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The paper stresses the failure of 'economics' to predict and prevent repeated economic crises and the most critical topic of the environmental failure and ecological crises, founded also on economic theories and misconceived choices. The implication is a search for alternatives through an ontological-evolutionary-institutional approach and empirical investigations. The search for political 'normative economics', entity economics, accounting and information science copes with social and ecological-environmental problems, and systems science; it is necessary to keep always in mind these interactions for fully understand and correctly interpret the present 'social-economic reality'. The problem concerning environmental decisions goes beyond ontology and belongs to ethics. It must underline the debates on 'evolutionary ethics', not only related with 'environmental and ecological economics', the management of environment and reporting, but also with 'evolutionary ontology'; the new perspective affirms that 'existence', for instance, of a moral behavioral attitude, can reveal itself as a 'norm' thus relating ethics to ontology. General economists, entity economics theorists, as well as accountants and information scientists should be familiar with the potentials and limits of 'ontology', also for the ongoing expansion of computerization of scientific research in most of the scientific domains. The renewed interest, particularly in ontology, arouse specifically from systems scientists in constructing a wide variety of artificial intelligent systems. For its analysis, the study has been structured into two periods of time: until the middle of the 20th century and from that moment on. The paper ends by showing the new developments in information systems and their ontological approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread neoliberal approaches to education consider schools increasingly accountable for self-management and 'client' recruitment, encapsulating economic ideologies that assume privatisation is essential for social progress. With an ever-shifting landscape of market-driven policies and the increasing growth of private education settings, more research is needed to cast light on emerging or under-researched aspects of autonomous schools. Located within a U.S. state that has strict constraints on tax subsidies for religious K-12 education, this paper investigates how an extensive form of decentralisation corresponds with schools' discipline and ethical environment. It analyses teacher interviews and web documents from faith-based, autonomous schools in a state that has devolved power and authority for decision-making to parents and other independent 'agents', having a distanced relationship with its nonstate 'actors'. The paper follows Foucault's use of the metaphor of the panopticon and adopts his power analysis to examine the nature of parental control and its influence on disciplinary and ethical practices. Evidence suggests that these autonomous schools are driven by a 'mini-public' ideology that constrains educators' autonomy and generates particular disciplinary norms; entangling ethical, educational, and social ramifications, including teacher resistance and teacher demoralisation. Implications for policy are discussed in this context of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Chengdu University (Social Science) is the property of Journal of Chengdu University (Social Science Edition) Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature is the property of Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate certified public accountants' (CPAs) perceptions of their ethical environments. More specifically, we compare the perceptions of CPAs in (1) public accounting firms to those in industry, and (2) perceptions of CPAs at Big 4 public accounting firms to those at non-Big 4 firms. The ethical environment is one component of overall organizational culture and is important for encouraging ethical decision making. Based on responses from 904 CPAs, we find CPAs working at public accounting firms perceive their ethical environments as significantly stronger than CPAs in industry (and other nonpublic accounting work settings). Additionally, within public accounting, CPAs at Big 4 firms perceive their ethical environments as significantly stronger than those working at non-Big 4 accounting firms. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical of McEwan's 'shock of literature,' The Cement Garden not only generates a sense of shock and uneasiness for the reader but also foregrounds a number of ethical issues for us to ponder. Adopting a perspective of ethical literary criticism and its attendant conceptual framework as formulated by Nie Zhenzhao, this paper examines the problems that the fictional figures Jack, Julie, Tom, and Sue encounter. In particular, it argues that owing to the untimely death of their parents, Jack and his siblings have lost their moral models to follow, which makes it difficult to acquire ethical consciousness and formulate ethical norms. In the meantime, the animal factor in Jack and his siblings frequently takes control over the human factors, and they are thus prevented from maintaining ethical consciousness and behaviors based on reason. Taking on inappropriate identities and driven by incestuous desire, Jack and his siblings eventually create an ethical chaos within the fictional world. Viewed in this light, the novel not only reveals the puzzles and difficulties of children's self-development but also suggests that, after their biological selection, human beings must carry out an ethical selection as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of assessment is constantly evolving and systematically scrutinised within the realm of higher education. It is often argued that students learn faster and more effectively when they have a clear sense of how they are doing and how they can improve through the use of consistent and timely feedback. This paper presents research with a group of second-year undergraduates, using an adapted patchwork text assessment method to