Dear all
Here is the latest issue of International Journal of Commerce and Management, followed
by the editorial by Abbas J. Ali. I hope you find the articles interesting and
useful.
Best wishes
Martyn
Dr Martyn Lawrence
Senior Publisher
Journal: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/ijcoma.htm
Collection: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/tk/ib
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Article Title: Cultural basis of high performance
organizations
Authors: Vipin Gupta
Article Type: Research paper
Keywords: GLOBE, High performance organization, HLM,
Organizational culture, Organizational performance, Societal culture
Pages: 221-240
Link to Page: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10569211111165280
Article Title: Franchising: category issues, changing
dynamics and competitiveness
Authors: Syed Tariq Anwar
Article Type: Research paper
Keywords: – Category issues, Changing dynamics,
Competitive strategy, Franchisee, Franchisers, Franchising
Pages: 241-255
Link to Page: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10569211111165299
Article Title: Privatizing state-owned enterprises: a
model for developing countries
Authors: Mushtaq Luqmani, Zahir Quraeshi
Article Type: Conceptual paper
Keywords: Developing countries,
Pages: 256-272
Link to Page: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10569211111165307
Article Title: Organizational justice, age, and
performance connection in
Authors: Aizzat Mohd. Nasurdin, Soon Lay Khuan
Article Type: Research paper
Keywords: Age, Customer-contact employees, Job
performance,
Pages: 273-290
Link to Page: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10569211111165316
Article Title: An empirical assessment of Islamic
leadership principles
Authors: Khaliq Ahmad, Ogunsola O.K.
Article Type: Research paper
Keywords: Islam, Islamic leadership principles,
Islamic management, Islamic perspectives, Leadership, Leadership approaches,
Pages: 291-318
Link to Page: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10569211111165325
Editorial – The return of Stahlhelm Corporations
(Abbas J Ali)
Since
the sixteenth century, corporations have played varying roles in the market and
in society, and in the process they have been simultaneously loathed or
appreciated by stakeholders. For over three centuries, as European countries
fiercely pursued colonization projects in various continents, charter
corporations were granted a monopoly over trade, in addition to the right to
manage colonies, enforce order, and assume responsibilities for the security
and military affairs of the colonized lands. Consequently, corporations gained
unprecedented powers.
For
example, one of the first charter corporations was the Dutch East India
Company. By 1669, the company employed over 10,000 soldiers and had a fleet of
40 warships and 150 merchant ships. Similarly, the East India Company,
established in December 1600, assumed control over vast lands abroad and became
a ruling entity when the military defeated the forces of the Nawab of Bengal,
Siraj-ud-daulah, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
By
assuming military and security roles and or the administrative functions of the
colonies, charter corporations gained the label, Stahlhelm or steel helmet
firms. In today’s world, Stahlhelm conveys a specific message; these are
corporations that, for various reasons, are given the right by a government to
perform security or military functions which are normally carried out by the
state. By necessity, this trend has blurred the lines between government roles
and private corporations’ emerging security functions.
Charter
corporations did not survive, as colonial governments preferred to directly
manage their colonies and as new firms in the manufacturing, banking and
extraction industries flexed their muscles in politics and markets. Though
newly emerged corporations once relied on their respective governments in order
to expand overseas and capture new markets, they gradually understood that
there were activities other than exploitation of natural resources in
developing nations that they could engage in, i.e. non-economic activities.
Though these corporations had initially responded, in varying degrees, to the
needs and dictates of their home governments, by the early 1960s these
corporations had started to involve themselves in non-economic activities and
had taken note of changing market realities. Their concerns with public image
and with having friendly relationships with the elite in other countries, be
they politicians, union leaders, or intellectuals, inaugurated a new era of
corporate social responsibility.
This,
however, has not precluded many governments from utilizing, though usually in
secret, the service of corporations in performing security functions. For many
years, governments have contracted or authorized private corporations to engage
in militaristic and subversive activities abroad. This has enabled states to
maneuver easily and to blame private entities when things do not go as planned.
Until
early 2001, these activities were carried out discreetly by business corporations.
The events after 9/11 brought these activities to the forefront. The invasion
of Afghanistan and Iraq and secret intelligence and military operations
conducted abroad have made the presence of Stahlhelm Corporations a reality in
the business and political scene. Indeed, many security and military operations
have been subcontracted to private corporations, be they private military
contractors or security firms. These companies, while often accused by some
media outlets and non-government organizations (NGOs) of being mercenaries,
prefer to describe their businesses as private military or security provider
contractors.
These
corporations are involved in a wide range of defensive and offensive operations
on the battle fields and in training military and security personnel in
different countries. They provide security services for politicians and
business people and engage in security screening in airports. The business of
these corporations has flourished across the globe. In December 2005, the
It
is clearly cost-effective to have contractors for a variety of things that
military people need not do, and that, for whatever reason, other civilians,
government people, cannot be deployed to do. There are a lot of contractors, a
growing number, they come from our country, but they come from all countries.
And indeed sometimes the contracts are from our country or another country and
they employ people from totally different countries, including Iraqis and
people from neighboring nations. And there are a lot of them, and it’s a
growing number. […] But I personally am of the view that there are a lot of
things that can be done on a short-time basis by contractors that advantage the
United States and advantage other countries who also hire contractors. And that
any idea that we shouldn’t have them, I think, would be unwise.
