A Plea for the Importance of Business Ethics Education for Future Managers in an International Competitive Environment

Author(s): Marian Năstase,Diana Corina Gligor-Cimpoieru / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2013

Nowadays all around the globe managers are working in an ever increasingly competitive environment and their education and formation should take into account the new challenges posed by the traits of this kind environment. Though this article we try to underline the importance of business ethics education which with its various subjects, including corporate social responsibility, begins to play an important role in the education process of future managers all over the world, as a new way for approaching problems that arise in this international business environment characterises as being highly competitive for limited resources. We will analyse the roots and the premises that determined this need for change in the approach of future manager’s education, the benefits and challenges associated to this change, and we will set the premises for an analysis of the level at which this need for business ethics education for managers is understood and taken into account by the Romanian business and economics curriculum in universities.

A Short Presentation of Romanian Economy, Business Ethics and Economic Growth

Author(s): Nicoleta Vasilcovschi / Language(s): English / Issue: 13/2018

Economic development is a multidimensional process that involves improvement of social, political, legal and business platform of a nation. Over the last two decades global issues affected the international relations and businesses around the world. Globalization helped many countries to achieve their economic development nowadays, but also brought many challenges for international businesses and societies. The first part of this article presents the Romanian economic structure, the economic growth, its measurement and limitations. Then is given a general description of economic growth process, showing the benefits and costs of economic growth, the structure and impact of modern technologies for the consumers and producers who are interacting in the globalized economic system. In the second part, it is analysed the manner in which business ethics can affect economic development. In fact, in this section are evaluated the connections between technological advancement, economic growth and the enforcement of law in international affairs. This last section gives a general description concerning the role of business ethics for the economic development.

A Survey of the Autonomy, Accountability, Effectiveness and Governance of Slovak State-Owned Enterprises

Author(s): Zuzana Brinčíková,Marek Kálovec,Colin W Lawson / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

Fourteen Slovak state-owned enterprises were studied, using published data and structured interviews with management. A novel methodology is used to assess SOE autonomy, effectiveness, accountability and governance. Variations in operating conditions reflect different government objectives and different ownership models. Mixed state-private firms performed more like competitive firms than did wholly state-owned SOEs. This information was fed into an assessment of Slovak SOEs’ compliance with the 2015 OECD Guidelines on SOE Corporate Governance. There are many differences between Slovak practice and the Guidelines. This may reflect a choice to favour government interests, rather than the OECD’s inclusion of a wider group of stakeholders. One cost is foregone efficiency gains. Another is the perception that the present highly opaque governance system hides corruption.

A Sustainable Supply Chain in Clothing Industry

Author(s): Beata Milewska,Dariusz Milewski / Language(s): English / Issue: 11.3/2018

The paper addresses the issues of sustainable supply chains in the clothing industry. It points out the main threats in the areas of social and environmental risk, resulting from the location of production in the low production costs countries, i.e. Southeast Asia. The biggest social risk related to this it is the failure of manufacturers located in the Far East to comply with human rights, labor law, health and safety rules, etc. After the tragedy at the Rana Plaza clothing factory in Bangladesh, global clothing companies ordering clothing production in the Far East, including the largest Polish company clothes from LPP SA, have started to take action to improve work safety in Bangladesh. The article presents simulations carried out by the authors regarding the impact of the amount of expenditure incurred in improving the security of suppliers in Southeast Asia on the profit margins of enterprises in the clothing industry. Two options were studied – increase in expenditures, which had little impact on the reduction of profit margin, and not incurring such expenditures (hence – deterioration of opinions about the company and a decrease in revenues), which had a large impact on the profit margin. The authors presented recommendations for clothing industry companies ordering production in countries with low production costs, concerning the reduction of social risk in global supply chains.

