Ethics and Business: An Introduction

Kevin Gibson

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511806148

In this lively undergraduate textbook, Kevin Gibson explores the relationship between ethics and the world of business, and how we can serve the interests of both. He builds a philosophical groundwork that can be applied to a wide range of issues in ethics and business, and shows readers how to assess dilemmas critically and work to resolve them on a principled basis. Using case studies drawn from around the world, he examines topics including stakeholder responsibilities, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and women and business. Because business can no longer be isolated from its effects on communities and the environment, these concerns are brought to the forefront. The book also captures the dynamic nature of business ethics in the era of globalization where jobs can be outsourced, products are made of components from scores of countries and sweatshops often provide the cheap goods the public demands.

"Last month we completed our first undergraduate business ethics course and thanks to your book it was a great success. Much discussion, good theoretical base for student case presentations, useful examples and easy to teach from."
--Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

"...The writing is clear and accessible. Gibson has chosen contemporary cases that students can relate to involving companies they have heard of — Nike, Wal-Mart, Enron, Shell — and issues they are no doubt engaged with — pornography, sweat shops, drug use, discrimination, and so on. As a result, any student who reads and works through Gibson’s book will get a solid introduction to many of the issues and concepts central to business ethics.... Gibson’s book is thoughtful, sensitive to many of the controversies among business-ethics theoreticians, and clearly the product of many years of reading and thinking through the world of business, ethics, and philosophy...."
--Stephen R. C. Hicks, Professor of Philosophy, Executive Director, The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, Rockford College, Teaching Philosophy

References

Select bibliography and further reading

Ethical theory

Aristotle, . Nicomachean Ethics (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987).

Beauchamp, T. and Bowie, N., eds. Ethical Theory and Business (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997).

Frederick, R., ed. A Companion to Business Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999).

Hobbes, T. Leviathan [1651], ed. Gaskin, J. C. A. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Kant, I.Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals [1785] (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1959).

Kohlberg, L. and Kramer, R. “Continuities and Discontinuities in Childhood and Adult Moral Development,” Human Development, 12 (1969), pp. 93-120.

Machiavelli, N. The Prince [1512], trans. Marriott, W. K. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992).

MacIntyre, A.After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984).

Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism [1861], ed. Gorovitz, Samuel (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971).

Rawls, J.A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).

Singer, P., ed. A Companion to Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell 1991).

Capitalism

Friedman, M.Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).

Moore, G. “Humanizing Business: A Modern Business Ethics Approach,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 15.2 (2005), pp. 237-256.

Nozick, R.Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1977).

Rand, A.Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (New York: Dutton, 1966).

Sen, A.Development as Freedom (New York: Anchor, 2000).

Smith, A. The Wealth of Nations [1776], ed. Cannan, Edwin (London: Methuen, 1904).

Solomon, R. C.A Better Way to Think about Business: How Personal Integrity Leads to Corporate Success (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Feminism

Held, V.Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society and Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Noddings, N.Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).

Tronto, J.Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for the Ethics of Care (New York: Routledge, 1993).

Wollstonecraft, M.A Vindication of the Rights of Women [1792] (New York: Penguin, 2004).

Young, I. M.Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).

Responsibility

Feinberg, J.Doing and Deserving (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970).

French, P.Corporate Morality (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996).

Hart, H. L. A. “Varieties of Responsibility,” Law Quarterly Review, 83 (1967), pp. 346-364.

Velasquez, M. “Why Corporations Are Not Morally Responsible for Anything They Do,” Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 2 (1983), pp. 1-18.

Rights

Donaldson, T.The Ethics of International Business (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).

Etzioni, A.The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities and the Communitarian Agenda (New York: Crown, 1993).

Koller, John M.Asian Philosophies (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2006).

Paine, T.The Rights of Man [1791] (New York: Penguin, 1984).

Stone, C. “Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects,” Southern California Law Review, 45 (1972), pp. 450-501.

Sunstein, C. A. and Nussbaum, Martha C., eds. Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

United Nations. The Global Compact, available from http://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/humanRights.html.

Waldron, J., ed. Theories of Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).

Autonomy

Cialdini, R.Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (New York: Collins, 1998).

Equal Opportunities Commission (USA). Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination: Questions and Answers (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2002), available from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html.

Equal Opportunities Commission (USA). Age Discrimination, available from http://www.eeoc.gov/types/age.html.

Faden, R., Beauchamp, T., and King, N.A History and Theory of Informed Consent (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).

Milgram, S.Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (New York: Harper & Row, 1975).

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty [1859], ed. Himmelfarb, Gertrude (New York: Penguin, 1982).

Social Accountability International. About Social Accountability, available from http://www.sa-intl.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=472&stopRedirect=1.

Beneficence

Carnegie, A. The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays, ed. Kirkland, Edward C. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962).

Elkington, J.Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (Chichester: Capstone Publishing, 1997).

Snider, J., Hill, R. P., and Martin, D. “Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: A View from the World's Most Successful Firms,” Journal of Business Ethics, 48.2 (2003), 175-187.

Thewlis, M., Miller, L., and Neathey, F.Advancing Women in the Workplace (London: Equal Opportunities Commission, 2004).

Wulfson, M. “The Ethics of Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropic Ventures,” Journal of Business Ethics, 29.1-2 (2001), 135-145.

Environment

FacWorld. Pollution Litigation Review, available from http://www.facworld.com/FACworld.nsf/doc/Polllitrev0302.

Freeman, R. E., Pierce, J., and Dodd, R.Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business: How Firms can be Profitable and Leave Our Children a Clean Environment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Jameson, Dale. Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Leopold, A.A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (New York: Oxford University Press, 1949).

Sagoff, M.The Economy of the Earth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Seed, J., Macy, J., Fleming, P., and Naess, A.Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1988).

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Ethics and Business

An Introduction

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-vi

Contents
pp vii-xi

Acknowledgments
pp xii-xii

Preface
pp xiii-xviii

1 - An overview of business ethics
pp 1-26

2 - Insights from ethical theory
pp 27-52

3 - The capitalist system and its ethical implications
pp 53-77

4 - Feminism
pp 78-94

5 - Responsibility
pp 95-124

6 - Rights
pp 125-147

7 - Autonomy
pp 148-176

8 - Beneficence
pp 177-202

9 - The environment
pp 203-226

Epilogue
pp 227-239

Select bibliography and further reading
pp 240-243

Index
pp 244-255

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An Introduction

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