Ethics in Social Networking and Business 1: Theory, Practice and Current Recommendations

This book, the first of two volumes dedicated to ethics in social networking and business, presents the notions, theories and practical aspects related to ethics, morale and deontology in our society. Through a series of discussions and examples on topics ranging from complexity to evolution theories, the author provides an insight into why business ethics is essential for managing risks and uncertainties. The Ethics in Social Networking and Business series is the result of a cross-integration of real experiences (from IBM, society and the Rotary Club), transdisciplinary works in decision making, and advances at the boundaries of several scientific fields.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xiii List of Acronyms xvii Introduction xxi Chapter 1 The Rotary: Organization and Motivations 1 1.1 The Rotary in a few words 1 1.2 Strategic plan: a vision 2 1.3 Organization of actions and projects in the Rotary 5 1.4 The Rotary leadership 7 1.5 Business ethics management: the four-way test 12 1.6 How to conduct efficient ethical debates? 12 1.6.1 Entertainment and ethics 13 1.6.2 Barcamps, think tanks and showcases for new ideas 13 1.7 Summary of the missions and roles of the Rotary 14 1.8 Importance of business and vocational ethics in the Rotary 15 1.9 Comment about empathy and ethics 16 Chapter 2 Ethics: Some Definitions and Concepts 17 2.1 Ethics 17 2.2 Professional ethics 18 2.3 Moral values 19 2.4 Deontology 19 2.5 Ideology 20 2.6 Ethics: notions of right and wrong, good and evil 21 2.6.1 Introduction 21 2.6.2 What is good? 22 2.6.3 What is evil? 23 2.6.4 Good and evil: complex phenomena 25 2.6.5 Evil: culpability, responsibility and punishment 26 2.6.6 Interactions between the different concepts 28 2.6.7 Historical reminders 29 2.6.8 The quality of justice and truth: modeling approach 32 2.7 Practical ethics: the four-way test and The Rotary 34 2.7.1 Implementation of the four-way test by The Rotary 36 Chapter 3 Why Ethics? Behavior Between Convictions and Responsibilities 37 3.1 Evolution: the role of antagonisms 37 3.2 At the beginning: problems of scientific ethics 38 3.3 Ethics: notions of responsibility and conviction 39 3.3.1 Ethics of responsibility 39 3.3.2 Ethics of conviction 41 3.3.3 Ethics: main consequences 44 3.4 Ethics and the social positioning of the people 45 3.5 Benevolent management 47 3.5.1 Introduction 47 3.5.2 What do employees require? 48 3.5.3 Some definitions 48 3.6 Understanding benevolent management 49 3.6.1 Methodology 49 3.6.2 Conclusions 50 Chapter 4 Perception of Ethics in Life and Society 51 4.1 Introduction 51 4.2 Positioning of ethics in society and politics 51 4.3 Ethics and scientists (in a rational and reductionist world) 53 4.4 Cultural and social considerations related to the Internet 53 4.4.1 Loyalty, trust and devotion toward a profession or one’s employer 54 4.4.2 Problems of ambition and ideals in a company 54 4.4.3 Altruism and positive societal attitudes 56 4.4.4 Adaptation of the concept of ethics according to the economic context 57 4.4.5 Business Ethics: a preamble about some requirements 59 4.5 Design of Business Ethics: an overview of different concepts 59 4.5.1 Religion, confessional currents and schools of thought 60 4.5.2 The philosophers 60 4.5.3 Scientists and physicians 61 4.5.4 Administrative sectors: lawyers and social communities 62 4.5.5 Professional ethics framework 62 4.5.6 The concept of ethics in industry 64 4.6 Ethics in banking, finance and insurance 66 4.6.1 Ethical banking and greed 66 4.6.2 Offshore banking 68 4.6.3 Theory of diagonal proportion 69 4.6.4 The Lorenz curve 69 4.6.5 Ethics and welfare 71 Chapter 5 Ethics and Media 75 5.1 Introduction: vocational ethics and intellectual integrity 75 5.2 Behaviors in public communication 76 5.2.1 The media 76 5.2.2 The press 77 5.3 What do we mean by “consistent information”? 77 5.3.1 Current applications in everyday life 78 5.3.2 Ethics and disinformation 80 5.3.3 Implementation of ethics in the media, press and communications 81 5.3.4 Is this situation leading into the sphere of professional ethics? Can this be avoided? 83 5.3.5 Courses and training on ethics in journalism 84 5.4 The general problem of information asymmetry 86 5.4.1 Introduction 86 5.4.2 Asymmetry in nature: is this a novelty? 86 5.4.3 Information asymmetry in call centers 88 5.4.4 General information on asymmetry: anti-globalization corporations 92 5.4.5 Asymmetry in communication and decision systems 93 5.4.6 Decision-making in an asymmetric world 96 5.4.7 Application of asymmetry in the development of manufacturing capabilities 98 Chapter 6 Ethics: Childhood and Society 101 6.1 Introduction: a loved but coveted being 101 6.2 Specificities of youth-oriented marketing 102 6.2.1 Some words about marketing strategy 103 6.3 But, is there a problem of ethics and where? 105 6.3.1 Children are vulnerable beings 105 6.3.2 Advertising inculcates specific values to childhood 105 6.3.3 A shared responsibility 106 6.4 What are the solutions to make the influence of the media on children more ethical? 