A tale of two cities:

Achieving smarter economy through communication and virtual work

Author(s): Joshua Olusegun FAYOMI,Zainab Abdulqadir SANI / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2020

Seamless communication within and between cities allows for a tremendous increase in efficiencies, one of which is the way work can be done. When work no longer needs to be carried out only within the confines of the traditional office, it can then be done virtually and this research seeks to explore how communication influences the creation of smart economy through virtual work. Virtual work is increasingly becoming ideal for organizations as there is a rise in the quality and quantity of data that can be accessed and analysed from outside the traditional office. Smart city research has shown that has also shown that for cities to be have smart economies there needs to be seamless connection between points of information within such cities.This research begins with a detailed desk research to identify and outline the key indices for smart mobility and smart cities, leading to the proposal of a conceptual framework for evaluating two selected case studies through surveys within these cases. This research therefore builds on prior smart cities and virtual work research to establish a framework for evaluating and explaining the relationship between smart communication and smart economy and established the link between connectivity/communication to mobility, and further shows how the increase in connectivity increase virtual work which in turn leads to a smarter economy. The implications for the results from this research extends the ongoing work been done to increase efficiencies in the connection of infrastructure, human capital and information within cities which is useful to both academics and policy makers alike. The clear relationships established between virtual work and smart mobility and its mediating effect on the development of smart economy is very valuable for academic and practice.

A Treatise on the Jackass in Academe: How Arrogance and Self-Centeredness Destroy the Credibility of Higher Education

Author(s): Hershey H. Friedman,LINDA WEISER FRIEDMAN / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

There have been complaints that higher education is drowning in bullshit. Much of this is due to the various a-holes one encounters in academe. No other word can adequately describe the extremely nasty, abrasive individuals one is likely to encounter in academe who consider themselves superior to others and feel that the rules of civility do not apply to them. These arrogant, self-important tormentors tend to emphasize other’s shortcomings and faults. The venomous people described in this paper fall into many categories: the disciplinary elitist, the egotistical narcissist, the (so-called) expert, the academic workplace bully, academic indoctrinators, and the egocentric college leader. All of them can cause huge problems and create dysfunction in individual academic departments and the entire institution. They have damaged the reputation of higher education.

ABC zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi w jednostkach opieki zdrowotnej

Author(s): Paweł Dybciak,Anna Łukasik,Natalia Pihowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 12.1/2018

The article presents principles concerning human resources management, especially for owners and managers. Elements of human resources management such as employee recruitment, motivation, assessment and training were discussed. To manage human resources is a very sensitive area in healthcare facilities. Due to this, proper preparation of managers in this area is necessary to manage them effectively.

ABOUT COPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES

Author(s): Silvia Elena Isachi / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

This research paper is developed from the perspective of the sustainability of the economic process, the main purpose of analyzing the relationship between social performance and financial performance of companies, and especially the multinational companies. Multinational companies are those in that practice corporate social responsibility is most strongly developed, given their size, financial resources at their disposal, and exposure to various business environments, with different requirements and standards. The intensification global competition puts also pressure to the performance of companies and on a global market increasingly competitive, companies, whether multinational or domestic, attempted business solutions to identify optimal approaches through the prism of profit or integrated approach. Therefore, a number of increasingly more investors become interested not only in the financial performance of companies, but also how companies fulfill their social responsibilities, leading inevitably to changing the orientation pure financial to take consider other issues.

Abuse of Managers and Pathologies of Business Management in Poland

Author(s): Pawel Dec,Piotr Masiukiewicz / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2019

The paper concerns abuse and pathology in business management. The authors presented selected theoretical approaches to this issue and pointed to its potential research areas. Quantitative analysis of selected aspects of fraud in Poland against the background of world data has been presented. It shows a lot of consent to committing fraud by managers in Poland. The authors have verified the thesis of the article: there is a large social acceptance in Poland. To this end, they conducted own research, computer surveys, which confirmed the relevance and importance of the problem of managerial abuse in Poland, but also indicated how large the acceptance of unethical behavior of managers is. The authors pointed to the need for further research in the area of limiting fraud and pathology in business management and further educational activities in this regard.

