•  87
    Workplace Civility: A Confucian Approach
    with Alan Strudler
    Business Ethics Quarterly 22 (3): 557-577. 2012.
    ABSTRACT:We argue that Confucianism makes a fundamental contribution to understanding why civility is necessary for a morally decent workplace. We begin by reviewing some limits that traditional moral theories face in analyzing issues of civility. We then seek to establish a Confucian alternative. We develop the Confucian idea that even in business, humans may be sacred when they observe rituals culturally determined to express particular ceremonial significance. We conclude that managers and wo…Read more
  •  20
    Workplace Civility: A Confucian Approach
    Business Ethics Quarterly 22 (3): 557-577. 2012.
    ABSTRACT:We argue that Confucianism makes a fundamental contribution to understanding why civility is necessary for a morally decent workplace. We begin by reviewing some limits that traditional moral theories face in analyzing issues of civility. We then seek to establish a Confucian alternative. We develop the Confucian idea that even in business, humans may be sacred when they observe rituals culturally determined to express particular ceremonial significance. We conclude that managers and wo…Read more
  •  65
    Rethinking Right: Moral Epistemology in Management Research
    Journal of Business Ethics 148 (1): 5-20. 2018.
    Most management researchers pause at the threshold of objective right and wrong. Their hesitation is understandable. Values imply a “subjective,” personal dimension, one that can invite religious and moral interference in research. The dominant epistemological camps of positivism and subjectivism in management stumble over the notion of moral objectivity. Empirical research can study values in human behavior, but hard-headed scientists should not assume that one value can be objectively better t…Read more
  •  10
    Ethics of split liver transplantation: should a large liver always be split if medically safe?
    with John Roberts, Alan Strudler, and Sridhar Tayur
    Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (10): 738-741. 2022.
    Split liver transplantation (SLT) provides an opportunity to divide a donor liver, offering transplants to two small patients (one or both could be a child) rather than keeping it whole and providing a transplant to a single larger adult patient. In this article, we attempt to address the following question that is identified by the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network and United Network for Organ Sharing: ‘Should a large liver always be split if medically safe?’ This article aims to defend …Read more
  •  22
    Bounded Ethicality and The Principle That “Ought” Implies “Can”
    with Rosemarie Monge and Alan Strudler
    Business Ethics Quarterly 25 (3): 341-361. 2015.
    ABSTRACT:In this article we investigate a philosophical problem for normative business ethics theory suggested by a phenomenon that contemporary psychologists call “bounded ethicality,” which can be identified with the putative fact that well-intentioned people, constrained by psychological limitations, make ethical choices inconsistent with their own ethical beliefs and commitments. When one combines the idea that bounded ethicality is pervasive with the idea that a person morally ought to do s…Read more
  •  27
    Hierarchies and Dignity: A Confucian Communitarian Approach
    with Jessica A. Kennedy and Alan Strudler
    Business Ethics Quarterly 26 (4): 479-502. 2016.
    ABSTRACT:We discuss workers’ dignity in hierarchical organizations. First, we explain why a conflict exists between high-ranking individuals’ authority and low-ranking individuals’ dignity. Then, we ask whether there is any justification that reconciles hierarchical authority with the dignity of workers. We advance a communitarian justification for hierarchical authority, drawing upon Confucianism, which provides that workers can justifiably accept hierarchical authority when it enables a certai…Read more
  •  16
    Master and Slave: the Dialectic of Human-Artificial Intelligence Engagement
    with Fabrizio Maimone, Katherina Pattit, Alejo José Sison, and Benito Teehankee
    Humanistic Management Journal 6 (3): 355-371. 2021.
    The massive introduction of artificial intelligence has triggered significant societal concerns, ranging from “technological unemployment” and the dominance of algorithms in the work place and in everyday life, among others. While AI is made by humans and is, therefore, dependent on the latter for its purpose, the increasing capabilities of AI to carry out productive activities for humans can lead the latter to unwitting slavish existence. This has become evident, for example, in the area of soc…Read more
  •  53
    Why a Right to an Explanation of Algorithmic Decision-Making Should Exist: A Trust-Based Approach
    with Bryan R. Routledge
    Business Ethics Quarterly 32 (1): 75-102. 2022.