explore wider issues of the ethical environment within which assessment takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the relationship between the existence of private schools and public attitudes towards questions about educational provision. Data from the 2010 British Social Attitudes survey suggest that parents who choose to send children to private schools may become more entrenched in their support for more extensive forms of parental partiality, with potential ramifications for the future supporting of progressive education policy. We suggest that addressing questions about the existence of certain forms of education and school choice policies requires consideration of the broader ethical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature is the property of Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the world have found themselves faced with new challenges on issues of ethics. Much of this has been centred on issues of assessment: plagiarism, buying essays, sharing/lending of previously passed work and the stealing of marked/returned work of others. Institutions still treat academic misconduct as largely a behavioural difficulty rather than an issue of ethics (or education), suggesting that academia places a far greater emphasis on combating new forms of dishonesty than it does on encouraging ethical habits and a healthy ethical environment. To date, the majority of research in this area has examined these forms of academic misconduct from the point of view of the student and/or the university, with the perspective of academics receiving very limited attention. Our hypothesis is that academics are perhaps best placed to provide the education needed to create and sustain an ethical environment, and we argue that being 'ethically aware' is a critical factor in the development of academic competence for all parties. This study adds to existing research in three ways: firstly, by highlighting the importance of an overall framework for an ethical environment within HEIs; secondly, by suggesting an ecological model of key parties (the university, students and academics) with responsibility for this environment in assessment; and thirdly, by including new evidence (generated by a survey of academics) to extend our understanding of their views on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple incidents of misconduct have strengthened the need to foster ethical behavior in organizations. Unfortunately, the reasons why some people tend to ignore ethical considerations are largely unclear. In particular, comprehensive analyses in the context of management accounting are still rare. As a distinctive characteristic, our study therefore aims at generating more knowledge about the driving factors in ethical decision-making processes of professional management accountants and thus complements findings of experimental studies in other fields. Based on survey data from 90 international management accountants, we find evidence that the ethical environment strongly affects management accountants' tendency not to engage in ethically questionable behavior. In detail, our results support the notion that the connection between ethical awareness and the intention to engage in ethically questionable behavior is rather indirect and also mediated by the level of ethical experience, i.e., individuals' exposure to ethical role models in organizations. In sum, our research study helps to disentangle the ethical decision-making process of professional management accountants and illustrates that ethical environments are necessary to enforce adequate ethical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the associations among COSO components and how they affect the monitoring function of organisations. Five components of an effective internal control system are described using the framework designed by COSO (1992) and have been selected because they have been identified as underpinning quality corporate governance. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used first to run confirmatory factor analysis to determine the measurement models for the five COSO components. The COSO report (1992) described the internal control framework as a multidirectional iterative and situational (contingent) process. The primary structural model was designed to reflect the one-way directional associations in the model described and shown in Exhibit 1 within the COSO report (1992). SEM analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. Additional secondary SEM analyses were undertaken to investigate the reciprocal associations suggested in the COSO report (1992). Findings from the primary SEM analysis provide partial support for associations among the COSO components and enhanced monitoring quality that leads to good corporate governance. The results show that control environment is associated with three dimensions of information and communication (information accuracy, information openness, communication and learning). Additionally, two dimensions of information and communication (communication and learning and information feedback flow) were found to be associated with risk assessment. An indirect association is supported by the results between control environment and risk assessment through the associations among three dimensions of information and communication (information accuracy, information openness and information feedback flow. Risk assessment is associated with control activities, which is subsequently associated with monitoring. The results of the additional secondary SEM analyses supported the reciprocal associations among risk assessment, control activities, or monitoring and dimensions of information and communication, as are suggested in the COSO report (1992). Companies that draw on COSO’s internal control framework should benefit from a better understanding of the direct, indirect, and reciprocal associations among the components of internal control systems. The benefits gained from this better understanding may assist companies to enhance their corporate governance practices that lead to the achievement of operational, financial reporting and compliance objectives.