ACCOUNTING AND STATISTICAL METHODS FOR A NEW ETHIC OF THE HISTORY. CASE STUDY FOR ROMANIA'S RECENT HISTORY

Author(s): Aurelian-Virgil Băluţă / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

The article shows how to capitalize methods of accounting and statistics for a new ethics in the study of history. The aim of the paper is to remove a fake oral history document and to integrate another into the research flow based on accounting and statistical tools. The recent history research can not establish an objective like „ true image” as in accounting. But it is possible to follow that the documents used can reasonably describe the reflected reality. In accordance with the golden rule of ethics we have to accept the high level of education in Romania in the period 1968-1989, including history discipline. The article contains the following sections: introduction, the importance of the problem, state of the research topic covered in the article, the objective of the research, the research method used, the ethical component of the problem, fake oral history document, the formulations of the alternative hypothesis, criterion for validating the assumption, the correct content of that information, conclusions, references. I have also a result of the research. In Romania, between 1968 and 1989, we need to refer to a high level of pupils' education, including history discipline.

Accounting challenges for sustainability and innovations

Author(s): / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2021

The aim of this e-book is to present the most important aspects related to sustainability, corporate social responsibility and innovation from an accounting perspective. The book contains parts that deal with accounting aspects of sustainability and innovations. The book consists of ten chapters devoted to relevant and topical issues of sustainability and innovations. Chapter 1 'Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in accounting' is an introduction to further considerations and deals with the essence of sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and their recognition in accounting. Chapter 2 'Social responsibility reporting standards' presents the most important reporting guidance such as GRI, OECD, United Nations Global Compact, International Organization for Standardization. Chapter 3 'Narrative reporting' focuses on descriptions and explanations in accounting reports. The chapter presents the links between accounting and language, the development of accounting narratives and the factors determining the use of narratives. Chapter 4 'Integrated reporting' discusses the motivations, objectives and the process of preparing an integrated report. Integrated reporting can prove to be an effective tool for businesses looking to shift their reporting focus from annual financial performance to long-term shareholder value creation. Chapter 5 'Non-financial reporting' in selected European countries presents the experience of Croatia, the Czech Republic and Poland in the field of preparing non-financial reports. A significant contribution to promoting the importance of sustainability reporting was made by the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (2014/95/EU). Chapter 6 'Socially responsible investments' discusses the essence of socially responsible investing and socially responsible investment. Socially responsible investing (SRI) is a decision making process concerning the allocation of free financial resources, where the investor aims at maximization of profit and minimization of risk on one part and includes the socio-ethical and environmental-ecological considerations on the other. Chapter 7 'External costs – accounting perspective' describes costs connected with using goods such as air, soil, water, silence or the aesthetics of the surroundings. One of the biggest problems for accounting in the future will be measuring the volume of using these goods or measuring the size of reduction in the quality of public goods suffered and assigning the decrease to particular companies. Chapter 8 'Derivatives in accounting' is devoted to financial instruments and presents two different approaches to accounting of derivatives: general model and hedge accounting. Derivatives are used to protect the enterprise against financial risk related to changes in prices on the markets, changes in the exchange rate or changes in interest rates, as well as for commercial purposes. Chapter 9 'Costs of research and development' shows the company's activity in the field of research and development and the related costs. R&D constitute an increasingly important element of the functioning of enterprises. Chapter 10 'Cryptoassets – nature, valuation and disclosures in accounting' focuses on cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum etc.) and digital tokens which are specific rights or values representatives. As a result of the transformation on the financial market, we are currently dealing with cryptoassets, which are a creation of blockchain technologies and the changing habits of the digital society. One of areas that there are a lot of doubts regarding these new technological solutions is accounting.

Accounting Ethics Education in Nigeria: Value-Improving or Value-Deteriorating Tool?

