2. Masoud SHADNAM
Ph.D. in Management and Organization Studies
from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver,
Canada
Research: Morality in Organizational Life
Experience: Several years of consultancy for
companies in oil and energy, IT, and auto
industries
Office: A238
Office hours: By appointment
Email: msh@rouenbs.fr
3.
4. Lectures, videos, and anything presented in class
Textbooks:
Linda K. Treviño & Katherine Nelson (2011). Managing
Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How To Do It
Right
Wim Dubbink, Luc van Liedekerke, & Henk van Luijk
(2011). European Business Ethics Cases in Context
Peter Fleming & Stelios C. Zyglidopoulos (2009).
Charting Corporate Corruption: Agency, Structure and
Escalation
Sim B. Sitkin, Laura B. Cardinal, & Katinka M. Bijlsma-
Frankema (2010). Organizational Control
5. Case analysis report (individual) 50%
Select an organization (any size or type) for your analysis, as soon as
possible
Check in this list if anyone else has selected that organization before
you:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnZ5br65RERqdEllNE9
ZTVFJcUdEVmZuSi1HeVREeUE
If it was not already selected, then add your name and the
organization‟s name to the list
Video presentation (group) 30%
Build your own group of filmmakers
Every group has to have three, four, or five members
Let me know (email) the complete names of your group members and
the broad topic of your video by the end of next week (Nov 18th)
Class assignments 20%
A variety of activities that we will have in class
7. Gaza
December 2008-January 2009
Israel Palestine
8. Gaza
December 2008-January 2009
Israel Palestine
10 soldiers (4 killed in friendly fire) and 3 More than 1385 killed, 425 of those
civilians killed were women and children
Self defense? 18 people killed by rockets
from 2001 to 2009
9. What do we have in mind when talking about
ethics and morality?
The consequences of our actions
Our intentions
Our values
Our rights
Our responsibilities
Our character
Our humanity
How we are judged by others
Having a choice
All of the above and more?
10. [The dominant moral culture of advanced
modernity] has continued to be one of
unresolved and apparently unresolvable moral
and other disagreements in which the evaluative
and normative utterances of the contending
parties present a problem of interpretation.
My explanation was and is that the precepts
that are thus uttered were once at home in, and
intelligible in terms of, a context of practical
beliefs and of supporting habits of though,
feeling, and action, a context that has since
been lost…
Alasdair MacIntyre, 2007: p. vii
(After Virtue)
11. Ethicsis a difficult and sometimes mysterious
thing, but we cannot make it go away. We
frequently find ourselves facing ethical
dilemmas – situations concerning right and
wrong where values are in conflict.
Mystery makes it inaccessible to us
We do not deny the difficulties, but rather
try to draw them out, clarify them, and
understand them
12. Morality
How people evaluate things in terms of good,
bad, right, wrong, fair, unfair, just, unjust, etc.
Moral rules, moral theories, etc.
Descriptive: is/are
Ethics
Philosophical inquiries on what really is good,
bad, right, wrong, fair, unfair, just, unjust, etc.
Ethical rules, ethical theories, etc.
Prescriptive: should be/do
13. InNorway, genetic technology and its human
proponents, biotechnologists, are considered
morally suspect and are excluded from “good
society” through regulatory processes that
embrace consumer protest, environmental
activism and manufacturers‟ reluctance.
Descriptive => Morality Sara Skodbo, 2005
The social responsibility of business is to
increase its profits.
Prescriptive => Ethics Milton Friedman, 1970
14. We cannot accept to have in our country women
who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from
all social life, deprived of identity… The burka is
not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience.
Prescriptive => Ethics Nicolas Sarkozy, 2009
There is a local male discourse that is associated
with violence and a particular form of self-
assertion which, more than anything, implies
being in control, being in command, having
authority not only, or primarily, over women, but
over other men.
Descriptive => Morality Marit Melhuus, 1997
15. Moralityis shaped by how a group of people
see and feel the world around them
Howgroups of people see and feel about the
world around them is shaped by public
media, education system, political system,
medical system, etc.
Who gets to talk?
About what?
How are things represented?
Power => Morality
17. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism
Max Weber
Protestant Ethic: The set of beliefs and,
more particularly, the set of binding social
rules that counseled secular asceticism – the
methodical, rational subjection of human
impulse and desire to God‟s will through
restless, continuous, systematic work in a
worldly calling
18. Doctrines or doctrinal quarrels are less important
than the everyday conduct of one‟s life guided
by sanctioned norms
The social organization of moral probation – how
one proves one‟s worth to other people –
outweighs theological beliefs
The significance of the Protestant Ethic:
An individual served an unknowable God, not by
prayer or by almsgiving but by faithfully, continually,
and unremittingly performing his or her worldly work
The rational and methodical pursuit of a worldly
vocation, when it was crowned with economic
success, proved a person before others
19. ThisProtestant Ethic, with its imperatives for
self-reliance, hard work, frugality, and
rational planning, and its clear definition of
success and failure, came to dominate a
whole historical epoch in the West
Afterward,
The very accumulation of wealth that the
original Protestant ethic made possible gradually
stripped away its religious basis
Frugality became an aberration, conspicuous
consumption in varying degrees the norm
The economy became bureaucratized
20. Thedecline of the old middle class of
entrepreneurs, free professionals,
independent farmers, and small independent
businessmen
The ascendance of a new middle class of
salaried employees, that is, clerks,
managers, executives, officials, technicians,
and professionals alike, whose chief common
characteristic was and is their dependence
on the big organization
21. A mythical visitor from Mars … approaches the Earth from space,
equipped with a telescope that reveals social structures. The firms reveal
themselves, say, as solid green areas with faint interior contours marking
out divisions and departments. Market transactions show as red lines
connecting firms, forming a network in the spaces between them…
No matter whether our visitor approached the United States or the Soviet
Union, urban China or the European Community, the greater part of the
space below it would be within the green areas, for almost all of the
inhabitants would be employees, hence inside the firm boundaries.
Organizations would be the dominant feature of the landscape. A
message sent back home, describing the scene, would speak of “large
green areas interconnected by red lines”. It would not likely speak of “a
network of red lines connecting green spots”.
…
When our visitor came to know that the green masses were organizations
and the red lines connecting them were market transactions, it might be
surprised to hear the structure called a market economy. “Wouldn't
„organizational economy‟ be the more appropriate term?” it might ask.
Simon, 1991: 27-28
23. Organizations in modern societies:
Scientific discovery (research organizations)
Child and adult socialization (schools and universities)
Resocialization (mental hospitals and prisons)
Production and distribution of goods (industrial firms,
wholesale and retail establishments)
Provision of services (organizations dispensing assistance
ranging from laundry and shoe repair to medical care and
investment counseling)
Protection of personal and financial security (police
departments, insurance firms, banking and trust companies)
Preservation of culture (museums, art galleries, universities,
libraries)
Communication (radio and television studios, telephone
companies, postal service)
Recreation (bowling alleys, pool halls, park services,
professional football teams)
Etc.
24.
25. Hobbits
Elves
Elephants
Fell Beasts
Trees
Orcs
Trolls
Uruk Hai
Nazgûls Dwarves
Men
Eagles Dead Army Wizards
28. What were the main points of the video?
How do you think about those points?
Agree: Do you have supporting evidence beyond
what is argued in the video?
Disagree: Why do you disagree? Any evidence?
Go one step beyond the video:
Based on the arguments of the video and your
agreement/disagreement with it, what do you
think is the most important ethical aspect of
organizations?