Whether
we agree or not with Rumsfeld, the Stahlhelm Corporations have thrived in the
last three decades. Their numbers are in the thousands if not the hundreds of
thousands. In the case of US military engagements, Amnesty International (2011)
has reported that in Iraq and Afghanistan, private military and security
contractors have mushroomed:
As
the United States engages in the “war on terror”, it is outsourcing key
security and military support functions, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan,
to private companies to carry out the work. The number of contractors now
exceeds the number of military personnel. The work that is contracted out to
companies ranges from logistical support to security for U.S. government
personnel and reconstruction projects, to training military and security
personnel, to operating and maintaining weapons systems.
In
fact, companies like airlines (e.g. Delta), in the USA, have been given the
authority to issue a “military excuses” for passengers who are prevented by
airlines employees from boarding or are escorted off the planes because of
their physical appearance or their names. Other private corporations (e.g.
Blackwater) have been accused of engaging in torture and human rights
violations. The extent of such activities has been documented by NGOs including
the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch. Writing in the International Review of the Red Cross, Cameron (2006)
reported that the private military company industry is clearly multifaceted and
complex, operating around the globe in many different situations. She indicated
that there are a very large number of companies operating in this industry who
are worth about $100 billion.
While
Cameron (2006) has argued that the employees of private military companies are
being referred to as “mercenaries”, she nevertheless has made it clear that not
all of their activities are criminal. Nevertheless, the UN General Assembly
(2003) in its Resolution (57/196) on February 25, 2003 condemned the “Use of
mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of
the right of peoples to self-determination”.
Many
researchers, including Ottaway (2001), have argued that it is not the business
of corporations to preach human rights and that asking corporations to observe
human rights in their dealings with host governments represents a return to
charter corporations. While she acknowledges that charter corporations once
played a crucial role in the first phase of globalization by opening up the
world for trade and establishing empires, she goes on to ask, “can private
corporations […] play a similar role in the second phase of globalization,
combining their entrepreneurial activities with the role of political and moral
reformers?” Her answer is that “it is a singularly bad idea”. She provides
three reasons for this: corporations, especially oil firms, are not the right
organizations for furthering moral causes as their strengths lie not in
devotion to democracy and human rights but in doing their primary business; the
attempt to couple increased economic globalization with a further globalization
of moral values assumes that all people of the world share similar “wider
values of civil society” which is inaccurate; and pushing corporations to
assume the role of reformers creates a process where nobody wants to take
responsibility.
Furthermore,
Ottaway believes that expecting corporations to promote human rights and ensure
that security forces are assigned to protect their installations, therefore
complying with international law, is indeed a restoration of charter companies,
which she argues belong in history books not in the twenty-first century. This
statement, along with the three reasons that she provides, contradicts her own
historical account of charter corporations which she addressed in her article,
“Reluctant missionaries”. Charter corporations abused the people of the
colonized lands, engaged in torture and subjugation, and were interested not in
improving the welfare of the host countries but in accumulating wealth and
transporting it to their respective countries.
More
importantly, a casual survey across the globe of government and business
involvement indicates that it has become the norm to depend on business
organizations to carry out what were once government functions. US Secretary of
Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, UN agencies, and several NGOs, have proved that the
existence of private military and security contractors are a part of the global
market landscape. They have been in business under various forms and have
thrived since the early 1990s (Cameron, 2006). These firms, along with many
other corporations in various economic sectors, intentionally or
unintentionally violate human rights and display a disregard for the welfare of
their host countries. And much like the charter corporations of the past, they
do not shy away from engaging in questionable practices.
Individuals
who promote the idea that corporations must not promote human rights appear to
be out of touch with reality. Many executives today, as reported by McKinsey
Quarterly (2006), not only advocate socio-political issues but also include
them as part of their strategic planning. Indeed, the survey found a strong
global support for a wider social role for corporations. Senior business
leaders from the USA, Japan, and Europe established in 1986 the Caux Round
Table (1998) to promote “principled business leadership and responsible
corporate practice”. One of the enacted principles states:
Corporations
should lead by example through business practices that are ethical and
transparent and that reflect a commitment to human dignity, political and
economic freedoms, and preservation of the planet.
In
recent years, hundreds of corporations have espoused the UN Global Compact
(2011). Two of its ten principles that focus on human rights are:
·
Principle
1. Businesses should support and respect the protection of
internationally proclaimed human rights.
·
Principle
2. Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
These
principles are clear and executives from various parts of the globe have
officially adopted them. This, however, does not indicate that all corporations
are observing human rights, In fact, the presence of private military and
security contractors and the subcontracting of some government security
functions to business organizations demonstrate that Stahlhelm Corporations are
on the rise. While we are not sure about the future of these corporations, it
certainly suggests that in an era of fiscal austerity, governments are
subcontracting some of their activities to private businesses. The latter,
driven by greed and the probability that their respective governments will
provide them with immunity from prosecution, are likely to violate human rights
and behave like charter or imperial corporations.
Corporations
are not solely economic actors. Rather, they pursue social and political
activities to facilitate their primary economic functions and enhance their
economic involvement, survivability, and growth. They are endowed with
resources and acquire skills and knowledge that are normally applied to
fostering their contributions to markets and societies. The strengths of
corporations lie in their ability to be creative and invent themselves to
further their markets and societal functions. Steering their capacities and
resources in the service of subversive activities is a disservice to
corporations themselves and constitutes an attempt to turn history back into
the darkness; it is a serious setback to the cause of humanity and
civilization.
The
return of Stahlhelm Corporations is a disappointing development in an era where
people seek to live free of fear and abuse. Indeed, the evolving business of
Stahlhelm Corporations is a threat to civility and to individual rights and
liberties. A sensible action would be to compel these organizations to observe
universal human rights and the principles of the Global Compact.