This shortform textbook explores practical applications of how business ethics impacts working lives, allowing readers to reflect on their own moral compass through the use of ethical dilemmas.
Highlighting the extensive breadth of issues related to business ethics, the authors introduce and analyze ethical and unethical behaviors of firms through numerous real -life examples including Patagonia, Costco, LVMH, Bill Gates, Muhummad Yunus, Enron, WorldCom, Samsung, Purdue Pharma, Vale Mining and the COVID-19 crisis.
Regardless of career path or occupation, Absolute Essentials of Business Ethics is a valuable resource to understand why people make decisions based on their own ethical values and beliefs. Useful at both undergraduate and graduate levels, this unique textbook will serve students of business ethics around the world.
Author(s): Peter A. Stanwick, Sarah D. Stanwick
Series: Absolute Essentials of Business and Economics
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2020
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of contents
Introduction
Using this book
1 The foundations of business ethics
What is ethics?
Why study business ethics?
Types of ethical examinations
Enron and ethical examinations
Descriptive examination of Enron
Analytical examination of Enron
Normative description of Enron
Philosophical ethical frameworks
Teleological frameworks
Ethical egoism
Utilitarianism
Sidgwick’s dualism
Patagonia and teleological frameworks
Ethical egoism
Utilitarianism
Sidgwick’s dualism
Deontological frameworks
Existentialism
Contractarianism
Kant’s ethics
WorldCom and deontological frameworks
Existentialism
Contractarianism
Kant’s ethics
The trolley problem
A future trolley dilemma?
Bibliography
2 Stakeholders and corporate social responsibility
What is a stakeholder?
How Costco serves its stakeholders
Addressing the needs of the employees
Addressing the needs of the community
Addressing the needs of environmental sustainability
Addressing the needs of the suppliers and customers
Addressing the needs in the protection of human rights
Corporate social responsibility
The corporate social responsibility pyramid
Economic responsibilities
Legal responsibilities
Ethical responsibilities
Philanthropic responsibilities
Samsung’s use of the corporate social responsibility pyramid
The corporate social responsibility pyramid and the Galaxy Note 7 crisis
Economic responsibilities during the crisis
Economic responsibilities after the crisis
Legal responsibilities during the crisis
Legal responsibilities after the crisis
Ethical obligations during the crisis
Ethical responsibilities after the crisis
Philanthropic responsibilities during the crisis
Philanthropic responsibilities after the crisis
Ethics and corporate reputation
Purdue Pharma: How a negative corporate reputation led to bankruptcy
Bibliography
3 Leadership and corporate governance
Ethical leadership
Characteristics of ethical leadership
Transactional leadership
Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates: Transactional leader
Transformational leadership
Founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings: Transformational leader
Ethics and corporate governance
Satyam: When lack of corporate governance fails all stakeholders
Board of directors
Types of board of directors
Passive board
Certifying board
Engaged board
Intervening board
Operating board
Possible conflicts of interest related to the board of directors
CEO duality
Nomination of board members
Inside versus outside board members
Interlocking directorates
Enron’s board of directors: The gold standard of unethical behavior
Ethics and CEO compensation
CEO compensation from an ethical philosophical framework
Bibliography
4 Strategic planning and culture
Ethics and strategic planning
Strategic planning and the ethical cycle
Moral problem statement
Problem analysis
Options for action
Ethical judgment
Reflection
Morally acceptable action
Vale mining and the ethical cycle
Moral problem statement
Problem analysis
Options for action
Ethical judgment
Reflection
Morally acceptable action
Emergent strategies and ethics
LVMH converts perfume manufacturing to hand sanitizer
Ethical strategic planning in a crisis
Internal-normal
Internal-abnormal
External-normal
External-abnormal
Thalidomide: The wonder drug that wasn’t
Ethics and corporate culture
Components of an ethical culture
Nehemiah Manufacturing: Where ethical values are part of Nehemiah’s cultural DNA
Ethics and corporate compliance
Swedbank and the lack of corporate compliance
Bibliography
5 Decision-making and human resource issues
Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development
Preconventional stages
Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation (obedience)
Stage 2: Instrumental purpose and exchange (self-interest)
Conventional stages
Stage 3: Interpersonal accord, conformity, and mutual expectations (conformity)
Stage 4: Social accord and system maintenance (maintaining society)
Post-conventional morality stages
Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights (utilitarian-based laws)
Stage 6: Universal ethical principles
Heinz dilemma
Preconventional stages
Stage 1: Obedience
Stage 2: Self-interest
Conventional stages
Stage 3: Conformity
Stage 4: Maintaining society
Post-conventional stages
Stage 5: Social contracts–utilitarian based laws
Stage 6: Universal ethical principles
Obedience and the decision-making process
The role of power and influence in decision making
Power
Influence
Machiavellianism and ethics
Ethics and human resources
Ethics and the employee hiring process
Hiring practices and implicit bias
Check the job description
Recruit outside your comfort zone
Evaluate every resume in the same manner
Identify what the firm’s needs are before you start the interview process
Stick to the script during the interview process
Ensure that the decisions are based on the correct metrics
The ability to continually analyze the hiring process
Tokyo medical university student selection process: An example of explicit bias
Managers and toxic workplace climate
Employees are not able to make decisions
Remote work is not considered “real” work
Entrepreneurship is not encouraged
An “us versus them” toxic workplace climate
Preferential treatment
Darwinist approach to employee performance
Managers forcing employees to write fake reviews
Ethical values are not applied
Bibliography
6 Ethics and environmental sustainability
Ethics and environmental sustainability
Examples of highly sustainable companies
Orsted
Chr. Hansen Holding
Neste Oyj
The tragedy of the commons
The tragedy of the oceans
The natural environment as a stakeholder
Environmental justice
Environmental racism in Houston, Texas
The case of environmental injustice and toxic eggs in Ghana
Not In My Backyard (NIMBY)
NIMBY versus wind power
Germany versus wind power
Ethics and climate change
The global impacts of climate change
Increased temperatures
Rising sea levels
Natural disasters
Political and security risks
Human health risks
Wildlife and ecosystems
Climate change and Bangladesh
Bibliography
7 Ethical issues in the developing world
Social entrepreneurship
Four types of capital for social entrepreneurs
Financial capital
Social capital
Environmental capital
Aesthetic capital
Sanjit Bunker Roy: A true social entrepreneur
Barefoot College funding model
The bottom of the pyramid
Companies with a higher purpose
Trust and community before transactions
Lower-cost design
Hybrid products of luxury and economy
Social codes and norms
The impact of COVID-19 at the bottom of the pyramid
Microfinance and the bottom of the pyramid
Fair trade
Economic standards
Environmental standards
Social standards
Cocoa and fair trade
Human rights
Personal rights
Legal rights
Civil liberties
Subsistence rights
Economic rights
Social and cultural rights
Political rights
Five steps to ensure the protection of human rights
Amnesty International
Bibliography
Index
