Business Ethics

by De George, Richard T.

• ISBN13: 9780130797728
• ISBN10: 0130797723
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

For courses in Business Ethics, Moral Issues in Business, Social Issues in Business, Business and Society, International Business Ethics, Issues in International Business. Comprehensive and systematic, this single-author text provides integrated coverage of the entire field of business ethics. It begins with an overview of today's business scene, then explores the basic tools and techniques of ethical analysis and moral reasoning and shows how they apply to all areas of business.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
INTRODUCTION	3	(30)
1 Ethics and Business	3	(30)
Johnson & Johnson and the Tylenol Case	3	(2)
The Myth of Amoral Business	5	(2)
The American Business Value System	7	(4)
The Relation of Business and Morality	11	(6)
Business Ethics and Ethics	17	(9)
The Case of the Collapsed Mine	26	(3)
Study Questions	29	(4)
MORAL REASONING IN BUSINESS	33	(102)
2 Conventional Morality and Ethical Relativism	33	(23)
Purchasing Abroad: A Case Study	33	(1)
The Levels of Moral Development	34	(3)
Subjective and Objective Morality	37	(2)
Descriptive Relativism	39	(2)
Normative Ethical Relativism	41	(5)
Moral Absolutism	46	(1)
Moral Pluralism	47	(1)
Pluralism and American Business	48	(1)
Pluralism and International Business	49	(2)
Approaches to Ethical Theory	51	(3)
Study Questions	54	(2)
3 Utility and Utilitarianism	56	(22)
An Airplane Manufacturing Case	56	(1)
Utilitarianism	56	(5)
Act and Rule Utilitarianism	61	(4)
Objections to Utilitarianism	65	(2)
Utilitarianism and Justice	67	(2)
Applying Utilitarianism	69	(4)
Utilitarianism and Bribery	73	(3)
Study Questions	76	(2)
4 Moral Duty, Rights, and Justice	78	(31)
The Johnson Controls Case	78	(2)
Deontological Approaches to Ethics	80	(1)
Judeo-Christian Morality	80	(3)
Reason, Duty and the Moral Law	83	(6)
Application of the Moral Law	89	(4)
Imperfect Duties, Special Obligations, and Moral Ideas	93	(5)
Rights and Justice	98	(7)
Study Questions	107	(2)
5 Moral Responsibility, Virtue, and Moral Reasoning	109	(26)
The Love Canal Case	109	(1)
Moral Responsibility	110	(2)
Excusing Conditions	112	(4)
Liability and Accountability	116	(2)
Agent and Role Moral Responsibility	118	(3)
Virtue	121	(5)
Applying Moral Reasoning	126	(4)
Study Questions	130	(5)
MORAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS	135	(374)
6 Justice and Economic Systems	135	(25)
The Case of the Two Slaveholders	135	(1)
Moral Evaluation of Economic Systems	136	(5)
Moral Evaluation of Contemporary Systems	141	(1)
Economic Models and Games	142	(2)
A Capitalist Model	144	(3)
Capitalism and Government	149	(4)
A Socialist Model	153	(2)
Comparison of Models and Systems	155	(1)
Economic Systems and Justice	156	(2)
Study Questions	158	(2)
7 American Capitalism: Moral or Immoral?	160	(28)
The Case of Bill Gates	160	(2)
The American Economic System	162	(2)
Relation of the American Government to the American Economic System	164	(4)
The Marxist Critique	168	(6)
Non-Marxist Moral Critiques of American Capitalism	174	(2)
The Moral Defense of the American Free-Enterprise System	176	(5)
Nonsocialist Alternatives to Contemporary American Capitalism	181	(5)
Study Questions	186	(2)
8 Corporations and Morality	188	(28)
The Case of Malden Mills	188	(3)
The Moral Status of Corporations and Formal Organizations	191	(5)
Concept of the Corporation: Shareholder versus Stakeholder	196	(3)
Moral Responsibility within the Corporation	199	(6)
Morality and the Social Audit	205	(5)
Corporate Codes	210	(2)
Corporate Culture and Moral Firms	212	(2)
Study Questions	214	(2)
9 Safety, Risk, and Environmental Protection	216	(24)
The McDonald's Polystyrene Case	216	(2)
Corporations, Products, and Services	218	(1)
Do No Harm	219	(1)
Safety and Acceptable Risk	220	(3)
Product Safety and Corporate Liability	223	(2)
Strict Liability	225	(3)
Production Safety	228	(1)
Environmental Harm	229	(2)
Pollution and Its Control	231	(7)
Study Questions	238	(2)
10 Whistle Blowing	240	(23)
The Ford Pinto Case	240	(1)
Blowing the Whistle	241	(1)
Kinds of Whistle Blowing	242	(4)
Whistle Blowing as Morally Prohibited	246	(4)
Whistle Blowing as Morally Permitted	250	(4)
Whistle Blowing as Morally Required	254	(3)
Internal Whistle Blowing	257	(2)
Precluding the Need for Whistle Blowing	259	(2)
Study Questions	261	(2)
Marketing, Truth and Advertising	263	(30)
The May D&F Case	263	(1)
The Nestle Infant Milk Formula Case	264	(2)
