Business Ethics and Ethics in Management have already devoted considerable attention to dealing with ethical dilemmas and particular ethical issues. However, we are still far from a comprehensive integration of ethics into management theories and managerial practices. Recently, many leading managerial theories, such as agency theory, transaction costs theory, institutional theory and others have received much criticism. They have been accused of fostering egoistic behavior in managers and even of having contributed to well-known financial scandals (see, e.g. Academy of Management Learning & Education, March 2005). In response to this, the purpose of this Symposium is to explore the problems of current management theories and practices, and the prospects for improving them. At the same time, new proposals for a more comprehensive integration of ethics into management are welcome. 

This symposium will accept two types of works: academic papers and practitioner presentations (cases, experiences, etc.)

 

Academic Papers:
April 10, 2006: 
Full papers, length between 6.000 and 8.000 words. Please include an abstract of about 250 words. Please, use the link provided in the paper proposal acceptance e-mail to send us your full paper and its abstract.

 

Practitioner Presentations:
April 10, 2006:
Presentation outline. Please send using the practitioner's presentations submission system.

o Management Theories and Practices. This track includes discussions about the genesis, consequences and ethical contents of managerial theories, especially positive management theories, which see managers as positive contributors to corporate and social well-being. Experiences and cases written by practitioners will be also considered for this track.

 

o Managerial Functions. Managers have a number of functions, including planning, organizing, leading and controlling. They deal with topics related to operations, marketing, finances, and so on. This track includes any theoretical or practical topic related to the integration of ethics into managerial functions, and general aspects of ethics in people management.  

 

o Ethics in Managerial Decision-Making. Most scholars have thus far focussed on integrating ethical reasoning in order to make moral judgements about particular actions, and on considering what factors have an influence on decision-making. This track calls for further developments in a more comprehensive integration of ethics into decision-making, for instance, by considering the interdependence of economic, social and ethical dimensions in managerial decisions and actions. Both academics and practitioners can present suitable papers for this track.

 

o Ethics in Corporate Governance. This is a subject of increasing interest and impact in business and in the media, and has attracted the attention of governments in the last few years.  The role of boards of directors is currently analyzed more from the legal perspective than from the ethical personal behavior. The legal analysis has proven to be insufficient to understand the complexity of board responsibilities. Some basic behavioral and ethical questions remain unanswered:  What does it mean to "serve" on a board of directors? What are the incentives for directors to behave ethically? Why have supposedly prestigious and ethical directors reportedly behaved unethically on their boards? How can their performance influence management ethics and CSR?

 

o Philosophy of Management. Management assumes a certain image of the human being and a certain conception of society. Going into the knowledge of human nature and the societal bonds in depth seems crucial for a proper development of management theories and for a sound integration of ethics into management. Thus, this track includes topics of philosophical, theological and religious anthropology connected with management and its ethical aspects.

 

o Management and Corporate Social Responsibility.  Social Issues Management, along with Corporate Social Responsibility, has been the object of research for a long time. Now, the challenge is how managers can integrate corporate social responsibilities with their responsibility as business managers within the economic, legal and cultural context. This track takes on this challenge. Both innovative conceptual approaches and relevant specific cases are welcome.  

 

o Moral Character of the Manager. It is generally accepted that human virtues play a crucial role in moral managers. This track considers human virtues in management and leadership and their effects on the organization, both from theoretical and practical perspectives.

 

o Teaching Ethics in Management Education. This track covers papers related with the reinforcement of the presence of ethics in the business education curriculum, teaching business ethics and managerial ethics, teaching ethics in business matters, ethics training for faculty members and inter-disciplinary cooperation.

- The official language of the Symposium is English. However, about 25% of papers and presentations can be written and presented in Spanish. Plenary sessions will be provided of simultaneous translation English-Spanish.

- Neither paper proposal nor full papers should include the name, title or affiliation of the author(s), nor the full address, telephone, or e-mail; this is in order to conduct a blind-review process. All of these personal details and information should be submitted on the web site of the Symposium before submitting the proposal and papers.

 

- For papers, we suggest using Times New Roman 12 point font and a line spacing of 1.5 lines. Place no line between each paragraph. Title pages are not necessary. Practitioner outlines and presentations are also welcome in Power-Point.

 

- Employ endnotes, place page numbers in the lower right corner, and use the style guidelines of the Journal of Business Ethics for references.

 

- Proposals (from September 1, 2005) and papers (from March 1, 2006) must be sent using the paper submission system.

 
- Academic papers selected by the Scientific Committee will be proposed for publication in the Journal of Business Ethics or other leading academic journals. Authors selected will receive notice before September 15, 2006.