Business Ethics - 2012 Book Archive

827 Pages·2012·19.53 MB·English

Business Ethics
v. 1.0
This is the bookBusiness Ethics(v. 1.0).
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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Dedication
To Rocio, Santiago, and Emilia
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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.
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