Marketing	266	(8)
Advertising	274	(2)
Truth and Advertising	276	(5)
Manipulation and Coercion	281	(3)
Paternalism and Advertising	284	(2)
Prevention of Advertising	286	(2)
Allocation of Moral Responsibility in Advertising	288	(3)
Study Questions	291	(2)
12 Protecting Intellectual Property, Corporate Disclosure, and Insider Trading	293	(32)
Boesky, Milken, and an Insider Trading Case	293	(3)
Intellectual Property	296	(10)
Industrial Espionage	306	(1)
Corporate Disclosure	307	(9)
Insider Trading	316	(7)
Study Questions	323	(2)
13 Information Technology, Ethics, and Business	325	(30)
The Apple versus Microsoft Case	325	(1)
The Electronic Privacy at ABC Control Case	326	(2)
Business and Computers	328	(1)
Computer Crime	329	(5)
Computers and Corporate Responsibility	334	(4)
Property: Information and Software	338	(8)
Computers and Privacy	346	(7)
Study Questions	353	(2)
14 Workers' Rights: Employment, Wages, and Unions	355	(32)
The Air Traffic Controllers Case	355	(2)
Employment-at-Will	357	(2)
The Right to Employment	359	(7)
The Right to a Just Wage	366	(5)
Comparable Worth	371	(2)
Executive Compensation	373	(2)
The Right to Organize: Unions	375	(4)
The Right to Strike	379	(6)
Study Questions	385	(2)
15 Workers' Rights and Duties Within a Firm	387	(31)
Case Studies: Drug Testing and the Right to Privacy	387	(4)
The Rights of Employees Within a Firm	391	(1)
Rights in Hiring, Promotion, and Firing	392	(4)
Employee Civil Rights and Equal Treatment	396	(4)
Privacy, Polygraphs, and Drugs	400	(6)
Quality of Work Life	406	(5)
Employee Duties	411	(1)
Worker Loyalty and Obedience	412	(4)
Study Questions	416	(2)
16 Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Reverse Discrimination	418	(30)
The Weber Case	418	(2)
Discrimination	420	(6)
Changing Social Structures	426	(3)
Equal Employment Opportunity	429	(2)
Affirmative Action	431	(4)
Reverse Discrimination	435	(1)
Balanced or Preferential Hiring	436	(6)
Two Cases: Bakke and Stotts	442	(4)
Study Questions	446	(2)
17 Accounting, Finance, Corporate Restructuring, and Ethical Investing	448	(36)
Savings and Loans: A Case Study	448	(2)
Accounting	450	(5)
Finance and Banking	455	(6)
Corporate Takeovers and Restructuring	461	(14)
Ethical Investing	475	(7)
Study Questions	482	(2)
18 Professions in Business and Professions as Business	484	(25)
The Manville Case	484	(3)
The Professions and Business	487	(1)
Professionalism and the Professions	488	(2)
Professional Ethical Codes	490	(6)
Professional Ethics	496	(1)
Professional Organizations	497	(2)
The Professions in Businesses	499	(2)
The Professions as Business	501	(3)
Study Questions	504	(5)
MORAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS	509	(94)
19 The International Business System, Multinationals, and Morality	509	(33)
The Bhopal Case	509	(2)
Morality and the International Economic System	511	(3)
Multinational Corporations and Ethics	514	(7)
Ethical Guidelines for Multinational Operations	521	(2)
Multinationals and Human Rights	523	(2)
International Codes	525	(4)
Multinational Drug Companies	529	(4)
The Transfer of Dangerous Industries to Underdeveloped Countries	533	(5)
The Interconnection of American and International Business	538	(1)
Study Questions	539	(3)
20 Corrupt Contexts, Cultural Diversity, and International Business	542	(30)
The Case of General Motors and Apartheid	542	(2)
U.S. Multinationals in South Africa	544	(3)
The Lessons of Business in South Africa	547	(1)
Bribery and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act	548	(2)
International Business in Unsettled Contexts	550	(5)
International Industrial Espionage, Discrimination, and Questionable Products	555	(5)
Operating in Destabilized Environments	560	(3)
Out-sourcing, Slavery and Child Labor	563	(1)
International Business in Different Cultures: Japan	564	(2)
Cross-cultural Judgments, Negotiation, and International Justice	566	(4)
Study Questions	570	(2)
21 Famine, Natural Resources, and International Obligations	572	(31)
The Case of Merck and Costa Rica	572	(2)
Global Issues	574	(1)
Famine, Malnutrition, and Moral Obligation	575	(7)
Property and Allocation of the World's Resources	582	(9)
Global Common Goods	591	(1)
Oil and the Depletion of Natural Resources	592	(7)
Study Questions	599	(4)
CONCLUSION	603	(14)
22 The New Moral Imperative for Business	603	(14)
IBM: A Case Study	603	(2)
The Changing Business Mandate	605	(5)
The Role of Government	610	(2)
Corporate Democracy	612	(1)
Building a Good Society	613	(2)
Study Questions	615	(2)
Index	617