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Business Ethics - 2012 Book Archive PDF

827 Pages·2012·19.53 MB·English
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Business Ethics v. 1.0 This is the bookBusiness Ethics(v. 1.0). This book is licensed under aCreative Commonsby-nc-sa 3.0(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/)license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org)in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this project'sattribution page(http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header). For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there. ii Table of Contents About the Author.................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................... 2 Dedication............................................................................................................................... 3 Preface..................................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1: What Is Business Ethics? ................................................................................. 6 What Is Business Ethics?...............................................................................................................................7 The Place of Business Ethics.......................................................................................................................14 Is Business Ethics Necessary?.....................................................................................................................24 Facebook and the Unavoidability of Business Ethics...............................................................................29 Overview of The Business Ethics Workshop.............................................................................................33 Case Studies..................................................................................................................................................35 Chapter 2: Theories of Duties and Rights: Traditional Tools for Making Decisions in Business When the Means Justify the Ends .............................................................. 50 The Means Justify the Ends versus the Ends Justify the Means..............................................................51 Perennial Duties...........................................................................................................................................53 Immanuel Kant: The Duties of the Categorical Imperative.....................................................................64 Rights.............................................................................................................................................................70 Case Studies..................................................................................................................................................83 Chapter 3: Theories of Consequence Ethics: Traditional Tools for Making Decisions in Business when the Ends Justify the Means .......................................... 102 What Is Consequentialism?.......................................................................................................................103 Utilitarianism: The Greater Good.............................................................................................................105 Altruism: Everyone Else............................................................................................................................120 Egoism: Just Me..........................................................................................................................................127 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................137 iii Chapter 4: Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism........... 153 What Is Cultural Relativism?....................................................................................................................154 Nietzsche’s Eternal Return of the Same..................................................................................................157 Cultural Ethics............................................................................................................................................163 Virtue Theory.............................................................................................................................................170 Discourse Ethics.........................................................................................................................................176 Ethics of Care..............................................................................................................................................180 The Cheat Sheet: Rules of Thumb in Applied Ethics..............................................................................185 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................189 Chapter 5: Employee’s Ethics: What’s the Right Job for Me?................................... 207 Finding Jobs to Want..................................................................................................................................208 Working for Ethically Complicated Organizations.................................................................................228 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................236 Chapter 6: Employee’s Ethics: Getting a Job, Getting a Promotion, Leaving........ 254 The Résumé Introduction.........................................................................................................................255 What Am I Worth?.....................................................................................................................................263 Plotting a Promotion.................................................................................................................................269 Looking for a Better Job Outside the Company.......................................................................................273 Take This Job and…....................................................................................................................................287 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................290 Chapter 7: Employee’s Ethics: Making the Best of the Job You Have as You Get from 9 to 5.......................................................................................................................... 311 Taking Advantage of the Advantages: Gifts, Bribes, and Kickbacks.....................................................312 Third-Party Obligations: Tattling, Reporting, and Whistle-Blowing ...................................................324 Company Loyalty........................................................................................................................................335 Stress, Sex, Status, and Slacking: What Are the Ethics of Making It through the Typical Workday?....................................................................................................................................................340 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................346 Chapter 8: Manager’s Ethics: Getting, Promoting, and Firing Workers ............... 368 Hiring..........................................................................................................................................................369 Wages..........................................................................................................................................................389 Promoting Employees................................................................................................................................392 Firing...........................................................................................................................................................398 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................406 iv Chapter 9: Manager’s Ethics: Deciding on a Corporate Culture and Making It Work..................................................................................................................................... 425 What Is Corporate Culture?......................................................................................................................426 The Relation between Organizational Culture and Knowing the Right Thing to Do..........................436 Two Ethically Knotted Scenes of Corporate Culture: Clothes and Grooming......................................443 What Culture Should a Leader Choose to Instill?...................................................................................447 Styles and Values of Management...........................................................................................................454 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................460 Chapter 10: The Tense Office: Discrimination, Victimization, and Affirmative Action................................................................................................................................... 