106 6.4.1 The education of young consumers 106 6.4.2 Laws and some regulation still exists 107 6.5 Conclusion 108 Chapter 7 Ethics and Economic Organizations 111 7.1 Introduction 111 7.2 Macroeconomics: the three pillars 112 7.2.1 Strategy 112 7.2.2 Tactics 113 7.2.3 Operational management 113 7.3 The ethical challenges of a company 114 7.4 Elements of methodology 115 7.4.1 A technical framework 115 7.4.2 A global and periodic statement 116 7.5 How to create an ethical environment 116 7.6 Nanoeconomy: the role of the human being in an ethical environment 117 7.7 The Rotary and the business: similar basic concepts 119 7.8 Any leader in ethics has a strong impact on human beings’ behaviors 121 7.9 Generalization: applying ethics to personal life 121 Chapter 8 Business Ethics: Some Principles and Mechanisms 123 8.1 Is business ethics useful for everybody? 123 8.1.1 Utopic concept of professional ethics 123 8.1.2 Is the professional ethics necessary, and how? 125 8.2 Ethics is also a vocational skill 126 8.2.1 Ethics as a free and individual choice 126 8.2.2 The scientific aspect of ethics 127 8.2.3 A limited domain 127 8.3 The positioning of ethics versus common values and usual codes of conducts 128 8.4 What are the development factors of ethical management? 129 8.5 How to approach professional ethics 130 8.5.1 Some words about ambivalences 132 8.5.2 Ethics: an evolutionary concept 132 8.5.3 Evolution of species, development of the society 135 8.5.4 System evolution with regard to cultural and consciousness considerations 137 8.5.5 How can we modify the challenges and activities? 137 8.6 Professional ethics: toward an intelligence of weakness 139 8.6.1 A societal crisis In terms of ethics, many changes have occurred 140 8.6.2 The weaknesses and consequences of professional ethics 141 8.7 Conclusion 143 Chapter 9 Ethics in Enterprise: Towards Z-Management Coaching and Championship 145 9.1 Introduction 145 9.2 Ethics in enterprises 146 9.3 General ethics: comments about the conventional approach 148 9.4 New ways of management 149 9.5 Generation Z: evolution theory 151 9.5.1 Some recommendations 152 9.6 How to implement business ethics in a Z-company 153 9.6.1 Guidelines for ethical business practices 153 9.6.2 Implementation 154 9.6.3 Organization 154 9.7 Responsibility of organization members, application principles 154 Chapter 10 Ethics and Complexity 157 10.1 Preamble: immersion in a world of complexity 157 10.2 Introduction 157 10.3 Different types of complexity where ethics is involved 158 10.4 Network theory: complexity, ethics environment 161 10.5 Modeling a complex world 162 10.5.1 Ethics, determinism and reductionism 165 10.6 Intrinsic complexity of ethics 167 10.6.1 Reactivity and recognition 168 10.6.2 Reasoning and logic 169 10.6.3 A new capability: mathematical isomorphism 169 10.7 Ethics: structure and complexity of our nervous system 172 10.7.1 The brain: the central nervous system 173 10.7.2 Abdominal brain: the enteric nervous system 177 10.8 Application: ethics and synesthesia, a virtual phenomenon? 179 10.9 A review of common characteristics of complex systems 181 10.9.1 Emergence 181 10.9.2 Sudden transitions/tipping-points/nonlinearity 181 10.9.3 Limited predictability 182 10.9.4 Large events 182 10.9.5 Evolutionary dynamics 182 10.9.6 Self-organization 182 10.9.7 Fundamental uncertainty 183 10.10 How to implement ethics in complex systems 184 10.10.1 In complexity, the strategy is mainly related to the ethics of responsibility 184 10.10.2 Where is our responsibility in a highly intricate information network? 185 10.10.3 System analysis 185 10.10.4 Elements of methodology 185 10.11 Conclusion: interactions, ethics and mimicry 189 Chapter 11 Dynamic Evolution of Life, Management and Ethics 193 11.1 From complexity to life: general considerations 193 11.2 Life survival: introduction and model transposition 197 11.3 Speed of evolution and geometric growth 200 11.4 Organizational consequences 203 11.4.1 Discussing the situation in between the three areas 205 11.4.2 Discussing the situation inside each of the three areas 206 11.5 Evolution of life: impact on management decision systems 207 11.6 How does the brain work? Are we exhaustively perceptive? 208 11.7 Levels of consciousness in the brain: application to DSS 210 11.8 Ethics: new ways of thinking 217 11.8.1 When consciousness leads to ethics? 217 11.8.2 Consciousness as an iterative feedback process going from one level to another 218 11.9 Life and equilibria in ecosystems 220 11.9.1 Life: why and how? Perpetrating the survival of an ecosystem 221 11.10 Conclusion 223 Chapter 12 Ethics: Deployment in the Rotary 227 12.1 Ethics: founding principles 227 12.2 The vocational actions of the Rotary 229 12.3 Do BECC help in developing business ethics? 233 12.3.1 Ethics: between an individual approach and formalism through BECC 235 12.4 Vocational service: a difficult active concept? 236 12.4.1 Application 236 12.4.2 Ethics and complexity 239 12.5 How to promote ethics in the workplace 239 12.5.1 Where to apply 240 12.6 Necessary collective action 242 Chapter 13 Ethics in Society: Implementation Principles in Different Countries 245 13.1 Ethics: more than a formalism, a competitive challenge 246 13.2 Business ethics: a contribution to management and organizations 247 13.2.1 The Holism 249 13.2.2 Professional ethics: human resources management 250 13.2.3 Management by values: advantages and limitations 255 13.3 Ethics in the United States: the emergence of Business Ethics (BE) 257 13.4 Ethics in Europe: a professional approach 261 13.4.1 Ethics in France 262 13.5 Ethics in Japan: a holistic approach 267 13.5.1 Specific problems of ethics in Japanese society 269 13.6 Ethics in Western industry: some examples and applications 269 13.6.1 Veolia: implementation of a program on ethics 269 13.6.2 IBM: Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics 271 13.7 Conclusion 273 Conclusion 277 Bibliography 281 Index 289