Responsibility-Sensitive Fair Compensation in Different Cultures

Recently many philosophers and social choice theorists have questioned traditional welfare egalitarianism by introducing a notion of responsibility. They propose to distinguish between two sets of individual characteristics: those for which individuals are to be kept responsible and those for which they can be compensated. This approach raises the related questions of where to draw the line between those two sets of characteristics and how to operationalise the notion of 'responsibility-sensitive fair compensation'. The answers to these questions may depend on the cultural context. We present some empirical results from questionnaire studies in Belgium, Burkina Faso and Indonesia. The notion of control seems to play an important role in determining the variables for which individuals are to be held responsible. The strong notion of 'full compensation' is clearly rejected in favour of more conservative distribution rules. Moreover, a large fraction of the respondents take the non-liberal position that the talented should be punished if they do not use their talents in a productive way. We find some intercultural differences. Belgian students are more in favour of redistribution. Indonesian students are the most conservative. While the Pareto principle is decisively rejected in Burkina Faso and Belgium, it is accepted by a majority of the Indonesian sample.distributive justive, fair compensation

Executive Compensation Eligibility in Global Businesses: A Global Banding Approach

As corporations expand their geographic reach and executive talent moves across geographic borders as freely as capital, global compensation executives must keep pace. Ethnocentric, nationalistic and parochial HR systems and policies inherited from the past that are focused on a single country may actually be barriers to the establishment of effective global organizational processes. Leaving local units in various countries determine their own executive compensation philosophies and practices may be equally detrimental

Ethics in a Global Society (Chapter 12 of Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach

Globalization is having a dramatic impact on life in the 21st century. We inhabit a global society knit together by free trade, international travel, immigration, satellite communication systems, and the Internet. In this interconnected world, ethical responsibilities extend beyond national boundaries. Decisions about raw materials, manufacturing, outsourcing, farm subsidies, investments, marketing strategies, suppliers, safety standards, and energy use made in one country have ramifications for residents of other parts of the world. Organizational citizenship is now played out on a global stage. Businesses, in particular, are being urged to take on a larger role in solving the world\u27s social problems

Apologies in the Healthcare System: From Clinical Medicine to Public Health

Alberstein and Davidovitch explore the role of apologies in healthcare systems from a broader perspective. The significance of apology in terms of social solidarity is addressed and the ways in which each apology situation entails a clash between cultural identities are demonstrated. The debate on apology is explored by presenting a public health perspective of apologies following collective traumatic events such as the application of sterilization laws or flawed human experimentations in various settings

Bad luck vs. self-inflicted neediness – An experimental investigation of gift giving in a solidarity game

We experimentally examine the impact of self-inflicted neediness on the solidarity behavior of subjects. In one treatment in our solidarity experiment all subjects face the same probability of becoming needy, in the other treatment subjects have the choice between a secure payment and a lottery including a certain probability of becoming needy. Then we ask all subjects how much they will give to losers in their group thus investigating if people are willing to give the same gifts whether or not subjects are responsible for inequality in payoffs. We found evidence for allocative as well as for procedural utility concerns.solidarity game, self-inflicted neediness, responsibility, procedural utility

The social welfare function and individual responsibility: Some theoretical issues and empirical evidence from health

The literature on income distribution has attempted to quantitatively analyse different degrees of inequality using a social welfare function (SWF) approach. However, it has largely ignored the source of such inequalities, and has thus failed to consider different degrees of inequity. The literature on egalitarianism has addressed issues of equity, largely in relation to individual responsibility. This paper brings these two literatures together by introducing the concept of individual responsibility into the SWF approach. The results from an empirical study of people’s preferences in relation to the distribution of health benefits are presented to illustrate how the parameter values in such a SWF might be determined

Consumer expectations towards origin-claimed food products. Compensation and acceptance for global trading system

Origin- claimed food products mainstream gives diverse features over the world. The food labelling practices based on origin or provenance are frequently developed as a reaction to global trading system: private and NGO's initiatives (Fair Trade), enterprises in UK (Local Foods) and USA (Food Alliance), medals for winners in local exhibitions awards, or public regulation in European Union (PDO, PGI, Organic Farming). These practices claim at reaching consumer expectations. For a consumer who is frequently being uprooted and is stressed by his/her urban environment, the emotional content of where one's food is produced is greater than ever. With a longing for one's home, the consumer becomes an identity seeker. Origin, organic or fair trade food products respond to this need of native tangs revival. Such food products help consumer to identify his/her lost roots, to have recall of exotic holidays, to resist against ethical values' decline and finally to accept globalisation of food trading system. Because of their historical and cultural content, these foods give a meaning to taste. The demand for origin, organic and fair- trade food products is to be found somewhere between lifestyle habits and changes. The future of these products is supported, strangely enough, by the development of novel food products such as fat - or sugar - free foods, restructured meat, alcohol- free wine, and GMOs. The reference to tradition makes modernity tolerable. The arrival of High Tech food products should also result in a demand for compensatory products, and thereby favour those that can help to remove the guilty feelings of ready- to- eat consumers. Therefore, origin- , organic- and fair- trade- labelled foods seem to contribute to the modern food globalisation. The paper focuses on the place of these products within European food consumption. It examines in turn the rare estimation of market share of labelled food products, and their consumers' perception and purchasing behaviour in different sales channels, with a special focus on fair- trade and organic farming. It concludes with consideration of the marketing dynamics, which should be followed in order to favour consumption of origin- claimed food products.fair- trade, organic farming, consumer expectations, food, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

A Value-Sensitive Design Approach to Intelligent Agents

This chapter proposed a novel design methodology called Value-Sensitive Design and its potential application to the field of artificial intelligence research and design. It discusses the imperatives in adopting a design philosophy that embeds values into the design of artificial agents at the early stages of AI development. Because of the high risk stakes in the unmitigated design of artificial agents, this chapter proposes that even though VSD may turn out to be a less-than-optimal design methodology, it currently provides a framework that has the potential to embed stakeholder values and incorporate current design methods. The reader should begin to take away the importance of a proactive design approach to intelligent agents