Ethical Challenges to Business as Usual

by Collins-Chobanian, Shari, Ph.D.

• ISBN13: 9780130487636
• ISBN10: 0130487635
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-16
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This anthology contains a significant body of literature and basic approach that challenges the economic status quo while raising concerns rarely found in other books of this kind--providing readers with the critical selections and perspectives they want and need to make informed decisions. Demanding accountability, the book exposes business practices, economic assumptions, contemporary challenges, and the population's concerns. An ongoing focus links business ethics to environmental issues, and each and every business action to the earth's finite resources. A critical selection of topics challenges development, capitalism, market appropriation, human rights violation, consumption, transgenic biotechnology, resistance to development, environmental ethics, and alternative economies. For anyone who demands accountability from businesses.

Author Biography

Shari Collins-Chobanian is a professor of philosophy at Arizona State University West. Her main areas of research include business ethics and environmental ethics, and she has published articles on environmental rights and environmental labels. She is the coeditor of Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Ethical and Economic Theoretical Grounding	1	(84)
R. Mark Koan
Selection from The Nichomachean Ethics	12	(7)
Aristotle
Utilitarianism	19	(9)
John Stuart Mill
Selection from The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals	28	(9)
Immanuel Kant
A Simplified Account of Kant's Ethics	37	(6)
Onora O'Neill
Selections from An Inquiry into the Value and Causes of the Wealth of Nations	43	(3)
Adam Smith
The Mistake	46	(9)
Kenneth Lux
Distributive Justice	55	(9)
John Rawls
A Moral Case for Socialism	64	(9)
Kai Neilsen
Reflections on the Triumph of Capitalism	73	(12)
Robert Heilbroner
Human Rights and Environmental Challenges to Development	85	(116)
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights	99	(5)
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Principles and Responsibilities for Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises	104	(6)
Enron: History of Human Rights Abuse in India Human Rights Watch Press Release	110	(2)
Creating the Third World	112	(9)
Clive Ponting
The High Cost of Uranium	121	(8)
Donald A. Grinde
Bruce E. Johansen
Moral Minimums for Multinationals	129	(13)
Thomas Donaldson
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development	142	(4)
Ethics and Ecology	146	(6)
William T. Blackstone
The Human Right to a Safe Environment: Philosophical Perspectives on Its Scope and Justification	152	(12)
James W. Nickel
Beyond Sax and Welfare Interests: A Case for Environmental Rights	164	(13)
Shari Collins-Chobanian
Defining Sustainable Development	177	(6)
Devon G. Pena
Gandhian Legacies: Indigenous Resistance to ``Development'' in India and Mexico	183	(8)
Deane Curtin
Development, Ecology, and Women	191	(10)
Vandana Shiva
Challenges Calling for Corporate Responsibility	201	(70)
How Organizations Socialize Individuals into Evildoing	211	(13)
John M. Darley
The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits	224	(6)
Milton Friedman
When Does a Worker's Death Become Murder?	230	(11)
David Rosner
Corporate Responsibility	241	(9)
Larry May
The Workers' Right to Know, Participate and Refuse Hazardous Work: A Manifesto Right	250	(8)
Robert Sass
Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation	258	(13)
R. Edward Freeman
Justification for, and Challenges to, Property Rights	271	(40)
The Justification of Private Property	281	(5)
John Locke
Estranged Labour	286	(6)
Karl Marx
The Colonial Dynamic of Capitalism	292	(9)
Arjun Makhijani
Rich and Poor	301	(10)
Peter Singer
Challenging Discrimination	311	(56)
White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies	322	(9)
Peggy McIntosh
Affirmative Action: The Price of Preference	331	(7)
Shelby Steele
Does Affirmative Action Hurt Its Intended Beneficiaries?	338	(9)
Barbara R. Bergmann
The ``Social Etymology'' of ``Sexual Harassment''	347	(20)
Margaret A. Crouch
Environmental Ethics Challenges to Business	367	(44)
The Land Ethic	373	(12)
Aldo Leopold
The Ethics of Respect for Nature	385	(12)
Paul W. Taylor
Risk and Justice: Capitalist Production and the Environment	397	(14)
Rodger C. Field
Challenging Market Appropriations and Cost-Benefit Analysis	411	(76)
Animal Liberation	423	(8)
Peter Singer
A Different Path	431	(11)
Richard Heinberg
The Cost of Biotech Fever	442	(2)
Russell Mokhiber
Robert Weissman
Biotechnology Is Not Compatible with Sustainable Agriculture	444	(12)
Martha L. Crouch
The Human Genome Diversity Project: Indigenous Communities and the Commercialization of Science	456	(9)
Brian Tokar
The Ford Pinto	465	(8)
W. Michael Hoffman
At the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima or Why Political Questions Are Not All Economic	473	(14)
Mark Sagoff
Challenging Consumption	487	(56)
How Much Should a Country Consume?	494	(7)
John Kenneth Galbraith
The Case That the World Has Reached Limits	501	(11)
Robert Goodland
A Proposal for Environmental Labels: Informing Consumers of the Real Costs of Consumption	512	(15)
Shari Collins-Chobanian
The Myth of Consume or Decline	527	(7)
Alan Thein Durning
Involuntary Simplicity: Changing Dysfunctional Habits of Consumption	534	(9)
Guy Claxton
Challenges to Business as Usual	543	(39)
Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility	550	(8)
Sissela Bok
Whistleblowers and the Narrative of Ethics	558	(15)
C. Fred Alford
Economies for Life	573	(9)
David C. Korten
Biographical Information	582