479 Racial Discrimination................................................................................................................................480 Gender Discrimination and Occupational Segregation..........................................................................492 Discrimination: Inferiority versus Aptness.............................................................................................493 The Diversity of Discrimination and Victimization...............................................................................502 The Prevention and Rectification of Discrimination: Affirmative Action...........................................510 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................520 Chapter 11: The Aroused Office: Sex and Drugs at Work......................................... 537 Is There Anything Special about Sex?......................................................................................................538 Bad Sex: Harassment.................................................................................................................................548 Drugged.......................................................................................................................................................556 The Organization Wants You to Use Drugs?...........................................................................................567 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................572 Chapter 12: The Selling Office: Advertising and Consumer Protection................ 593 Two Kinds of Advertising..........................................................................................................................594 Do Ads Need to Tell the Truth?.................................................................................................................598 We Buy, Therefore We Are: Consumerism and Advertising..................................................................606 Consumers and Their Protections............................................................................................................615 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................629 Chapter 13: The Responsible Office: Corporations and Social Responsibility.....650 What Kind of Business Organizations Are There?..................................................................................651 Three Theories of Corporate Social Responsibility................................................................................658 Should Corporations Have Social Responsibilities? The Arguments in Favor....................................671 Should Corporations Have Social Responsibilities? The Arguments Against......................................676 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................683 v Chapter 14: The Green Office: Economics and the Environment............................ 705 The Environment.......................................................................................................................................706 Ethical Approaches to Environmental Protection..................................................................................714 Three Models of Environmental Protection for Businesses..................................................................726 Animal Rights.............................................................................................................................................735 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................741 Chapter 15: The Domination Office: The Star System and Labor Unions............. 761 What Is the Star System?...........................................................................................................................762 Questions Provoked by the Star System..................................................................................................768 Ethics: Justifying and Criticizing the Star System..................................................................................778 Unions.........................................................................................................................................................786 Union Strikes..............................................................................................................................................795 Case Studies................................................................................................................................................802 vi About the Author James Brusseau (PhD, Philosophy) has taught ethics at the Mexican National University, California State University, and the Pennsylvania State University. He is author ofDecadence of the French NietzscheandIsolated Experiences: Gilles Deleuze and the Solitudes of Reversed Platonism. Currently, he teaches at Pace University near his home in New York City. 1 Acknowledgements The Business Ethics Workshopwas composed from the efforts, contributions, and tolerance of many individuals. The advisory board provided insightful and invaluable feedback for which I am grateful: • Thomas Atchison, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota • Ian Barnard, California State University, Northridge • Matthew Brophy, High Point University • Scott Davidson, Oklahoma City University • Kruti Dholakia, The University of Texas at Dallas • John T. Fielding, Mount Wachusett Community College • Christine M. Fletcher, Benedictine University • Andra Gumbus, John F. Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University • D. W. Haslett, University of Delaware • A. Pablo Iannone, Central Connecticut State University, Mount Wachusett Community College • Daryl Koehn, University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business • Krishna Mallick, Salem State University • Chris Metivier, University of North Carolina Greensboro • Ali Mir, William, College of Business, Paterson University • L. Ara Norwood, College of the Canyons • Harvey Slentz, Florida State College at Jacksonville • Julie Stein, Las Positas College AtUnnamed Publisher, Michael Boezi, Pam Hersperger, and Sharon Koch worked directly with me on the project; I am indebted to them and to those working with them at the publisher. Many colleagues influenced this work, and support of all kinds came from many quarters, for which I am thankful. 2 Dedication To Rocio, Santiago, and Emilia 3 Preface Ethics is about determining value; it’s deciding what’s worth doing and what doesn’t matter so much. Business ethics is the way we decide what kind of career to pursue, what choices we make on the job, which companies we want to work with, and what kind of economic world we want to live in and then leave behind for those coming after. There are no perfect answers to these questions, but there’s a difference between thinking them through and winging it.The Business Ethics Workshopprovides a framework for identifying, analyzing, and resolving ethical dilemmas encountered through working life. This text’s principles: • It’s your call.Some of the book’s case studies ask for defenses of ethical positions that few agree with (for example, the claim that a drug dealer’s job is better than a police officer’s). Exercises like this align with the textbook’s aim: provoking reasoning freed from customary divisions between right and wrong. In the end, no one completely resists their own habits of thinking or society’s broad pressures, but testing the limits sharpens the tools of ethical analysis. These tools can be relied on later on when you face decisions that you alone have to make. The aim of this book is to help make those decisions with coherent, defensible reasoning. • Keep it mostly real.Ethics is an everyday activity. It’s not mysterious, head-in-the-clouds ruminating but determining the worth of things around us: Working at an advertising agency is exciting—actors, lights, cameras, and TV commercials—but do I really want to hock sugary breakfast cereals to children? Should I risk my reputation by hiring my college roommate, the one whose habits of showing up late and erratically to class have carried over to working life? These are the immediate questions of business ethics, and while any textbook on the subject must address broad, impersonal questions including the responsibilities of massive corporations in modern societies, this book’s focus stays as often as possible on ordinary people in normal but difficult circumstances. • Be current.The rules of ethical thinking don’t change much, but the world is a constant revolution. The textbook and its cases follow along as closely as possible, citing from blog posts and recent news stories. As a note here, to facilitate reading some of these citations have been slightly and silently modified. 4

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Chapter 2: Theories of Duties and Rights: Traditional Tools for Making Decisions in Business When the Means Justify . The Cheat Sheet: Rules of Thumb in Applied Ethics . Chapter 11: The Aroused Office: Sex and Drugs at Work Chapter 13: The Responsible Office: Corporations and Social Responsibilit
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.