9780131127463

Although the particular cases and dilemmas regarding business ethics alter and change with time, the underlying principles and theoretical issues rarely do. Business ethics is about doing "the right thing for the right reason" in our private and public lives, especially in our work and on the job. Business ethics asks: What ought we do in relation to others? Beyond rules and requirements, what do I owe the people I work with (fellow employees), work for (managers-owners), and the people I come to work to serve (customers)? Given the basic fact of change, textbooks, like the times, also need to change. The fifth edition of Case Studies in Business Ethics offers a series of new and updated cases and essays on some of the most pertinent ethical issues in today's business environment. This edition has replaced 80 percent of the cases and essays and offers two entirely new sections entitled "Privacy, Ethics, and Technology" and "Leadership." New Cases/Essays: Sex, Lies, and Advertising Racism in the Workplace Is Your Family Wrecking Your Career? Enron: Paragon to Pariah? The Good Old Boys at WorldCom Ford-Firestone Edible Rugs, Anyone!? Sweatshops Rippers, Portal Users, and Profilers Moral Leadership/Moral Mazes Besides a number of cases that are drawn from current news headlines, this edition continues to offer a selection of classical cases and essays that exemplify a number of perennial topics and questions in the field: Tylenol's Rebound Ford Pinto Sex Discrimination at Eastern Uptown, Dakota, and Powermaster Let the Buyer Beware Truth Pays Deceit, Denial, Cover Up Gender Bias, Public Image Advertisement Profits versus Principles

Preface
Introduction to Ethical Reasoning, Thomas Donaldson
The Case Method
Business or Ethics
The Parable of the Sadhu
Into the Mouth of Babes
Communications in Business: Internal and External
Sex, Lies and Advertising
Upton, Dakota, and Power Master
Volvo's Crushing Blow
Toy Wars
The Case of the Contested Firearms
Italian Tax Mores
A HeroAnd a Smoking-Gun Letter
Pollution and Environment
Shades of Green: Business, Ethics and the EnvironmentR. Edward FreemanFreeman, R. EdwardJessica PiercePierce, Jessica
Save the Turtles
Edible Carpets Anyone!?
Interface Corporation a Sustainable Business
The Hazards of the Enterprise
Texeco in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Diversity in the Workplace
A Defense of Programs of Preferential Treatment
Reverse Discrimination as Unjustified
Racism in the Workplace
Texaco: The Jelly Bean Diversity Fiasco
Denny's
Management Dilemma
Work Life Balance and Gender Issues
Women in the Workplace
Management and Women and the New Facts of Life
Child Care Comes to Work
Gender Issues at Your House
Worth the Effort
Foreign Assignment
Sexual Discrimination at Eastern Airlines
Corporate Obligations and Responsibilities: Everything Old is New Again! The Fall of Michael Milken
Enron: From Paragon to Pariah
The Good Old Boys at WorldCom
The Adelphia Story
The Ford Pinto
Radials, Rollovers, and Responsibility: An Examination of the Ford-Firestone Case
The Dalkon Shield
Multinationals
The Ethical Wealth of Nations
AIDS and Life-Saving Medicines Responsibilities
Chrysler and Gae Feng: Corporate Responsibility for Religious and Political Freedom in China
The Great Non-Debate Over International Sweatshops
Shell Oil in Nigeria
Levi Strauss and Co. and China
Privacy, Ethics and Technology
Technology and Ethics: Privacy in the Workplace
Virtual Morality: A New Workplace Quandary
Rippers, Portal Users and Profilers: Three Web-Based Issues for Business Ethics
Cyberethics: 7 Short Cases
E-mail Policy and Johnson and Dresser
Leadership
Leadership: An Overview
The Call of Leaders
Ethics: Take It From the Top
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If doing business were simple and ethical decisionmaking always obvious, there would be no need for this book or any textbook on the topic of business ethics. But clearly such is not the case. Like most things in life, business is complex and the pursuit of ethics is often convoluted. Sadly, because it is hard to combine these two enterprises, we too often simply dismiss business ethics, accuse it of being an oxymoron, or proclaim that it is impossible to achieve because of the technical complexity and intellectual nuances involved. The reality is that, whether in our professional or private lives, doing the right thing for the right reason is never easy. But just because it is difficult does not mean that we need not bother to try, or that it cannot be done. We are, to paraphrase jean-Paul Sartre, moral mammals required by our status and situation to decide, make choices, seek meaning. None of us are absolved, says Sartre; we all must choose our way through life. We all must decide on what is right, what is wrong, what is acceptable and unacceptable conduct in regard to ourselves and others. Some critics, of course, will say that, while this all may be true, in business ethics the situation is much more complex, the choices are much more difficult, and the dilemmas are much more confusing because of what is at stake: success, status, stuff, wealth, position, property. These critics claim that there is a long history (e.g., Niccolo Machiavelli,The Prince) of maintaining separate standards for personal and business (and/or political) conduct. According to Otto von Bismarck, it is the way of the world. Success in the public realm requires a certain amount of ethical schizophrenia, what he would callreal politik. As a discipline, business ethics wants to deny this dichotomy. Business is not disconnected from the people it serves. Business is part of life. Life, labor, and business are all of a piece. They should not be separate "games" played by separate "rules." Like all other activities in life, business is required to ask, "What ought to be done in regard to others?" and "What rights and obligations do we have and share with others?" What business ethics is advocating is that people apply in the workplace those commonsensical rules and standards learned at home, from the lectern, and from the pulpit. The moral issues facing a person are age-old, and they are essentially the same issues facing a business--only written large. According to R. Edward Freeman, of the Darden School of Business, ethics is "how we treat each other, every day, person to person. If you want to know about a company's ethics, look at how it treats people--customers, suppliers, and employees. Business is about people. And business ethics is about how customers and employees are treated." What is being asked of the business community is neither extraordinary nor excessive: a decent product at a fair price; honesty in advertisements; fair treatment of employees, customers, suppliers, and competitors; a strong sense of responsibility to the communities it inhabits and serves; and the production of 4 reasonable profit for the financial risk-taking of its stockholders and owners. In the words of General Robert Wood Johnson, founder of Johnson & Johnson: The day has passed when business was a private matter--if it ever really was. In a business society, every act of business has social consequences and may arouse public interest. Every time business hires, builds, sells or buys, it is acting for the . . . people as well as for itself, and it must be prepared to accept full responsibility. Case Studies in Business Ethicsis an attempt to bring together in a single package an overview of ethical reasoning, an explanation of the case method, essays to read, ideas and issues to ponder, and cases to debate. It is my hope that these readings will be bot

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Case Studies in Business Ethics

Case Studies in Business Ethics

0131127462

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