This article highlights the importance of ethical environment in enhancing organizational performance. It is vital that organizations set ethical standards for their employees alongside providing an environment that fosters trust and commitment, provides leadership, and creates a high quality of workforce to improve organizational performance. To study the impact of ethical environment on organizational performance, we employ elements from André de Waal’s high-performance organization (HPO) framework. Data for this study come from a national survey conducted in four states in the United States, which are classified as at-will employment states: Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Florida. We find evidence that ethical environment plays an important role in determining organizational performance. This is particularly important in the context of at-will employment, where state governments are facing the challenge to maintain employee commitment while improving organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A public accounting firm's ethical environment has an important role in encouraging ethical behavior, but prior research has shown that firm leaders (e.g., partners) perceive the ethical environment of their firms to be stronger than do non-leaders (Bobek et al. J Bus Ethics 92(4): 637-654, ). This study draws on several research streams in management to investigate the reasons behind this discrepancy. Our online questionnaire was completed by 139 accounting professionals. We find that when non-leader accounting professionals believe that they have a meaningful role in shaping and maintaining the ethical environment and/or have strong organizational fit with the accounting firm, they are more likely to perceive the ethical environment as strong and to perceive it similarly to firm leaders. That is, differences in leaders' and non-leaders' perceptions of the ethical environment are mediated by non-leaders' perceptions of their role in participating in shaping and maintaining the ethical environment of their firms. Further, we find that among firm leaders, a stronger public interest orientation (i.e., feeling a responsibility to serve the public interest) and a higher frequency of receiving mentoring are both associated with stronger perceptions of the ethical environment. Overall, our study is one of the first to directly test potential explanations for why firm leaders and non-leaders can have disparate views of a firm's ethical environment. In addition, these findings provide practical feedback to practitioners on actions they can take to improve perceptions of their firms' ethical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ethical environment in an organization is believed to be one of the major keys for its success. Ethical environment is achieved via its main asset, its employees. Employees work as a team and acquire a set of organizational values that can guide them throughout their decision making process. Implementing such a culture creates a healthy environment and in return a healthy chain with the different participants in the activities of the organization based on trust. This chain includes customers, suppliers, employees and the community as a whole. The intention of this study is to investigate and analyze the different performance factors that ethics in an organization can influence. In particular, the particular characteristics of ethical behaviors in Lebanese organizations affecting performance and employees' involvement, commitment and motivation are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of the Machiavellianism construct on informing a wide range of ethics research, we focus on gaining a better understanding of Machiavellianism within the whistle-blower context. In this regard, we examine the effect of Machiavellianism on whistle-blowing, focusing on the underlying mechanisms through which Machiavellianism affects whistle-blowing. Further, because individuals who are higher in Machiavellianism (high Machs) are expected to be less likely to report wrongdoing, we examine the ability of an organization's ethical environment to increase whistle-blowing intentions of high Machs. Results from a sample of 116 MBA students support our premise that Machiavellianism is negatively related to whistle-blowing. Further, we find that Machiavellianism has an indirect effect on whistle-blowing through perceived benefits and perceived responsibility. Finally, we find that a strong ethical environment, relative to a weak ethical environment, increases whistle-blowing intentions incrementally more for individuals who are higher in Machiavellianism. Taken together, these findings extend our understanding of how Machiavellianism and an organization's ethical environment impact whistle-blowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most large companies and many smaller ones have adopted ethics codes, but the evidence is mixed as to whether they have a positive impact on the behavior of employees. We suggest that one way that ethics codes could contribute to ethical behavior is by influencing the perceptions that employees have about the ethical values of organizations. We examine whether a group of sales professionals in organizations with ethics codes perceive that their organizational context is more supportive of ethical behavior than sales professionals in companies without codes. After accounting for the effect of several covariates, our results indicated that sales professionals employed in organizations with codes of ethics perceived their work environments to have more positive ethical values than did other sales professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more women enter the work force and assume management positions in corporations, increasing attention is being given to employment diversity. In addition, studies suggest that females have more propensity for ethics than males. However, these results may be debatable and limited data are available to substantiate these claims or assess gender differences among employees. Ethics codes can aid in supporting policies and enhancing corporate diversity. To assist one company in the development of an ethics code, a survey of 4005 employees in one U.S. corporation was conducted to ascertain their opinions of the ethical environment of the company. The survey used the Ethics Environment Questionnaire (EEQ), consisting of twenty items on a 5-point Likert-type scale; reliability on Cronbach's alpha was 0.94. Response rate was 50%, with the sample paralleling the population in proportion of males and females. Respondents reported a profile of 3.18 out of the high of 5.0, but with several significant differences between the male and female employees, including differences on education and position. Males were more in agreement than females that the firm had an ethical environment. On some items, however, males and females were in strong agreement. Comparisons to prior studies were drawn, including suggestions for ways corporations could use an ethics survey to tailor in-service training, enhance diversity in the work force, and support the development of an ethics code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "ethical environment of business" provides a constructive frame of reference for business ethics instruction. As illustrated by a suggested role play about foreign sweatshops, it provides a realistic, problem-solving context for the study of moral and ethical ideas. Once ethical behavior is viewed through this paradigm, students can better see how business policies are shaped by ethics and prepare themselves to react to their own ethical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]