The International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics (ISBEE)
announces
The Second World Congress of Business, Economics, and Ethics
July 19-23, 2000, São Paulo, Brazil:
"THE ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION"
Under the direction of ISBEE, the Congress will be hosted by the Escola de
Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo,
Brazil.
The Congress will provide a focus for people around the world who are
interested in ethics in business and economics to meet and discuss, both
formally and informally, their common interests and problems. Papers are
invited from business, academia, government, and other not-for-profit
organizations.
The Congress will contain plenary sessions consisting of invited speakers of
some prominence, and concurrent sessions devoted to two kinds of contributed
papers:
>> Papers on topics in the areas outlined below
>> Papers on any pertinent topic
The sessions are open to participants from around the world and are expected
to include participants from a large number of different countries
representing multiple points of view.
The Organizing Committee of the Congress, which consists of the Planning
Committee and the Advisory Committee, specifically invites papers on the
following topic areas:
GLOBALIZATION
Since the 1980s "globalization" has become a buzzword, a term as ambiguous
as it is popular. But it also indicates an important, pervasive historical
trend whose consequences will be accentuated in the new millennium. It is
said to be, at a minimum, economic, ecological, political, social, and
cultural in nature and it impacts on different countries and social groups
quite differently. Globalization is not an impersonal process, but advanced
by different actors to satisfy their interests and values.
Questions:
How has globalization developed in the last 10 years? In what forms? Who has
benefited and who has been hurt by it? How can we critically assess its
impact from a variety of perspectives: developing and industrialized
countries, post-communist countries, emerging market economies, marginalized
populations, and successful businesses? What are major risks and
opportunities of globalization in the years to come? How can we evaluate
them from an ethical point of view?
What are the positive and negative effects of global competition and
deregulation? What limits to competition and deregulation should be set and
how can they be enforced? What kind of cooperation is needed for
competition? How should one deal with questionable payments in a fierce
competitive environment? What are ethical criteria for foreign investment in
developing countries? What experiences have been made with new guidelines on
global sourcing? What should be the role of joint-ventures in managing
business-government relations in global corporations? How should one deal
with extreme speculations in international financial and currency markets?
How can one cope with increasing economic inequalities and social exclusion?
What ethical challenges do big transnational companies face in global
markets? How can they cope with ethical issues within their global
organizations (cultural diversity of employees, compensation, safety,
intrafirm communication, etc.)? How can small and medium-sized businesses
compete with integrity in a global economy? How can ethics programs be
managed in a global context? What are appropriate and effective ways of
social and ethical auditing of companies from a global perspective?
How can information technology improve the mutual understanding among people
of different cultures and languages? How can access to information
technology be facilitated to all people who want it? What practical ways
does the internet provide for intercultural communication? How should one
deal with the vulnerabilities of electronic information worldwide?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of an emerging global civil society?
What do non-governmental organizations expect from global companies in terms
of corporate responsibilities? What responsibilities do they themselves have
in the process of globalization?
What kind of global ethics is needed to address the challenges mentioned
above? Human rights according to the Universal Declaration and International
Covenants? A global ethos of "human duties"? "Discourse ethics"? Or other
ethics approaches?
MANAGING "SUSTAINABLE, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT"
Since the Second ISBEE Congress takes place in a "developing" country, a
major focus will be on ethical challenges of development. Among a variety of
meanings, a fruitful one to use is the concept of "human development"
introduced by the Human Development Reports of the United Nations
Development Program since 1990. Going beyond a purely economic notion of
development and applying to both "developing" and "developed" countries, it
means, in a nutshell, "a process of enlarging people s choices."
Questions:
How can corporate decision making be oriented toward "human development"?
What are best business practices of big and small companies that incorporate
"human development"?
Eight years after the Rio de Janeiro Conference on Development and
Environment 1992, what progress in terms of sustainable, human development
has been made? What failures have occurred? What strategies can and should
companies choose in order to pursue such development?
How should the ethical responsibilities for the preservation of the Amazon
rain forest be shared by producers, consumers, and governments? How should
patents and bio-diversity be protected in developing countries? What can be
done against pirating intellectual property?
How can enterprises be developed and made profitable by including (not
excluding) poor people ("empresas con pobres")? What strategies of wealth
creation are efficient and effective in fighting against poverty,
corruption, delinquency, and other social evils? What makes "the social
entrepreneur" a challenging career in developing countries?
How does the microcredit movement providing loans for the very poor work
(for instance, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh)? What lessons can be learned from
it? What ways can be developed to switch from cocaine production to
drug-free farming? How can these changes be assessed from the local and
international perspectives?
RELIGIOUS RESOURCES FOR BUSINESS ETHICS
80 percent of the world population adheres to religious beliefs. Thus, from
a global perspective, the religious dimension matters for business ethics.