Excerpts

This anthology addresses a significant gap in the anthology texts used for business ethics courses. The major business ethics texts repeat similar perspectives and readings, barely critical of the economic status quo, seemingly seeing it as a fait accompli rather than a system in need of thorough examination. Most texts take a "liberal" (and by this I do not mean the common use of liberalto refer to Democrats) approach, an approach that assumes that the existing system simply needs some adjustments--to be made a true meritocracy, extended to all participants through fair competition, access, and opportunity. Save for a sprinkling of Marx, existing texts rarely challenge the overall system and its values, now being globally touted. This anthology presents critical selections on all of these topics, including challenging development, capitalism, environmental destruction, market appropriations, and human rights violations. Increasingly, and globally, people are demanding accountability from corporations, as well as challenging the very assumptions and actions businesses are taking. Students want information so that they can make informed decisions, and they, as well as all consumers, often do not have the necessary information. This anthology brings these discussions and challenges into the classroom, and accomplishes this through readings that critically challenge the status quo, as well as readings that are traditional benchmarks. Yet the classic readings are not necessarily given classic interpretation and contexts. This anthology differs from existing texts because they repeat similar analyses of classic readings, such as representing Milton Friedman as having said that the onlysocial responsibility of business is to generate profit (this is incorrect) and failing to highlight John Locke''s prohibition against greed and impoverishment of the "common pile" in claiming one''s private property. Many classic representations do not provide the reader with the critical perspective necessary to understand the ethical imperatives in the readings, and classic representations perpetuate the uncritical discussions of the system that (should not have, but did) surprised so many with Enron and WorldCom. This anthology provides critical analyses of classics such as Friedman and Locke, as well as other critical perspectives that enable the reader to envision something other than business as usual. Existing business ethics anthologies also cordon off environmental issues, presenting them as a small subset of business ethics questions. In this anthology I have integrated environmental issues throughout, thus critiquing the assumption that business and environmental ethics questions are to be separately addressed. Each and every action of business relies upon the earth''s finiteresources. In market parlance, the earth is the supplier, and any market analysis ignorant of one''s supplier is an effort in futility. Thus, the advantages of this anthology are at least threefold. The first advantage of this book is its challenging assumptions of the status quo--from development, to pollution, to white privilege, to consumption. This benefits both the student and the professor by bringing contemporary concerns into the classroom; that is, concerns many philosophers teaching the course already have and concerns students are raising increasingly. The second advantage is the topical coverage. This anthology brings new discussionsto the classroom, from selections such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Principles and Responsibilities for Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises and How Organizations Socialize Individuals into Evildoing,to those on the topics of transgenic biotechnology, resistance to development, consumption, environmental ethics, and alternative economies. This benefits both the professor and student because it provides information about issues of which many people are unaware, and truly challenges assumptions about the business role in these areas. The third advantage is that this anthology is the only real alternative to business as usual in topical coverage and reading selections in business ethics texts; yet herein I have retained enough classic selections so as to be familiar. This benefits the student and the professor by first acknowledging and continuing the historical discussions in business ethics, and then moving them into the 21st Century. It is expected that each professor will make this material his or her own, reorganizing the order of selections, highlighting what the professor and students find of importance, and drawing in a "cafeteria manner" from this anthology''s ethical theory, case studies, and/or essays to suit the class and its objectives. It is mainly for this reason that any further circumscribing of the material via chapter objectives and other similar prescriptions was avoided. The other chief reason for not further circumscribing the material is space. I felt that the best use of my limited space was to provide primary text by leading authors on the topics. Furthermore, no text can meet everyone''s needs. This text does not focus on management, per se (although management can certainly apply the lessons of this collection, including sections Three, Five, and Nine) but on the ethical issues involved in the multiple roles we each play by participating in business as usual. These roles include employer, employee, citizen, and consumer. It is my contention that standard business ethics texts do not provide students and professors with enough discussions of the topics and real-world issues that I have included. These issues impact everyone in their role as citizens, and everyone is both agent and recipient in his or her role as a consumer. In order to best accomplish this, I have provided lengthy contemporary topical introductions to each section; suggested discussion questions following each section that serve as a guide to some of what I found salient in each essay, and suggestions for further reading that serve as reference to some of the best research I have found. Insofar as this is a new text, one that an anonymous reviewer called "substantially different from current texts," I realize that I am bound to have oversights, and welcome any feedback on this anthology. There are many people I owe thanks for their contributions to the actualization of this anthology. First and foremost are my students. I have taught Business Ethics for ten years, nearly 30 times, and environmental ethics for six years. Classroom discussions, debate, frustrations over the persistent harms, and reflections have shaped my perspectives and this anthology. Next, are the individuals. Donald Chobanian and Blake Chobanian have been invaluable sounding boards who also tolerated my kvetching, and navigated the copy machine. Gloria Cuadraz and Alejandra Elenes are invaluable colleagues who provided enthusiastic feedback on all section introductions, as well as hours of discussions on the topics. Manny Avalos provided feedback on the prospectus. R. Mark Koan helped in selections for, and wrote the introductory material to, section One. Gene Burgess, Tom McGovern, and Linda Stryker all provided departmental support, including research and copy assistance from Kristie L. Pinner, Karen Merry, and Cat Lollis. Dennis Isbell provided further invaluable last-minute assistance in research. There are numerous authors to whom I owe thanks: Kenneth Lux, Robert Heilbroner, Clive Ponting, Jean Blackstone, Deane Curtin, Christopher Stone, R. Edward Freeman, Arjun Makhijani, Peggy McIntosh, Paul W Taylor, Rodger Field, Russell Mokhiber, Martha L. Crouch, Brian Tokar, Mark Sagoff, Sissela Bok, and David C. Korten. In addition there were numerous publisher reprint permissions agents whose assistance is appreciated, especially Bill Smith and Jenny Dunhill. Pre