Globalization has altered in significant ways the tools available to regulate international commerce. One result is the emergence of ethics codes, codes of responsible conduct, and best practice codes designed to win adherence to internationally acceptable norms of conduct on the part of corporations and other organizations interacting in the global market place. This volume looks at these developments with particular focus on five topic areas: respect for human rights, treatment of labor, bribery and corruption, environmental protection, and international finance and the control of money laundering. What is significant about these developments is the emerging emphasis on self-regulation as the primary method for raising standards of corporate conduct. The contributors examine the reasons for the emergence of ethical codes and the phenomenon of self-regulation within the context of globalization and look at the role of national governments, international government institutions and other international organizations in shaping and enforcing them. They also study the implications of these developments for corporate governance and the changing roles of national and international institutions in the regulation of international commerce.

This book examines how the law has limitations to the extent that it can combat repression, isolation, and inequality. The main point the book explores is that isolation and inequality cannot be solved by driving up wages and having better working conditions. The true divide between management and workers is the inability of management to see the workers as people, and not just numbers. "The Swiss novelist Max Frisch remarked at the time, ‘We imported workers and got men instead.’" This encapsulates the dilemma of management – how to distance one’s self enough from workers to command respect yet not too distant as to be seen as inhumane. How can isolation and inequality within the workplace be overcome? Regulation and Inequality at Work shows how workers can have an increased voice by using tools outside of the typical legal ones. Without state protection, the rights can be viewed as less stringent. Working outside the system allows for greater malleability and flexibility to be able to cater to individual workers in individual workplaces. Workers’ rights are about better working conditions, hourly wages, and benefits, but are also about being treated in a more civilized manner where one’s humanity is recognized. Only through all of these parts working together will a true version of workers’ rights emerge—one where workers are not viewed as mere tools but within and of the system itself. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners in the fields of business and company law, labour law, and employment law.

The relationship between business and human rights has emerged in the last two decades as one of the most pressing issues in the field of business ethics. Do corporations have human rights responsibilities? If so, what is that nature of those responsibilities and do they differ in any significant way from those of governments? Is it reasonable or realistic to expect corporations to respect human rights in environments where governments, particularly in the developing and underdeveloped world, need economic development and have a limited capacity and/or interest in enforcing human rights standards and laws? The contributors to this groundbreaking volume take up these questions, examining them from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Topics discussed include the debates leading to the creation of the ISO 26000 standard and the United Nations human rights framework for business entities, as well as the nature and limits of the human rights responsibilities of business, the roles and responsibilities of international trade bodies like the World Trade Organization in protecting human rights, and the implications of the current debate for international trade agreements and trade with China. The contributors also explore the effectiveness of voluntary human rights standards in the textile and clothing trade, mining, advertising and the pharmaceutical industry. Scholars and students in management, philosophy, political science, sociology and law will find this volume a great resource, as will activists, managers and policy makers.

The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics is a comprehensive treatment of the field of business ethics as seen from a philosophical approach. The volume consists of 24 essays that survey the field of business ethics in a broad and accessible manner, covering all major topics about the relationship between ethical theory and business ethics.

Business Ethics: An Ethical Decision-Making Approach presents a practical decision-making framework to aid in the identification, understanding, and resolution of complex ethical dilemmas in the workplace. Focuses exclusively on three basic aspects of ethical decision making and behavior—how it actually takes place, how it should take place, and how it can be improved Uses real-life examples of moral temptations and personal ethical dilemmas faced by employees and managers Discusses the biases, psychological tendencies, moral rationalizations, and impact of self-interest as impediments to proper ethical decision making Includes relevant examples of ethical misconduct and scandals appearing in the news media

In recent decades, the prevailing response to the problem of unacceptable labour market outcomes in both Europe and North America - national regulation of labour standards and labour relations, coupled with collective bargaining - has come under increasing pressure from the economic and technological forces associated with globalisation. As those forces have shifted power away from national governments and labour unions and toward capital, the appropriate institutional locus of labour regulation has become hotly contested. There have been efforts to move the locus of regulation downward to smaller units of governance, including firms themselves, upward to larger units such as regional federations and international organizations, and outward to non-governmental organizations and civil society. In this volume, labour relations scholars from North America and Europe examine the efficacy of these emerging forms of labour regulation, their democratic legitimacy, the goals and values underlying them, and the appropriate direction of reform.

This volume includes the full proceedings from the 1996 Multicultural Marketing Conference presented by the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) and Old Dominion University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The focus of the conference and the enclosed papers is on marketing to various ethnic groups in both a US and global context. It presents papers on various multicultural issues across the entire spectrum of marketing activities and functions including marketing management, marketing strategy and consumer behavior. Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complimenting the Academy’s flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review. Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.

Against the backdrop of globalization and mounting evidence of the corporate subversion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights paradigm, Anna Grear interrogates the complex tendencies within law that are implicated in the emergence of 'corporate humanity'. Grear presents a critical account of legal subjectivity, linking it with law's intimate relationship with liberal capitalism in order to suggest law's special receptivity to the corporate form. She argues that in the field of human rights law, particularly within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights paradigm, human embodied vulnerability should be understood as the foundation of human rights and as a key qualifying characteristic of the human rights subject. The need to redirect human rights in order to resist their colonization by powerful economic global actors could scarcely be more urgent.

Debates about the consequences for work practices posed by the rapidly growing transnationalisation of business have become increasingly central to management studies, sociology, political science, geography and other disciplines. Remaking Management brings together a range of international contributors from different sub-disciplines in management to examine current theories of change or continuity of work practices in the context of fashionable claims about unstoppable globalisation or unmoveable national business systems. It provides theoretical and empirical challenges to both of these explanations. Rejecting an overemphasis on inevitable convergence or enduring divergence, the book reveals a mix of international, national and organisational-level influences on workplace practice. This is a rich and wide-ranging resource for graduate students and academics concerned with how organisations are responding to an increasingly complex commercial environment.

This book critically explores how increased regulation and governance of corporations can be used to help improve the rights of workers amidst an era of union decline. The book posits that soft law techniques such as codes of conduct are more effective in protecting workers than "hard law" i.e. domestic regulation. It starts by analysing the transnational regulation of corporations and codes of conduct, and then puts forward a model code of conduct that can be used by corporations to help increase the protection of workers. Through this model's use of a monitoring scheme, shareholders, activists, and NGOs put pressure on the corporation to reform itself and enact a code which has obligations flowing both ways between the corporation and its employees. The book then looks at the expansions of fiduciary duties and changes to corporate governance, including Benefit Corporations and how they can be used to increase the rights of workers. It then discusses changes to standard union contracts before concluding with an assessment of the best way forward for workers’ rights. By providing a new contribution to the current dialogue on corporate social responsibility and codes of conduct, this book will be a valuable resource for academics working on labour, employment, and business law as well as corporate lawyers.