    Businesses increasingly rely on algorithms that are data-trained sets of decision rules (i.e., the output of the processes often called “machine learning”) and implement decisions with little or no human intermediation. In this article, we provide a philosophical foundation for the claim that algorithmic decision-making gives rise to a “right to explanation.” It is often said that, in the digital era, informed consent is dead. This negative view originates from a rigid understanding that presume…Read more
  •  18
    Flawed Like Us and the Starry Moral Law: Review of Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (review)
    Journal of Business Ethics 170 (4): 875-879. 2021.
  •  71
    Technological Unemployment, Meaning in Life, Purpose of Business, and the Future of Stakeholders
    with Alan Scheller-Wolf
    Journal of Business Ethics 160 (2): 319-337. 2019.
    We offer a precautionary account of why business managers should proactively rethink about what kinds of automation firms ought to implement, by exploring two challenges that automation will potentially pose. We engage the current debate concerning whether life without work opportunities will incur a meaning crisis, offering an argument in favor of the position that if technological unemployment occurs, the machine age may be a structurally limited condition for many without work opportunities t…Read more
  •  41
    Gamification of Labor and the Charge of Exploitation
    Journal of Business Ethics 152 (1): 27-39. 2018.
    Recently, business organizations have increasingly turned to a novel form of non-monetary incentives—that is, “gamification,” which refers to a motivation technique using video game elements, such as digital points, badges, and friendly competition in non-game contexts like workplaces. The introduction of gamification to the context of human resource management has immediately become embroiled in serious moral debates. Most notable is the accusation that using gamification as a motivation tool, …Read more
  •  42
    More than just a game: ethical issues in gamification
    with Kevin Werbach
    Ethics and Information Technology 18 (2): 157-173. 2016.
    Gamification is the use of elements and techniques from video game design in non-game contexts. Amid the rapid growth of this practice, normative questions have been under-explored. The primary goal of this article is to develop a normatively sophisticated and descriptively rich account for appropriately addressing major ethical considerations associated with gamification. The framework suggests that practitioners and designers should be precautious about, primarily, but not limited to, whether …Read more
  •  34
    Confucian Ethics and Labor Rights
    Business Ethics Quarterly 24 (4): 565-594. 2014.
    ABSTRACT:In this article I inquire into Confucian ethics from a non-ideal stance investigating the complex interaction between Confucian ideals and the reality of the modern workplace. I contend that even Confucian workers who regularly engage in social rites at the workplace have an internal, Confucian reason to appreciate the value of rights at the workplace. I explain, from a Confucian non-ideal perspective, why I disagree with the presumptuous idea that labor rights are necessarily incompati…Read more
  •  16
    Decent Termination: A Moral Case for Severance Pay
    Business Ethics Quarterly 24 (2): 203-227. 2014.
    People are often involuntarily laid off from their jobs through no fault of their own. Employees who are dismissed in this manner cannot always legitimately hold employers accountable for these miserable situations because the decision to implement layoffs is often the best possible outcome given the context—that is, layoffs in and of themselves may be “necessary evils.” Yet, even in circumstances in which layoffs qualify as “necessary evils,” morality demands that employers respect the dignity …Read more
  •  39
    The “I” in ISCT: Normative and Empirical Facets of Integration
    with Katherina Glac
    Journal of Business Ethics 88 (S4): 693-705. 2009.
    Integrative social contracts theory is a novel approach to normative questions and has been widely evaluated, discussed, and applied by academics and practitioners alike. While the "I" in ISCT leads the title, it has not received the analytical attention it deserves, especially since the "integrative" component in ISCT is multifaceted and at the conceptual core of the theory. In this paper we therefore take a closer look at two facets of integration. First, we examine the normative integration t…Read more