How Good Policies And Business Ethics Enhance Good Quality Of Life

This volume provides bridges from the social sciences to business ethics and from the latter to the quality of life, by connecting the research themes of quality of life, social sciences, including public policy-making, and business ethics or corporate responsibility. It builds on the premise that public policy making is essentially a species of good decision making, as explained in the first volume. It shows that, because most developed countries function as market economies whose governments depend on taxation to pay for their services and because a large proportion of government revenue comes from well-regulated, responsible corporations, the quality of people’s lives is highly dependent upon good public policies, taxation and business ethics. The volume presents and examines ethical/moral problems arising in market economies since the first century BCE, including the first appearance of the business case for business ethics, fourteen arguments concerning the neglect of business ethics, business ethics issues for the 1990s and beyond, the loyal agent’s argument, advertising, the importance of trust, public opinion polling, public program evaluation, and a critique of the relatively new monster of super-capitalism. In addition, it deals with connections among the concepts of efficiency, morality, and rationality related to decision making in general and public policy making in particular. Finally, it explains relationships between outcomes measurement and performance indicators in general and performance-based management in public administration, the taxation of net wealth and financial transactions.

Maintaining solid corporate ethics goes beyond just being a ‘feel good’ story or a good public relations angle. Organizations that demonstrate strong ethical commitments can gain a real competitive advantage over others by keeping employees happy and productive and keeping customers satisfied and loyal, while avoiding some of the unexpected pitfalls that may beset a less ethical organization. These factors all lead to a more stable and consistent organization, and will improve the bottom line and drives higher profits. The erosion of business ethics affects everyone, from the employees laid off, stockholders losing investments, to customers paying a higher price or receiving lesser quality. In Bringing Business Ethics to Life: Achieving Corporate Social Responsibility, best selling author Bjørn Andersen has written an easy to read yet powerful book demonstrating the need for solid ethics in every organization. Andersen first explains the importance of creating a strong ethical culture within every organization, demonstrating the positive effects it will have throughout the business. He then shows how business leaders can make this happen, by introducing a holistic value-driven and ethically based model of leadership and management that can bring about dramatic changes for any organization.

This first volume has as its main focus the philosophical foundations of Michalos’ work and describes it in the broad context of the study of logic, the philosophy of social sciences, and a general theory of value. After distinguishing things that have value from the value that things might have, it describes the foundations of a pragmatic theory of value. This theory plays a key role in the author’s research on the quality of life and connects his empirical research to the philosophical tradition of the American pragmatists William James, Ralph Barton Perry, John Dewey and Clarence Irving Lewis. The volume addresses various aspects and issues concerning decision making, including decision procedures used in committees, used for assessing the acceptability of scientific theories and new technologies, procedures for a science court, ethical issues involved in the formation of beliefs, some limitations of classical economists’ alleged postulates of rational preference, and the importance of analytic guides to decision making. Finally, it describes the organization of the Social Sciences Federation of Canada and a formal accounting system for scientific research.

The focus of this volume is on the further development of the Quality of Life Theory and the means to measure the concept. The volume summarizes Michalos’ fundamental assumptions about the nature of quality of life or human well-being and explains in detail the two variable theory of the quality of life. It gives an update of the journal Social Indicators Research after forty years, an explanation of the role of community indicators in connecting communities, and a critical review of the much publicized Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi report. It deals with the multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), the empirical theory designed to provide the foundation of the pragmatic theory of value. Other concepts discussed in this volume are the stability, sensitivity, and other different features of measures of domain and life satisfaction and happiness, measures of arts-related activities and beliefs, measures of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour concerning sustainable development, and the role of quality of life in sustainable development research. The volume concludes with discussions on connections between social indicators and communities, aspects of community quality of life in Prince George, British Columbia and Jasper, Alberta, and British Columbians’ expectations and attitudes going into the third millennium.

This volume connects aspects of personal health, overall well-being, and education to quality of life. It includes discussions of Galen’s and Harvey’s views of the movement of blood in human bodies, and differences in the research traditions of social indicators research and health-related quality of life research. It examines determinants of health and quality of life in a variety of populations, including the residents of the Bella Coola Valley of British Columbia, aboriginal residential school survivors in Canada, and diabetics versus non-diabetics. It describes relations between health survey and patients’ medical chart reviews, the health and quality of life of older people, and the difference between good health and a good life. Other topics explored are student quality of life, comparisons of the quality of life of students, aboriginal and unemployed people, the impact of education on happiness and well-being, and liberal education. In addition, the volume presents Einstein’s views of ethics and science, and unacknowledged authorship in scholarly publications. The final chapter gives a historical review of quality of life research in Canada over the past fifty years.

This book provides new and original research on the purpose and functions of universities from the perspective of corporate social responsibility. It addresses professional ethics questions that relate to universities as corporate citizens. Divided into two sections, the book starts out with an examination of the concept of universities. It explores the differences between historic and contemporary universities, the history and nature of university governance, the role of higher education, and the problem of domination and subjugation in a management context. The second section looks at the faculty, the students, and the role of spirituality in the university and research. It examines such themes as the nature of faculty and professors, faculty as change agents, diversity, inclusivity and incivility, academic integrity, citizenship of students, and ethical responsibility of researchers. The book calls on the expertise from both the fields of business and professional ethics and university management and leadership. It approaches the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective.

This book provides students and academics with a comprehensive analysis of the theory and practice of branding. The challenge to explore new and effective ways of harnessing the power of communication to engage with company stakeholders in interactive, immediate and innovative ways is ever-present in the digital era. Digital marketing and social media create opportunities for managers to communicate their brand’s identity to their consumers and stakeholders. Yet, limited empirical research exists to elucidate these issues, and less still that assists our understanding of branding issues at an international level. Recognising the complexity and plurality at the heart of the branding discipline, this text explores the relationship between brands, identity and stakeholders. Working through building, designing and maintaining a brand, the authors consider such aspects as strategic planning and campaign management, research and measurement, media relations, employee communication, leadership and change communication, and crisis branding. Critically, differing methods and approaches applied to branding and communication research design are assessed, including both qualitative and quantative methods. Proposing a mixture of theory and practice with international case studies, this book is an invaluable companion for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics of marketing and strategic brand management, as well as managers and decision makers globally.

Cultural differences among nations are being recognized as critically important for the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agendas of multinational companies. For this reason, the past few years have shown an increase in comparative studies seeking to identify the role played by cultural dimensions in CSR engagement, performances, and communications. Linking Cultural Dimensions and CSR Communication: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research on evaluating how cultural dimensions, reflected in CSR content embedded on corporate websites, vary between the Asian context and the other countries in the world and considering how these factors affect societies and business ethics. While highlighting topics including business ethics, corporate philanthropy, and stakeholder engagement, this book is ideally designed for managers, business professionals, academicians, and researchers.