This year at SAMIBC2020 we are pleased to announce another of our presenters, Brad Condie from Concordia University Wisconsin. Brad will be presenting the paper Equalities: The multiple conceptions of equality forming the contexts of global business in 2020.
Presentation Abstract: International documents, including trade agreements, and global institutions, from 1941 to the present, employ multiple conceptions of equality. The documents reviewed posit equality not just between individuals, but also nations and peoples/ethnic groups, with strong implications for international business ethics.
Several of the documents were seminal in founding institutions and organizations still operating, such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and GATT (and its successor organization, the World Trade Organization). There operating procedures, as well as these founding documents, implement specific concepts of equality, as well as cognate concepts (mutuality, reciprocity) which imply a form of equality.
The documents studied, as well as the institutions, differ on the locus of equality, which raises the question: who is equal? Depending on the document or organization, the locus of equality can be the individual (Four Freedoms speech, United Nations Universal Declarations of Human Rights), nations (United Nations Charter, IMF, World Bank, GATT and its successor WTO0, or peoples and ethnic groups (International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Political Rights).
The documents, as well as the operating procedures of the corresponding organizations, employ terms cognate with equality, such as mutuality, reciprocity, and implied equality. An example of the latter is the statement in the WTO agreement, that developing nations may adopt differing trade policies that developed nations, in order to reach the state of economic development of the latter. This implies the developing nations have a legitimate claim to economic parity with the developed nations.
The documents also raise questions as to what counts as a nation or people. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Political Rights states that all peoples have the right of self-determination. What counts as a people? How is this principle to be implemented? And by whom? Businesses throughout the world encounter situations where there are tensions, or even conflicts, between groups within a recognized nation. And the status of national recognition is also fraught with ambiguity.
Another concern is the existence of adjudication procedures (or lack thereof) for resolving claims of actions allegedly violating either stated or implied equality claims. Examples of adjudication include the World Court and WTO procedures. An example of lack of adjudication procedures is the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, which has no mechanism to enforce its rules and standards.
Together, these documents and institutions provide multiple contexts for global business activity, and influence stakeholder expectations of what constitutes ethical and unethical behavior, thus embodying strong implications for global business practices.
Join us in Nashville, Tennessee to see this great paper and many more March 19 – 21, 2020. For registration information visit www.samnational.org/conference.