Promoting Business Ethics

Abstract

Walking into the auditorium for the opening session of the Tenth Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, participants were immediately drawn into an online video game and its humanoid warriors fighting a battle of annihilation. The game, they soon discovered, was actually the subject of a case study which was to dominate the conference's three plenary sessions Coau thored by Judith Spain of Eastern Kentucky University and Gina Vega of Merrimack College, "Sony Online Entertainment: EverQuest or EverCrack" raised serious questions about corporate social responsibility and indi vidual personal responsibility which, in the opening ses sion, were described by Dr. Spain. The case study, in an earlier from, was first used at Eastern Kentucky University in a program which drew attention to the subject from the whole of the campus. The genesis and preparation of that endeavor is described in the opening contribution to this special issue of the Journal of Business Ethics. Following that brief description is the actual case study, and following that is a transcript of a debate between two of the leading American business eth icists, Moses Pava of Yehsiva University and Laura Hartman of Depaul University. Framed within a traditional Oxonian structure, Drs. Pava and Hart man argued the issues and implications of corporate and personal responsibility for business ethics. To celebrate the Tenth anniversary of the Inter national Conference Promoting Business Ethics, a reception featured Michael Schwartz of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and humerous anecdotes from his annual travels between the United States and Australia for the Conference. In recogni tion of his professional scholarship, Dr. Schwartz was awarded the Deans' Prize for best paper of the Conference. Entitled, "What Gewirth is Worth at the Department Store," the article describes the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which department stores reflect and encourage ethical values through the display of merchandise. Ingeniously, his argu ment is contextualized within the formulation of Peter Drucker's ethical analysis as response, in part, to Nazi Germany's awareness of the impact of depart ment stores on the values of the German people. That paper, however, does not stand alone as representative of the intersection of individual imagination, professional scholarship, and interna tional perspective. Many of the Conference partici pants raised serious concerns of ethical and unethical business in precisely the same manner, as reflected in the articles chosen for this special issue. They also reflect the Conference's continuing focus on St. Vincent DePaul's inspiring concern for the poor and marginalized which informs the com mon mission of the three sponsoring institutions of Marilynn Fleckenstein, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Niagara University, coordinates the Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, teaches business ethics, and directs Learn and Serve Niagara, a program for experiential learning. Mary Maury is Coordinator for Business Ethics in the Tobin College of Business at St. John's University, teaches accounting, and is a Coordinator of the Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics. Partrick Primeaux, S. M., Chair of the Department of The ology and Religious Studies at St. John's University, is a Coordinator of the Annual International Conference Pro moting Business Ethics and teaches business ethics. Patricia Werhane, Wicklander Chair and Distinguished Pro fessor of Business Ethics at Depaul University, is a Coor dinator of the Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, and is internationally recognized as a leading scholar and teacher in the field.