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MANAGING CORPORATE ETHICS

Name: MANAGING CORPORATE ETHICS
Author: Francis J. Aguilar
ISBN: 0-19-508534-5

by Francis J. Aguilar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1994

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A can't-hurt handbook for executives that promises (pleasingly if unpersuasively) that ethical conduct can enhance the performance of an already well-run enterprise. In an apparent effort to impose a measure of order on a subject that's as amorphous as it is equivocal, Aguilar (Harvard Business School) relies on anecdotal evidence gathered from 20 widely respected companies that differ as to size, complexity, and operations. Their ranks encompass the blue-chip likes of Armstrong World Industries, Gray Research, Dow-Jones, General Mills, Hewlett- Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Lincoln Electric, Procter & Gamble, ServiceMaster, and Texas Instruments. Among other common denominators, the author notes that the firms in his sample tend to be happy ships whose officers steer them clear of improprieties or moral dilemmas and deal effectively with such problems as they arise. Drawing mainly on material developed at his case-study firms, Aguilar offers unexceptional if general guidance on the importance of top management's commitment to high behavioral standards, the difficulties typically attendant to getting from principle to practice (e.g., via policy statement), ensuring that benchmark requirements do not wind up more honored in the breach than the observance, and otherwise elevating or renewing an organization's ethical character. At best, he earns a Scotch verdict on his claim that consistently and purposefully good conduct improves results. The author also seems to have accepted the arguable, expansive stakeholder concept—i.e., that corporations have categorical obligations to varied constituencies (creditors, customers, host communities, vendors, et al.) on a par with the duties owed their owners (meaning investors). In brief, then, a series of object lessons documenting in no great depth how presumptively model concerns deal with the ethical challenges that are a workaday consequence of being in business.

Pub Date: March 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-19-508534-5

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994

Categories:

BUSINESS | LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION | GENERAL BUSINESS

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

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A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

Categories:

BUSINESS | PSYCHOLOGY

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

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A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.