RESEARCH PROJECTS

Other Projects

The Chair also facilitates different projects driven by HEC Montréal graduate students concerning organizational ethics and integral development. When these projects are complete - and depending on their quality - they will be made available on the Chair's Web site.

These projects currently include:

Joé Trempe-Martineau : "Ethical Lessons from the Enron Case: An Integral Approach"
see also : Corporate Achilles' Heel

Since the Enron financial scandal broke in 2001, a multitude of articles have been published on the subject. However, the majority of them have focused exclusively on explaining the manipulative accounting practices that lead the company into bankruptcy.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the Enron case integrally, in accordance with the integral approach proposed by the Chair, and to understand the Enron phenomenon in all its complexity, beyond just the manipulative accounting. In addition to the financial dimension, we will also examine, among others, the social, environmental and political aspects of the Enron scandal. We will attempt to bring forth the ethical lessons which can be taken from this business case - which unfortunately is not an isolated incident - to understand what could have been done to avoid the failure of Enron, and what can be done to ensure the inclusion of ethics as an integral and necessary part of running a business.

Finally, the results of this paper will help to show managers how to detect - and even anticipate - the signs of impending crises as a means of assuring the long-term viability of their enterprise.

Catherine Morneau : "The degree of individual responsibility in the codes of ethics of multinational corporations."

Summary: Recent financial scandals in the United states, combined with the rapid integration of the global economy, are giving managers reason to question the role that values and ethics play within their organizations. The goal of this thesis project is to gage the degree of autonomy and responsibility given to individuals within their organizational context. This documentary study will inventory the codes of ethics of the fifty largest multinational firms, and attempt – with the assistance of the Kohlberg model – to determine their respective levels of ethical development (pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional). Consequently, this research project will take a reading of organizational ethics on an international scale and attempt to define the links between diverse industries and diverse countries. Finally, ranking these firms in the Kohlberg grid will determine their respective degrees of conformity to social norms and t he environments in which they are evolving.

Natasha Cournoyer : "Environmental Ethics - A Case Study ";

Summary: Under pressure from environmentalists, the tourism industry has begun to develop sustainable tourism strategies to counter the less desirable effects of conventional mass tourism on the natural and social environments of regions economically dependant on this sector. The interpretation of sustainable tourism is a dynamic phenomenon, and conventional mass tourism – at first excluded from the development of a strategy – has just recently been integrated in efforts to achieve sustainability. However, practical applications of sustainability are too rare, and this sort of tourism runs the risk of failing to become a viable option at the same time when the demand for this type of tourism continues to grow. This research aims to determine how best to develop mass sustainable tourism in the Mont Tremblant region of Quebec through a case study process.

Geneviève Beaudin : “Ethics in the Canadian Armed Forces”;

Summary: The objective of this thesis is to study the development of an ethical approach at the Ministry of National Defense and the Canadian Armed Forces. Two aspects of the evolution of ethical practices are observed within the same organization. The evolution of individual and collective ethical thinking is the first aspect, while the second phase of the study addresses the practical impact of an ethical orientation within this public organization.

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