Yet, how these resources can be used in business decisions is a largely
uncharted field. Continuing the model of the First ISBEE Congress 1996, this
topic area covers a wide range of religious approaches. Due to its location,
the next Congress has a special focus on religious resources for business
ethics in Latin America.
Questions:
What are best business practices of companies with a clearly religious
inspiration? How are religious convictions of business leaders translated
into the culture and policies of their companies operating in pluralistic
societies? How important is it to make the religious message explicit?
What steps should religious leaders undertake to make religious resources
more accessible to
the business world? What alliances among believers of different faith
traditions should be recommended for the promotion of business ethics?
What are the ethics resources in Latin America (religious popular beliefs,
Catholic Social doctrine, theology of liberation, preferential option for
the poor, non-Catholic views, etc.)? How can these ethics resources be
better used for improving business conduct?
What priorities do Latin American executives have? What role does ethics
play in these priorities? What are the ethical responsibilities of business
schools in Latin America?
SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
The Organizing Committee suggests, in addition, that research projects
related to these topic areas be undertaken at the national and regional
levels, the result of which would be presented at the Congress. "Regional
tracks" like the European one under preparation are encouraged to make
contributions to the Congress. Also, shared papers written by both
practitioners and academics are welcome.
Papers should contain not more than 3500 words and there will be 30 minutes
for presentation and discussion. With the permission of the authors the
papers will be available on the Congress website two months ahead of the
meeting. Papers in three hard copies and on a floppy disk (in Word,
WordPerfect, or RTF format) should be submitted by December 1, 1999, to one
of the following:
Prof. M. Cecilia Arruda
CENE - EAESP/FGV, Av. 9 de Julho, 2029 - Sala 1059, 01313-902 São Paulo, BRAZIL.
Tel/Fax: 55-11-281-7749; Email:
carruda@eaesp.fgvsp.br
Prof. Georges Enderle
University of Notre Dame, College of Business Administration, Notre Dame, IN
46556, USA.
Tel: 1-219 631 5595; Fax: 1-219 631 5255; Email:
enderle.1@nd.edu
Prof. Yukimasa Nagayasu
Research Department, Institute of Moralogy, Hikarigaoka 2-1-1, ,
Kashiwa-shi, Chiba-ken, JAPAN, 277-8654. Tel: 81-471 733 252; Fax: 81-471
733 263; Email:
nagayasu@reitaku-u.ac.jp
Prof. Henk van Luijk
Nijenrode University, European Institute of Business Ethics, Straatweg 25,
3621 BG Breukelen, NETHERLANDS. Tel: 31-346 291 290; Fax: 31-346 265 453;
Email:
vanluijk@hobbit.nijenrode.nl
Notification of acceptance will be given by March 1, 2000.
Persons interested in attending the Congress should notify one of the above,
and information concerning hotel accommodations, registration fees, and
side-programs for accompanying persons will be sent to them in the next
announcement. Please also visit the ISBEE website:
http://www.nd.edu/~isbee/
Organizing Commitee of the Congress:
Richard T. De George, President of ISBEE
Georges Enderle, Secretary General of ISBEE
Planning Committee
Cecilia Arruda, EAESP / FGV, Brazil; Thomas Donaldson, The Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania, USA; Georges Enderle, University of Notre Dame,
USA; Jacqueline Gates, Bell Atlantic, USA; Bryan Husted, ITESM Monterrey,
Mexico; Yukimasa Nagayasu, Institute of Moralogy, Japan; Maria Marta
Preziosa, Instituto para el Desarrollo Empresarial de la Argentina,
Argentina; Henk van Luijk, Nijenrode University, The Netherlands.
Advisory Committee
Marie Bohata, CERGE-EI Economics Institute, Czech Republic; Hans Burkhard,
Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia; Sheena Carmichael, Ethos, UK; Richard T.
De George, University of Kansas, USA; Harold Galvis Parrasi, Universidad del
Valle, Colombia; Ernesto García, Instituto de Altos Estudios Empresariales,
Argentina; Kenneth E. Goodpaster, University of St. Thomas, USA; Hyungchul
Kim, Yonsei University, Korea; Jack Mahoney, Edinburgh University, UK; John
Milton-Smith, Curtin University, Australia; Alvaro Pezoa Bissières,
Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile; Antonio Rodríguez López, Instituto de
Desarrollo Empresarial, Ecuador; Gedeon Rossouw, Rand Afrikaans University,
South Africa; Eduardo Schmidt, Universidad Pacífico, Peru; Arbi Soeleiman,
Forum on Applied Ethics and Dialogue, Indonesia; Horst Steinmann, University
of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany; Heidi von Weltzien Hoivik, Norwegian School
of Management, Norway.
Please visit ISBEE website: www.nd.edu/~isbee/