Author(s): Abdulai Agbaje Salami,Mubaraq Sanni,Bukola Ahmad Uthman / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

The symbiotic relationship between good ethical disposition and accounting profession is incontestable. Aside from the previous infamous global corporate scandals, the recent fraudulent practices revelation in the Nigerian public life is a serious source of concern. This study examines the impact of ethics education on the potential accountants to establish whether the propriety of their conduct in the future is guaranteed. This necessitates the survey of accounting students based on the three forms of ownership of university in Nigeria. The findings of the survey based on the structured questionnaire using Kruskal-Wallis tests show that, the students’ groups agree on the value-relevance of ethics education, its ability to expose them to means of resolving future ethical challenges and their readiness to become whistle-blowers. However, the students’ groups’ failure to agree on the necessity of ethical competence for accountants and their disagreement on their confidence to tackle unfamiliar problems signal what is expected of accounting educators for students to become more ethically-equipped. Also, the expectation of the reinforcement of whistle-blower protection is evident from its intertwining with disclosure of unethical practices. The timing and implications of this study on the activities of accounting educators and policy makers accentuate its uniqueness.

ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Author(s): Anita Reizinger-Ducsai / Language(s): English / Issue: 515/2018

In this paper the issue of environmental and social responsibility is considered. I look into the goals that sustainability reports and social responsibility reports can serve and how they can draw attention to creating shared value. My research areas include the measurement of financial performance and the methodology for the comparability of conclusions from accounting reports. Some questions arise when this is completed with sustainability reports: how can sustainability performance be presented; is there a way to develop a single indicator system for measuring sustainability and social responsibility? As another issue, I also focus on the ethical behaviour of companies and its impacts on profit and profitability.

Acquaintance with the fair trade idea in Poland – results of the research

Author(s): Dorota Teneta-Skwiercz / Language(s): English / Issue: 423/2016

The fair trade movement by underlining the ethical aspects of behaving among particular links of delivery chain and assuring proper work conditions and payments for workers on plantations; natural environment conservation and investment towards local society has become a great tool of accomplishment of such concepts within the company management as CSR and sustainability development. The article has been mainly focused on presenting the essence of the FT movement and moreover the evaluation of the possibilities for the development of the FT market in Poland. Main research questions have been phrased as follows: What is the degree of the knowledge of the FT movement’s rules? What reasons induce consumers to purchase products with a FT label? What are the causes of the consumers’ lack of interest in FT products? The survey was conducted among university students.

Action Research - przygotowanie sądu do zmiany poprzez uczenie się - współpraca praktyków i badaczy

Author(s): Przemysław Banasik,Sylwia Morawska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2019

Action Research (AR) is not only the research method or strategy but also the efficient tool supporting knowledge developmentand the introduction of changes in the organization. The aim of using AR is to induce changes in a given area or to convince theparticipants to initiate such changes, in a way that the researcher and the subject expert collaborate to diagnose the problemand find the solution to it. The cooperation of researchers, practitioners, and laymen is the primary assumption while applying the AR approach. The goal of such cooperation is to collect data derived from everyday practice systematically, to analyzethese that data and decide as for the future shape of that practice. The research presented in this paper has been carried outin a public organization, namely the District Court in Gdansk. It referred to the extrajudicial and pro-social activities of thatCourt. Such research aimed to bring the answer to the question of whether the courts as public organizations can undertakepro-social activities, and if yes – what should be the area of such actions. The research was carried out between June 2013 andMarch 2018, i.e., for almost five years.The research methods included: observations of the internal changes in the organization, interviews with the court management, conversations with different groups of stakeholders as well as a quantitative study of their opinions about the quality of thecooperation with that court. The analysis of the results confirms that firstly it is possible to apply the Action Research approachin public organizations, and secondly, that intervention resulting from the use of this research method is effective. It is worthto stress that the pro-social actions initiated by the research are continued despite the change in management of the court andsome political changes as well. One may say that those actions became a part of the organizational routine.The results achieved through that research supplement knowledge on the possibility of carrying out the pro-social actionsby the public organizations, in particular by courts. They fall within the scope of the strategic management discipline and thepublic administration sub-discipline.

