feeling body. Bodies not only perceive space or things-in-space through any combination of their five senses, but their very design--their "handedness," their slightly uneven bifurcatedness--orientates or situates them qualitatively within space and fits them to manipulate things-in-space. Bipedalism not only equips the body to move through space but propels it as well. Little wonder, then, if traditional geographies or pictures of the earth are deeply imprinted by the body. One primordial entail of the body is "the practice of dividing the circle of the horizon into four cardinal directions," which (as a historian of religion writes) "is almost universal." Only with the development of a concept of azimuth (whereby one point was fixed on the horizon) did this directional scheme become "more abstract and useful." Azimuth itself, however, is also keyed to the body; to the felt value of one direction over (and indeed against) another. East is sacralized in Jewish and Christian tradition ("and, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came by the way of the East," Numbers 2.2.3). West and north are ominous. However, as east is (roughly) the direction of the rising sun, it tended to be sacralized by other religions as well. For this reason, and because of the growing importance of Jerusalem, the Jewish (and the traditional Christian) geographies tended to be keyed to Jerusalem as to a sacred center rather than to the sacred direction. As such, they resembled other omphalos- (or navel) centered cosmographies, such as ancient Greek and Chinese. In such cosmographies, geographic boundaries are equally valorized if somewhat paradoxical. Conceding that there is indeed earth beyond the boundaries of the earth, such boundaries assert the limits of the properly human or habitable. Beyond the limits of the Greek oikumene (or "house-world") are wild beasts, monstrous bodies, impassible deserts, mountains, ocean, insufferable heat or cold. Even within the oikumene, the rooms (continents) were of variable quality. Following Herodotus, the Hippocratic treatise Airs Waters Places pronounces that Europeans "will be well nourished, of very fine physique and very tall," because Europe is "situated midway between the heat and the cold [and] is very fruitful ... very mild." Asiatics, on the other hand, are "less homogeneous ... because of the changes of the seasons and the character of the region." If human races tend to be geographically imprinted in traditional geographies, so too the geographic image--the imago mundi--fairly glows with affect. (To the Beowulf poet, the earth is "wlite-beorhtne wang, swa waeter bebugeth" or "a gleaming plain girdled with waters.") From late Roman thought (primarily Macrobius) into the Renaissance, it was commonplace to think of the world as a macrocosm in which the human body was recapitulated as microcosm. Again, the "world of earth" (Orbis Terrarum) was astrologically predicated by the environing spheres. In all these contexts, the primary fact about early modern geography is the emptying of the body from the world picture. The so-called "New Geography" can be thought of as an amalgam of the new geographic discoveries (vast new lands and oceans) with the dramatic developments in cartographic science that had made these discoveries possible. In none of the three standard narratives of the New Geography is the body a real player. For the post-Baconian, scientistic narrative, the key development is an "objective" spatial awareness predicated on a mathematical "graticule" (keyed to itself alone) from which precisely the bodily "geography of myth and dogma" is absent. …