Business Ethics Resources Website

To be able to make this business ethics resource trial more comprehensive, we created a website, http://www.businessethicsresources.com. This blog was a good starting point, but possibility of posting some related articles, books, and links with various categories necesitated switching to a website. Please visit the website and send your comments.

http://www.businessethicsresources.com

Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy

Lawrence, Anne T. and Weber, James. (2007) Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 12th edition.

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY: Stakeholder Relations, Ethics and Public Policy by Lawrence and Weber has continued through several successive author teams to be the market-leader in its field. BUSINESS AND SOCIETY, 12e highlights why government regulation is sometimes required as well as new models of business-community collaboration. The authors believe that businesses have social (as well as economic) responsibilities to society; that business and government both have important roles to play in the modern economy; and that ethics and integrity are essential to personal fulfillment and to business success. In addition, this textbook has long been popular with students because of its lively writing, up-to-date examples, and clear explanations of theory.

Business Ethics: Decision-Making for Personal Integrity & Social Responsibility

Hartman, Laura P. and DesJardins, Joseph R. (2007) Business Ethics: Decision-Making for Personal Integrity & Social Responsibility. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 1st edition.

Hartman/DesJardins Business Ethics is designed to prepare the student to apply an ethical decision-making model, not only in this ethics course but throughout her or his business discipline. This model teaches students ethical skills, vocabulary, and tools to apply in everyday business decisions and throughout their business courses. The authors speak in a sophisticated yet accessible manner while teaching the fundamentals of business ethics. Hartman’s professional background in law and her teaching experience in business curriculum, combined with DesJardins’ background in philosophy results in a broad language, ideal for this approach and market.

The authors’ goal is to engage the student by focusing on cases and business scenarios that students already find interesting. Students are then asked to look at the issues from an ethical perspective. Additionally, its focus on AACSB requirements makes it a comprehensive business ethics text for business school courses.

The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

Bakan, Joel. (2005) The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, New York: Free Press.

As incisive as Eric Schosser's bestselling Fast Food Nation, as rigorous as Joseph E. Stiglitz's Globalization and Its Dicontents, and as scatching as Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, Joel Bakan's new book is a brilliantly argued account of the corporation's pathological pursuit of profit and power. An eminent law professor and legal theorist, Bakan contends that the corporation is created by law to function much like a psychopatic personality whose destructive behavior, if left unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin.

Despite the structural failings found in the corporation, Bakan believes change is possible and outlines a far-reaching program of concrete, pragmatic, and realistic reforms through legal regulation and democratic control.

Backed by extensive research, The Corporation draws on in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as CEO Hank McKinnell of Pfizer, Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and critic Noam Chomsky of MIT. (From the flaps of hardcover edition)

The Corporation is also made into a movie.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Tomorrow's Sustainability and Today's Profitability

Hawkins, D. E. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Tomorrow’s Sustainability and Today’s Profitability. Palgrave Macmillan Publishing.

This new approach to corporate social responsibility, drawing upon many contemporary examples, demonstrates the importance of balancing short term profitability with long term sustainability and shows how this relates to business issues including environmental change, ethical trading, corporate governance, risk management, sustainable development. and competitive balance.

About the Author: DAVID E. HAWKINS is Director of Operations for PSL. He has an extensive career in projects and procurement, particularly in the construction industry, working in many parts of the world. He has developed training programs and has been a leading speaker in the field of exploiting relationship management through effective leadership and strategy development. He is a regular contributor to professional magazines and journals, is the joint author, with Shan Rajogopal of Sun Tzu and the Project Battleground, and is the author of The Bending Moment: Energizing Corporate Business Strategy, both published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Corporate Social Responsibility and International Development

Hopkins, M. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility and International Development: Is Business the Solution?. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd.

The business of business is business. So then why should corporations be involved in development? This groundbreaking new book makes the case that that governments and their international agencies grouped under the umbrella of the UN, have failed in their attempts to rid the planet of under-development and poverty. If development is the objective then it seems that the solution and the responsibility lies with the private sector, particularly through the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs of large corporations, with their tremendous power and economic strength.

