Temptations in the Office: Ethical Choices and Legal Obligations

226 Pages·2008·1.02 MB·English

by  Stephen M. Goldman

Temptations in the
Office

Temptations in the
Office
Ethical Choices and
Legal Obligations
STEPHEN M. GOLDMAN
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Goldman,StephenM.1946-
Temptationsintheoffice:ethicalchoicesandlegalobligations/StephenM.Goldman.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-275-99675-8(alk.paper)
1.Businessethics.2.Corporateculture—Moralandethicalaspects.I.Title.
HF5387.G6452008
1740.4—dc22 2007052854
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:2)C 2008byStephenM.Goldman
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2007052854
ISBN:978-0-275-99675-8
Firstpublishedin2008
PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.praeger.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Tothememoryofmytwograndfathers
whoselivesIcherishandwhoseexamplesguide
andinspireme
SamBeck(1888–1982)
ofDenver,Colorado
Businessman
and
FrankGoldman(1890–1965)
ofLowell,Massachusetts
Lawyer

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
PARTONE:ETHICALCHOICESANDLEGAL
OBLIGATIONS 1
Chapter1 HowtoThinkAboutEthicalChoices 3
Chapter2 Economics,Law,andBusinessChoices 35
Chapter3 InjectingPrincipledDecision-Makinginto
ManagingEthicalDecisions:TheFoursquare
Protocol 59
PARTTWO:TEMPTATIONSINTHEOFFICE 71
Chapter4 SexualHarassment,GenderDiscrimination,and
ParamourPreference 73
Chapter5 TheMultipleDimensionsofConflictsofInterest 107
Chapter6 IncentiveCompensation:Honesty,Greed,
andFraud 131
Chapter7 Money:CuttingCornerswithYourCustomers 157
Chapter8 PowerandAbuseofPower:Challengingthe
CultureofHumiliation 177
Conclusion:FacetheFacts,TelltheTruth,
RunonTime 203
Index 207

Preface
At the outset of his short study of the nineteenth-century German
military thinker Karl von Clausewitz, the British military historian
Sir Michael Howard wanted to make sure that his readers under-
stood how rooted his subject was in the practical realm in which he
lived and worked. Clausewitz, wrote Howard, ‘‘had the practical
man’s horror of abstractions that could not be directly related to the
facts of the situation, of propositions that could not be illustrated by
examples, or material that was not relevant to the problem at
hand.... [H]e was always concerned to link theory to action, and he
deliberately ignored all aspects of his subject that were not of imme-
diate relevance to the kind of war with which he himself was
familiar.’’1
Although the problems of warfare may seem to some far removed
from the issues of business ethics, I share Clausewitz’s horror at dis-
embodied abstractions ‘‘not ... directly related to the facts of the sit-
uation.’’ Many works on business ethics, especially those commonly
prepared for business ethics courses in MBA programs, are heavily
laced with readings from some of the world’s great moral philoso-
phers. I studied many of these writings when I was a graduate stu-
dent. I found them dense and maddeningly divorced from reality. I
still do. When I read these books, I wonder how much more they
must seem irrelevant to business leaders and aspiring business lead-
ers. This book will not follow that tack. Still, the concepts of such
thinkers are essential to accomplish our task. But we’ll address them
in a manner that will help businesspeople understand how to think
x Preface
about such problems or, sometimes, to help them understand the
rational foundation for what they already believe.
There’s a second prominent genre of books on business ethics.
Such works are anecdote books. Drawing heavily on descriptions of
dilemmas that businessmen and businesswomen have faced, such
books are largely devoid of any theoretical underpinning. Starting
with real-life situations, they specialize in showing that, in the real
world of business, values we care about may pull in opposite direc-
tions in tough cases. I call this the ‘‘Mary realized she had a prob-
lem’’ approach. To resolve such dilemmas, this approach trades on
intuition. The reader is asked, essentially, to decide whether the
choice made by the person in the scenario was or was not correct.
The problem with this approach is that it provides little guidance
for solving the different problems you inevitably encounter yourself.
This book adopts a third approach. Its aim is to improve the ability
of the reader to think clearly, coherently, and effectively about con-
crete ethical problems faced by businesspeople. It uses the insights of
the two principal disciplines that address questions of right and
wrong: ethics (sometimes called moral philosophy) and law.
Ethics and law are similar in that both address what we ought to
do. They differ in that ethics helps us to decide what we ought to do
because we conclude that a given choice is morally sound. Law tells
us what we must do to avoid a sanction, such as being held liable for
damages or convicted of a crime. Still, ethics and law are linked in
two ways. First, the decisions businesspeople make are interlaced
with considerations from both spheres. Second, while the law’s
‘‘must’’ nearly always derives from society’s decision to put the clout
of the law behind a certain ethical view, the ethical domain maintains
its significance regardless of the laws content. Gender discrimination
and sexual harassment did not cease to raise ethical issues just because
Congress and thecourts decided to write into law an ethical view pro-
hibiting them. The relationship of both law and ethics to these ques-
tions is discussed more fully in Chapter 4.
Wags and cynics like to proclaim that the term ‘‘business ethics’’
is an oxymoron. But concern about individual values in business,
which we sometimes refer to as business ethics, is vital for compa-
nies and for individual careers. What we do and how we do it affects
our coworkers, our customers, our suppliers, our competitors, and,
as recent studies prove, ourselves.
There are three principal ways that companies get into big, head-
line-making trouble. The first and most obvious is where a market