Corporate%20Social%20Responsibility%20and%20Virtue%20Ethics%20in%20Workforce%20Education%20and%20Development

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Corporate Social Responsibilityand Virtue Ethics
in Workforce Education and Development

• Chris Provis

School of Management, University of South
Australia Deputy Director, Ethics Centre of South
Australia
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Aim to relate three things
corporate social responsibility
workforce education and development
virtue ethics
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Corporate Social Responsibility

• corporations have responsibilities beyond returns
  to shareholders
• responsibilities to other stakeholders
• consumers, employees, suppliers, etc
• this seems clear (despite some theorists)
• if I buy something, I have responsibility to
  think of its effects on other people
• if I buy a share in a company, I have
  responsibility to think of its effects on other
  people
• and so, the company has responsibilities beyond
  financial returns to me and other shareholders

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Corporate Social ResponsibilityAn Issue

• corporations have responsibilities
• but what does that imply for the individuals in
  the corporations?

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The Many Hands Problem

• corporate actions result from acts by many
  individuals
• e.g. environmental pollution may involve
• production manager
• design engineer
• purchasing officers (equipment, materials)
• accountants
• many others
• CSR implies some obligations for individuals
• But what, specifically?

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Individuals in Organisations

• different challenges than in everyday life
• in everyday life, individuals often
• decide on their own actions
• accept responsibility for the nature of the
  action
• accept responsibility for the outcome of the
  action
• in organisations, individuals work together to
  decide on actions
• So, how do individuals acts achieve CSR?

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Solution A Conform to Rules

• organisation has rules for individuals
• designed to lead to overall CSR
• e.g. standards on types of raw materials, rules
  for waste disposal, systems for health and
  safety, HR procedures
• classical bureaucracy, analysed by Weber

solution A is a rule-based approach
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Solution B Outcome Measures

• use key performance indicators (KPIs)
• first, set organisation goals
• by reference to agreed indicators (e.g. GRI)
• then, align individual targets with those goals
• e.g. plant manager targets include low emissions
• or HR manager targets include good survey
  responses

solution B is an outcome-oriented approach
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Analogies with Ethical Decision-Making

• 1. a rule-based approach is like Kantian
  deontology in ethical decision-making
• what makes acts right or wrong is whether they
  follow certain rules
• e.g. do not steal, tell no lies

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Analogies with Ethical Decision-Making (ctd)

• 2. an outcome-oriented approach is like
  consequentialism in ethical decision-making
• what makes acts right or wrong is whether they
  have the best consequences
• pleasure or happiness, perhaps,or utility

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The analogies
managing individual action to achieve CSR
general approaches to ethical decision-making
Approach 1 Kantian deontology
Solution A Conform to Rules
Solution B Outcome Measures
Approach 2 consequentialism
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Ethical Decision-Making Difficulties

• 1. Rule-based approach

• rule-worship

• sometimes seems wrongto follow a rule blindly

• for example, it seems right to lie to a murderer
  who is pursuing a victim, even though it breaks
  the rule do not lie

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Managing individual action to achieve
CSRanalogous difficulties
for Solution A Conform to Rules
rule-worship
inflexibility
e.g. individuals may say Its not my job
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Its Not My Job
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for Solution A Conform to Rules
rule-worship
inflexibility
e.g. rules about ways to help disabled people
may be good
but may not suit people with other forms of
disability
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Ethical Decision-Making Difficulties (ctd)

• 2. Outcome-oriented approach

• sometimes, things seem wrong regardless of
  consequences

• my act may not make any difference, where many
  people are involved
• but it might still be wrong
• for example, to pad tax returns ortake bribes
  even if everyone does it

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Managing individual action to achieve
CSRanalogous difficulties (ctd.)
for Solution B Outcome Measures
e.g. performance evaluation
- problem separating individual outcomes from
group outcomes
- either individuals demoralised oroutcomes not
linked to corporate outcomes
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Another Approach to Ethical Decisions
1. rule-oriented
2. outcome-oriented
3. virtue ethics
what is right or wrong iswhat a virtuous
person would do
much developing literature
e.g. MacIntyre, After Virtue (1981) Solomon,
Ethics and Excellence (1992) Koehn, A Role for
Virtue Ethics in the Analysis of Business
Practice, Business Ethics Quarterly (1995)
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Virtue Ethics and Ethical Decision-making

• Key Feature of virtue ethics
• ethical decision-making is not step-by-step
  calculation
• neither step-by-step application of rules
• nor measuring and calculating outcomes
• ethical decision-making is pattern recognition
• it uses prototypes and exemplars
• typical examples compared with present case

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Pattern-based Reasoning in Ethics

• Examples
• legal reasoning
• considering past cases
• Confucius stories, sayings
• Jesus parables

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Implication for CSR

• managing individual action to achieve CSR may
  need to get individuals to recognise patterns
• not just to follow rules
• not just achieve specified, measurable outcomes

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Pattern recognition and CSR

• For corporations to show social responsibility
• individuals have to make the right decisions
• therefore, individuals have to understand what
  CSR requires, and see how their own acts affect
  it
• e.g. understand sustainability, environmental
  impacts, human resource principles, types of
  disability, etc
• as well as how their actions fit into the whole
• a task for workforce education and development

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Can Virtue Be Taught?

• Ryle, Plato
• virtue does not seem just like knowledge that we
  learn from lectures and memorisation
• more like a skill, to be learned through practice
• and an inclination, to do the right thing
• two requirements
• models from senior people
• education and development

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Conclusion

• To ensure a sustainable future, it is necessary
  that TVET also ensures that all workers are able
  to play appropriate roles, both in the workplace
  and the wider community, in contributing to
  social, economic and environmental
  sustainability.
• (UNESCO, Orienting Technical and Vocational
  Education and Training for Sustainable
  Development A Discussion Paper, 2006)

this requires development of virtue
including ability to see patterns and
understand principles