Institute for Business and Professional Ethics
Encyclopedia
The Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (IBPE) is a business ethics
research and development center within the College of Commerce at DePaul University
in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1985 in a joint effort between DePaul University's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and College of Commerce to create a forum for ethical deliberation in professional decision-making processes. The Institute is one of 45 specialized centers and institutes at DePaul that support student learning with an institutional commitment to community service and social justice.http://www.depaul.edu/about/community_involvement/centers_institutes.asp The IBPE publishes case studies, books, and journal articles in business ethics, and hosts a series of annual business workshops and conferences. It is also the editorial home of the Business and Professional Ethics Journal
.
composed of ethics and compliance officers from a wide range of Chicago businesses, including small consulting firms and major corporations. http://commerce.depaul.edu/ethics/About/BoardDirectors/index.asp
The operations staff includes:
Journal
The Business and Professional Ethics Journal
is a peer-reviewed
academic journal
that features articles on current ethical issues in business and professional life. The Institute assumed editorial responsibility for journal in 2010. http://secure.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/journal?openform&journal=pdc_bpej
, a non-profit association
that promotes the advancement and understanding of ethics in business. Members of the IBPE team have worked for many years in cooperation with members of the Society for Business Ethics to promote open and thoughtful discussion of the most difficult moral, legal, empirical, and philosophical issues of business ethics. http://www.societyforbusinessethics.org/images/Documents/sbehistory.pdf
Major topic questions included:
, the International Vincentian Family
and Haitian Hometown Association Resource Group organizations, to found Zafen.org http://www.zafen.org—an online microfinance
program to assist Haitian entrepreneurs and to facilitate sustainable economic development
in Haiti
. Zafen.org was launched in April of 2010.
Business ethics
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.Business...
research and development center within the College of Commerce at DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1985 in a joint effort between DePaul University's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and College of Commerce to create a forum for ethical deliberation in professional decision-making processes. The Institute is one of 45 specialized centers and institutes at DePaul that support student learning with an institutional commitment to community service and social justice.http://www.depaul.edu/about/community_involvement/centers_institutes.asp The IBPE publishes case studies, books, and journal articles in business ethics, and hosts a series of annual business workshops and conferences. It is also the editorial home of the Business and Professional Ethics Journal
Business and Professional Ethics Journal
Business and Professional Ethics Journal is a peer-reviewed academic journal that examines ethical issues in business encountered by professionals working in large organizational structures...
.
Mission
The IBPE facilitates ethical deliberation by developing models for ethical decision-making in business practices and stirring the moral conscience of professional arbiters in the international economic structure, particularly focusing on:- Students: Teaching students ethical practices and inspiring engagement in social justice initiatives;
- Business: Advancing ethical practices in established business organizations; and
Leadership
The Institute is managed by an external board of directorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
composed of ethics and compliance officers from a wide range of Chicago businesses, including small consulting firms and major corporations. http://commerce.depaul.edu/ethics/About/BoardDirectors/index.asp
The operations staff includes:
- Patricia Werhane, Managing Director
- Laura Hartman, Research Director
- Mollie Painter-Morland, Associate Director
- Summer Brown, Executive Director
- Nathan Shepard, Assistant Researcher
Notable publications (selection)
Textbooks http://commerce.depaul.edu/ethics/Research/index.asp- Alleviating Poverty through Profitable Partnerships: Globalization, Markets & Economic Well-Being. Patricia Werhane, Scott P. Kelley, Laura P. Hartman, and Dennis J. Moberg. (Routledge, 2010).
- Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy, Mollie Painter-Morland and René ten Bos. (forthcoming, Cambridge, 2011)
- Business Ethics as Practice: Ethics as the Everyday Business of Business, Mollie Painter-Morland (Cambridge, 2008)
- Effective & Ethical Practices in Global Corporations, edited by Laura P Hartman and Patricia Werhane (Routledge, 2009)
- Leadership, Gender and Organization, Mollie Painter-Morland and Patricia Werhane. Springer, 2010.
- Rising Above Sweatshops: Innovative Management Approaches to Global Labor Challenges, Laura P Hartman, Denis Arnold, and Richard Wokutch (Praeger, 2003).
Journal
The Business and Professional Ethics Journal
Business and Professional Ethics Journal
Business and Professional Ethics Journal is a peer-reviewed academic journal that examines ethical issues in business encountered by professionals working in large organizational structures...
is a peer-reviewed
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
that features articles on current ethical issues in business and professional life. The Institute assumed editorial responsibility for journal in 2010. http://secure.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/journal?openform&journal=pdc_bpej
Society of Business Ethics
The IBPE maintains close relations with the Society for Business EthicsSociety for Business Ethics
The Society for Business Ethics is a non-profit organization established in 1980 to promote the advancement and understanding of ethics in business. Its mission is to provide a forum in which moral, legal, empirical, and philosophical issues of business ethics may be openly discussed and analyzed...
, a non-profit association
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that promotes the advancement and understanding of ethics in business. Members of the IBPE team have worked for many years in cooperation with members of the Society for Business Ethics to promote open and thoughtful discussion of the most difficult moral, legal, empirical, and philosophical issues of business ethics. http://www.societyforbusinessethics.org/images/Documents/sbehistory.pdf
International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference
The International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference http://commerce.depaul.edu/ethics/International_Vincentian_Busin/index.asp is an annual event hosted by the IBPE and DePaul University. The focus of the conference concerns current ethics quandaries through the lens of Vincentian values. The 2010 conference encouraged panels, presentations and case studies that focus on global issues related to the following:- Poverty
- PandemicPandemicA pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
s - Population
- Pollution
- Ponzi SchemesPonzi schemeA Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
(Corporate Scandal) - Peace
- Profits
Major topic questions included:
- What models should companies and managers develop for corporate governanceCorporate governanceCorporate governance is a number of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions which have impact on the way a company is controlled...
in an increasingly global economy? - How can companies market to the vast majority of the world that is in abject poverty?
- Can they address the issues of poverty and disease in less developed countries while continuing to be fiscally responsible?
- What is the role of entrepreneurs in these new markets?
Haiti Initiative and Zafen.org
The year 2010 represented the 350th anniversary of the deaths of DePaul University’s patron, St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) and St. Louise de Marillac (1591–1660), and provided an opportunity to celebrate their historical, spiritual and charitable legacy. As part of its worldwide celebration, the Institute supported the University, in conjunction with FonkozeFonkoze
Fonkoze is Haiti's largest microfinance institution serving poor and ultra-poor women throughout the rural areas of Haiti. It has microfinance institution more than 50,000 borrowers and 250,000 savers...
, the International Vincentian Family
Vincentian Family
Vincentian Family refers to organizations that are inspired by the life and work of St. Vincent de Paul, a 17th century priest who "transformed the face of France."...
and Haitian Hometown Association Resource Group organizations, to found Zafen.org http://www.zafen.org—an online microfinance
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
program to assist Haitian entrepreneurs and to facilitate sustainable economic development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. Zafen.org was launched in April of 2010.