Table Of ContentTHIS IS BUSINESS ETHICS
THIS IS PHILOSOPHY
Series editor: Steven D. Hales
Reading philosophy can be like trying to ride a bucking bronco—you hold on for
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This Is Philosophy: An Introduction
Steven D. Hales
This Is Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction
Pete Mandik
This Is Ethics: An Introduction
Jussi Suikkanen
This Is Political Philosophy: An Introduction
Alex Tuckness and Clark Wolf
This Is Business Ethics: An Introduction
Tobey Scharding
Forthcoming:
This is Early Modern Philosophy
Kurt Smith
This Is Environmental Ethics
Wendy Lee
This is Epistemology
Clayton Littlejohn and Adam Carter
This is Metaphysics
Kris McDaniel
This Is Bioethics: An Introduction
Udo Schuklenk
THIS IS
BUSINESS
ETHICS
AN INTRODUCTION
TOBEY SCHARDING
This edition first published 2018
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BRIEF CONTENTS
Preface xii
Part I Problems in Business Ethics 1
1 Ethics: Doing the Right Thing 3
2 Business: Maximizing Profit 14
3 Classic Business Ethics Dilemmas: When Doing the
Right Thing Does Not Maximize Profits 32
Part II Tools to Solve Business Ethics Dilemmas 47
4 Ethical Theories 49
5 Theories of Corporate Personhood 77
6 Theories of Political Economy 92
Part III Contemporary Case Studies 119
7 Business Ethics in Employment 121
8 Business Ethics in Advertising 149
9 Business Ethics in the Financial Sector 167
10 Business Ethics in the Environment 190
11 Business Ethics in Globalization 210
Part IV The Future of Business Ethics 229
12 Predicting and Preventing Future Business Ethics Scandals 231
Index 247
CONTENTS
Preface xii
Part I Problems in Business Ethics 1
1 Ethics: Doing the Right Thing 3
Introduction to Ethics 3
What are ethical questions 3
How to answer ethical questions 4
Introductory Case Studies 5
Sam and the substandard notes 5
Casey and the overly‐demanding internship 6
Tatiana and the fair distribution of chores 7
Alex and the too‐easy‐to‐cheat course 8
Evaluating the Case Studies 9
Non‐ethical guidelines for thinking about the cases 9
Ethical guidelines for thinking about the cases 11
Limitations of ethical evaluation: the problem of controversy 12
Reference 13
2 Business: Maximizing Profit 14
Theory of the Firm 14
Firm organization 15
Why the firm exists at all 16
Problems for firm organization 17
Business Decision‐Making: Shareholders and Cost‐Benefit Analysis 17
The Dominant Model 19
Shareholder Theory 22
Cost‐benefit analysis 25
Contents vii
Business in Society: Consumers, Employees, and Community 27
References and Further Reading 31
3 Classic Business Ethics Dilemmas: When Doing the
Right Thing Does Not Maximize Profits 32
Doing Right by Consumers: The Ford Pinto Case 33
Doing Right by Employees: The Walmart Case 38
Doing Right by the Community: The B.P. Case 40
Doing Right by Shareholders: The Enron Case 42
References and Further Reading 46
Case Cited 46
Part II Tools to Solve Business Ethics Dilemmas 47
4 Ethical Theories 49
The Three Major Ethical Theories 51
Utility‐based ethics 52
Kant’s duty‐based ethics 61
Aristotle’s virtue‐based ethics 67
Other Bases for Ethics 72
Natural law theory 72
Contract theory 73
Ethics of care 74
Feminist ethics 75
References and Further Reading 76
5 Theories of Corporate Personhood 77
Businesses as Ethical Persons 78
Businesses as Bureaucracies 83
Businesses as Collective Persons 87
References and Further Reading 91
6 Theories of Political Economy 92
Private Property 95
The justification of private property 96
Distributive justice 106
The Division of Labor 112
Smith’s productivity‐based defense of the division 112
Marx’s alienation‐based criticism of the division 115
References and Further Reading 118
viii Contents
Part III Contemporary Case Studies 119
7 Business Ethics in Employment 121
Employment at Will: The Bechtel Case 121
Bechtel’s corporate identity 122
Facts of the case 122
What happened 124
Historical significance 124
Ethical significance: conditions of employment 125
Executive Compensation: The A.I.G. Case 130
A.I.G.’s corporate identity 131
Facts of the case 131
What happened 133
Historical significance 133
Ethical significance: executive compensation 134
Preventing Discrimination and Achieving Diversity:
The Google Case 136
Google’s corporate identity 137
Facts of the case 138
What happened 139
Ethical significance: unconscious bias 141
Work‐Life Balance: The Amazon Case 143
Amazon’s corporate identity 144
Facts of the case 144
What happened 145
Historical significance 146
Ethical significance: work‐life balance 146
References and Further Reading 147
Case Cited 148
8 Business Ethics in Advertising 149
Manipulative Advertising: The Four Loko Case 149
Phusion Projects’ corporate identity 150
Facts of the case 150
What happened 151
Historical significance 152
Ethical significance: manipulative advertising 152
Targeted Advertising: The Facebook Case 155
Facebook’s corporate identity 156
Facts of the case 156