Activities in the space that formalizes social responsibility from the perspective of completed research

Author(s): Michał Kapias,Grzegorz Polok / Language(s): English / Issue: 5/2018

Lately, the subject of responsibility has gained importance in the context of the economic crisis. In economy, it took the form of social responsibility. It concerns activities additionally undertaken by organizations in order to establish correct relations with their employees and society, as well as with regard to the natural environment. Therefore, a very important role is played by the ethos of the undertaken socially responsible actions. To a large extent, it is reflected in the ethical dimension. Thus, in enterprises, codes of ethics have become a base of axiology in the building of the organizational cultures. Unfortunately, Polish companies—as shown in the paper—still attach a lesser role to the ethical dimension of business.

Activity of German sports (football) enterprises and Corporate Social Responsibility

Author(s): Artur Grabowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 7/2018

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, a new economic doctrine called ordoliberalism was born in Germany. The foundations of this doctrine were values such as responsibility, solidarity, justice, and freedom. Classics of ordoliberalism formulated a number of recommendations and requirements for businesses in their writings. One of them was the public responsibility, which had the private-economic and socio-economic nature. In Germany sports’ (football) enterprises functioning in the form of companies and associations are participants in the sports-economic competition in the two professional leagues (1.Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga). At the same time sports enterprises pursue different aims: among the economic goals, there are also the social goals. In the structures of sports enterprises, there are several departments dealing with CSR and implementation of partnership projects. The article concludes that 1) the constitutive elements of ordoliberalism had an influence on the functioning of sports (football) enterprises in Germany, 2) the projects realized under the social responsibility rule that were undertaken by sports companies were strongly related to sports education, environmental protection, and social exclusion.

Adaletin Olmadığı Yerde Islık Çalamamak, Örgütsel Adaletin Whistleblowing (İfşa Etme) Niyeti Üzerine Etkisi

Author(s): Ferda Alper Ay / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 4/2018

Disclosure of unethical practices by employees in organizations, it is important for provide significant improvements in the success and competitiveness of the organization. This study aimed to determine the effect of organizational health perceptions of 112 Emergency Health Services employees on whistleblowing behaviors. In the emergency health services of Sivas Provincial Health Directorate, data was obtained from 250 employees working in 112 emergency health services working in the Provincial Command Center Chief Physician. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were used to evaluate the data. According to the research findings, it was determined that there was a significant relationship between organizational justice and whistleblowing behaviors. In addition, organizational justice perception has been found to have a positive effect on whistleblowing behaviors. Ensuring organizational justice, helps in increasing whistleblowing intent and reducing unethical practices in the organization.

ADAPTATION OF CIVIL PLANNING AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES BASED ON HOFSTEDE'S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS MODEL

Author(s): Urszula Kąkol,Marek Kisilowski,Grzegorz Kunikowski,Anna UKLAŃSKA / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

The article aims to present the results of analysis of civil planning and crisis management practices in selected countries for their effective adaptation to another country with specific conditions. The analysis has identified practices and organizational solutions in crisis management of public administration that could be applied to Poland. We have used the Hofstede model describing cultural dimensions in order to evaluate and select countries culturally similar to Poland. It has been assumed that cultural similarities concerning complex relationships and social conditions increase the chances of the effective implementation of solutions between countries with culturally similar societies. Recommended practices include agreeing on business continuity plans with private entities, placing emphasis on prevention and cooperation with non-governmental organizations, and creating strong competence centers.

Adekwatność kapitałowa jako miara bezpieczeństwa działalności spółdzielczych kas oszczędnościowo- -kredytowych

Author(s): Maria Magdalena Golec / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 8.3/2015

The purpose of the article was to analyze the capital adequacy of credit unions, the measures of the capital adequacy before and after the reform, the evaluation of actual financial situation of the credit unions and the calculation of the potential growth path of the credit union sector. The measure of capital adequacy in credit unions is the capital adequacy ratio, initially designated as the capital ratio, but later in his construction included business risks. Given the credit unions reporting data, it should be emphasized that the financial situation of the sector is difficult. The average capital adequacy ratio are well below the regulatory requirement. Conducted research identifies the shortage of capital since 1999.