This book, written by noted CSR practitioner Michael Hopkins, is the first to explicitly link CSR with development. It spells out what corporations are doing on development, what more they could do and how CSR can be a useful tool to promote economic development via corporations. This is important and challenging reading for all of those in government, business and NGOs who think that there must be a better, more effective and dynamic way to kick-start development and eradicate poverty.

About the Author: Michael Hopkins is CEO of MHC International (London and Geneva) and Chair of the International Centre for Business Performance and Corporate Responsibility, Middlesex University Business School, UK. He is also the author of The Planetary Bargain (2003).

Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause

Kotler, P. and Lee, N. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Today, corporations are expected to give something back to their communities in the form of charitable projects. In Corporate Social Responsibility, Philip Kotler, one of the world’s foremost voices on business and marketing, and coauthor Nancy Lee explain why charity is both good P.R. and good for business. They show business leaders how to choose social causes, design charity initiatives, gain employee support, and evaluate their efforts. They also provide all the best practices and cutting-edge ideas that leaders need to maximize their contributions to social causes and do the most good. With personal stories from twenty-five business leaders from socially responsible companies, this is the bible for today’s good corporate citizen.

The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility

May, S. K., Cheney, G., and Roper, J. (Ed.) (2007). The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility. NY: Oxford University Press.

Should business strive to be socially responsible, and if so, how? The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility updates and broadens the discussion of these questions by bringing together in one volume a variety of practical and theoretical perspectives on corporate social responsibility. It is perhaps the single most comprehensive volume available on the question of just how “social” business ought to be. The volume includes contributions from the fields of communication, business, law, sociology, political science, economics, accounting, and environmental studies. Moreover, it draws from experiences and examples from around the world, including but not limited to recent corporate scandals and controversies in the U.S. and Europe.

A number of the chapters examine closely the basic assumptions underlying the philosophy of socially responsible business. Other chapters speak to the practical challenges and possibilities for corporate social responsiblilty in the twenty-first century.

One of the most distinctive features of the book is its coverage of the very ways that the issue of corporate social responsibility has been defined, shaped, and discussed in the past four decades. That is, the editors and many of the authors are attuned to the persuasive strategies and formulations used to talk about socially responsible business, and demonstrate why the talk matters. For example, the book offers a careful analysis of how certain values have become associated with the business enterprise and how particular economic and political positions have been established by and for business. This book will be of great interest to scholars, business leaders, graduate students, and others interested in the contours of the debate over what role large-scale corporate commerce should take in the future of the industrialized world.

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall

Sims, R. R. (2003). Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Ethical failures are rooted in leadership failure, the lack of a corporate culture in which ethical concerns have been integrated, and unresponsiveness to key organizational stakeholders. This book seeks to enhance our understanding of the causes of ethical debacles in an era when ethical missteps can often lead to corporate bankruptcies or worse. Sims offers practical solutions for mitigating damage and preventing such problems from happening in the first place. He also explains how to institutionalize ethics throughout an organization. Sims asserts that organizations wishing to behave ethically must do more than harbor good intentions.

Such companies must implement policies that inculcate the corporate culture with ethical values. They must also commit to ethical behavior in all interactions with internal and external stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, and the community.

Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility

Crowther, D. and Rayman-Bacchus, L. (Ed.) (2004). Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility Series). Ashgate Publishing.

Over the last decade the question of the relationship between organisations and society has been subject to much debate, often of a critical nature. The decade has seen protests concerning the actions of organisations, exposures of corporate exploitation and unfolding accounting scandals. At the same time ethical behaviour and a concern for the environment have been shown to have a positive correlation with corporate performance. The nature of corporate social reponsibility is therefore a topical one for business and academics.

There are, however, many different perspectives upon what is meant by corporate social responsibility and how this might be applied within organisations. This book is intended to explore some of these different perspectives based upon the experiences of different people in different parts of the world. (From back cover of the book.)