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The Global Moral Compass for Business Leaders

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Abstract

Globalization, with its undisputed benefits, also presents complex moral challenges that business leaders cannot ignore. Some of this moral complexity is attributable to the scope and nature of specific issues like climate change, intellectual property rights, economic inequity, and human rights. More difficult aspects of moral complexity are the structure and dynamics of human moral judgment and the amplified universe of global stakeholders with competing value claims and value systems whose interests must be considered and often included in the decision-making process. While managing moral challenges is considered in management literature to be a legitimate and crucial function of business leadership, the complexity of moral challenges in a globalized business culture stretches the managerial capacities of individuals who rely on a personal moral compass and their own wisdom traditions of philosophy or religion for guidance. The Global Moral Compass introduces an expanded epistemic value framework as an aid to understanding and managing moral complexity in a globalized business culture.

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  1. Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, 100 International Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21202, U.S.A.

    Lindsay J. Thompson

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  1. Lindsay J. Thompson
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Correspondence to Lindsay J. Thompson.

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An abbreviated version of this article has been published as a chapter in ‘Carla C. J. M. Millar and Eve Poole, Ethical Leadership’, published 2010, Palgrave Macmillan; reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.

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Thompson, L.J. The Global Moral Compass for Business Leaders. J Bus Ethics 93 (Suppl 1), 15–32 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0624-9

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