Papers

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves by Albert Bandura.’ Business Ethics Quarterly, 2016 Bandura discovered a number of psycho-social mechanisms by which moral control can be selectively disengaged from detrimental conduct. These mechanisms of moral disengagement enable otherwise considerate people to commit transgressive acts without experiencing personal distress and guilt. People “fool themselves” in order to “fool others”. In his book Bandura extensively documents how moral disengagement mechanisms are at work… Read More »Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves by Albert Bandura

Madhumita Chatterji, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Questions and Themes in Ethics and Leadership.’ , in Ethical Leadership. Indian and European Spiritual Approaches., eds. Madhumita Chatterji, and Laszlo Zsolnai, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016. The exchange of ideas between India and Europe about economics and politics dates back centuries. The most important figures in this regard include John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore and M.K. Gandhi. However, the modern India-Europe dialogue on the spiritual and ethical basis of management and leadership started in the late 20th century. The authors… Read More »Questions and Themes in Ethics and Leadership

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Responsible Leadership and Reasonable Action.’ , in Ethical Leadership. Indian and European Spiritual Approaches , eds. Madhumita Chatterji, and Laszlo Zsolnai, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016. Responsible leadership is a scarce resource in business and public administration today. Trust in leaders worldwide is dramatically decreasing as they are not able to prove that they are serving the common good. Rather, they are perceived by the public to be pursuing their own selfish goals and those of their organizations. The mainstream… Read More »Responsible Leadership and Reasonable Action

Laszlo Zsolnai, & Madhumita Chatterji ‘Lessons for the Future for India and Europe .’ , in Ethical Leadership. Indian and European Spiritual Approaches, eds. Madhumita Chatterji, and Laszlo Zsolnai, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016. The authors are convinced that spirituality is not incompatible with rationality or real-world economic, social and environmental analysis. Ethical leaders can employ the best available scientific knowledge to execute their own spiritual-based plans and policies. India and Europe should embrace their own noble traditions and seek to… Read More »Lessons for the Future for India and Europe

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Ethics Education of Business Leaders. Emotional Intelligence, Virtues, and Contemplative Learning.’ Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, 2016 How can business schools educate future business leaders to make ethical decisions? This is really a challenge as business schools focus on one-dimensional rationality and cognitive intelligence. They teach the “Homo oeconomicus” model and related theories (agency theory, profit, or shareholder maximization) which promote individual, selfinterested behavior. Not unsurprisingly business schools produce graduates who are more selfish… Read More »Ethics Education of Business Leaders. Emotional Intelligence, Virtues, and Contemplative Learning

Laszlo Zsolnai, & Doirean Wilson ‘Art-based Business.’ Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016, vol. 135, pp. 1534-1538 The paper argues that with its exclusive focus on profit-making, modern-day businesses tend to violate the integrity and diversity of natural ecosystems, the autonomy and culture of local communities and the chance that future generations will lead a decent life. The core of the metaphysics of modern-day business is what Martin Heidegger calls “calculative thinking”. It is contrasted with poetic thinking… Read More »Art-based Business

Zsolt Boda, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘The Failure of Business Ethics.’ Society and Business Review, 2016, vol.11, no. 1, pp. 93-104 This paper investigates the systemic causes of the failure of business ethics (BE) and suggest some possible remedies. The discipline and the movement of BE has at least three decades of history. BE has developed concepts and theories, and provided empirical evidences. However, BE as a movement and as a practice has failed to deliver the expected results.… Read More »The Failure of Business Ethics

Knut J. Ims, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Social Innovation and Social Development in Latin America, Egypt and India.’ , in Ethical Innovation in Business and the Economy, eds. Georges Enderle, and Patrick E. Murphy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA, 2015. (This book may be available at: Edward Elgar) Exemplary cases of social innovation do not involve profit as the primary goal but emphasize social, spiritual and humanitarian goals such as minimizing suffering and empowering people and communities. The… Read More »Social Innovation and Social Development in Latin America, Egypt and India

Knut J. Ims, Ove Jakobsen, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Product as process — Commodities in mechanic and organic ontology.’ Ecological Economics, 2015, vol. 110, pp. 11-14 This article explores and interprets the product concept in two different ontologies: mechanistic and organic. A required shift in the ontology for understanding commodities has crucial implications for economic theory and practice. In mainstream economics the product is understood in terms of  mechanistic ontology: as a fixed and atomized commodity, to be… Read More »Product as process — Commodities in mechanic and organic ontology

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Materialistic versus Non-materialistic Value-orientation in Management.’ , in Business and the Greater Good. Rethinking Business Ethics in an Age of Crisis, eds. Knut J. Ims, and Lars Jacob Tynes Pedersen, Edward Elgar, Cheltelham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA, 2015. (This book may be available at: Edward Elgar) The Occupy Wall Street and other anti-globalization movement show a drastic loss of confidence in business. Mainstream business lost credibility and trust worldwide. The basic assumptions of business management became questionable.… Read More »Materialistic versus Non-materialistic Value-orientation in Management