Abstract
This paper considers the situation of individuals in corporations whose social responsibilities include sustainable policies and practices. It notes that to enable corporations to fulfil their responsibilities, individuals often have to deal with multiple conflicting ethical demands. In matters of sustainability, these often include matters of difficult judgment, giving attention to new and sometimes unwelcome information. Resolution of conflicting moral demands may be possible through decisions that allow individuals to construct coherent personal narratives, but to do so involves reflection on beliefs and judgments as well as on words and actions. Personal integrity requires consistency amongst all those, even when such consistency requires us to assimilate unpalatable new information.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adams, W. M. (2006). The future of sustainability: Re-thinking environment and development in the twenty-first century, report of the IUCN renowned thinkers meeting, 29–31 January 2006. http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/iucn_future_of_sustanability.pdf. Accessed 16 July 2012.
Alleman, J. E., & Mossman, B. T. (1997). Asbestos revisited. Scientific American, 277(1), 70–75.
Badaracco, J. L., Jr. (1997). Defining moments: When managers must choose between right and right. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Bazerman, M. H., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. (2011). Blind spots. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
BHP Billiton. (2012). Working with integrity: Code of business conduct. http://www.bhpbilliton.com/home/aboutus/ourcompany/Pages/codeofbusconduct.aspx. Accessed 7 July 2012.
Dawson, D. F. (2004). Report of the special commission of inquiry into the medical research and compensation foundation, NSW Government. http://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/_data/assets/pdf_file/0020/11387/01PartA.pdf. Accessed 7 Dec 2012.
Dower, N. (2011). Climate change and the cosmopolitan responsibility of individuals: Policy vanguards. In P. G. Harris (Ed.), Ethics and global environmental policy (pp. 42–65). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Edley, C. F., Jr., & Weiler, P. C. (1993). Asbestos: A multi-billion-dollar crisis. Harvard Journal on Legislation, 30, 383–408.
French, P. A. (1979). The corporation as a moral person. American Philosophical Quarterly, 16(3), 207–215.
Harris, H. (2008). Promoting ethical reflection in the teaching of business ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 17(4), 379–390.
Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems, 4(5), 390–405.
Jackall, R. (1988). Moral mazes. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jackson, J. (1996). An introduction to business ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Johnson, M. (1993). Moral imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kannan-Narasimhan, R., & Lawrence, B. S. (2012). Behavioural integrity: How leader referents and trust matter to workplace outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 111(2), 165–178.
Kates, R. W., Clark, W. C., Corell, R., Hall, J. M., Jaeger, C. C., Lowe, I., McCarthy, J. J., Schellnhuber, H. J., Bolin, B., Dickson, N. M., Faucheux, S., Gallopin, G. C., Grübler, A., Huntley, B., Jäger, J., Jodha, N. S., Kasperson, R. E., Mabogunje, A., Matson, P., Mooney, H., Moore, B. III., O’Riordan, T., et al. (2001). Sustainability science. Science, 292(27 April), 641–642.
Kates, R. W., Parris, T. M., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2005). What is sustainable development? Goals, indicators, values, and practice. Environment, 47(3), 8–21.
Kent, J. (2011). Individual responsibility and voluntary action on climate change: Activating agency. In P. G. Harris (Ed.), Ethics and global environmental policy (pp. 66–88). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Kidder, R. M. (1995). How good people make tough choices. New York: William Morrow.
Lehrer, J. (2009). How we decide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
MacIntyre, A. (1985). After virtue (2nd ed.). London: Duckworth.
Maxwell, J., & Briscoe, F. (1997). There’s money in the air: The CFC ban and DuPont’s regulatory strategy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 6(5), 276–286.
Messick, D. M., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. (Eds.). (1996). Codes of conduct: Behavioral research into business ethics. New York: Russell Sage.
Michaelis, L., & Lorek, S. (2004). Consumption and the environment in Europe: Trends and futures. Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Project No. 904. http://www.mst.dk/Publikationer/Publications/2004/03/87-7614-193-4.htm. Accessed 16 July 2012
Mullin, R. P. (2002). What can be learned from DuPont and the Freon ban: A case study. Journal of Business Ethics, 40(3), 207–218.
Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2007). Integrity and leadership: Clearing the conceptual confusion. European Management Journal, 25(3), 171–184.
Provis, C. (2011). Individuals, groups and business ethics. New York: Routledge.
Reynolds, S. J., Owens, B. P., & Rubenstein, A. L. (2012). Moral stress: Considering the nature and effects of managerial moral uncertainty. Journal of Business Ethics, 106, 491–502.
Rotary International. (2012). Guiding principles. http://www.rotary.org/en/aboutus/rotaryinternational/guidingprinciples/pages/ridefault.aspx. Accessed 6 July 2012.
Simons, T. (2002). ‘Behavioral integrity: The perceived alignment between managers’ words and deeds as a research focus. Organization Science, 13(1), 18–35.
Solomon, R. C. (1997). It’s good business: Ethics and free enterprise for the new millennium. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Stanovich, K. E. (2011). Rationality and the reflective mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
U.S. EPA. (1975). ‘DDT regulatory history: A brief survey (to 1975). http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/history/topics/ddt/. Accessed 7 Dec 2012.
Waters, J. A., & Bird, F. (1987). The moral dimension of organizational culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 6(1), 15–22.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Provis, C. (2014). Sustainability, Integrity and Judgment. In: Sandhu, S., McKenzie, S., Harris, H. (eds) Linking Local and Global Sustainability. The International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics Book Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9008-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9008-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9007-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9008-6
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)