Ethics and Business: An Introduction

Description

In this lively undergraduate textbook, Kevin Gibson explores the relationship between ethics and the world of business, and how we can serve the interests of both. He builds a philosophical groundwork that can be applied to a wide range of issues in ethics and business, and shows readers how to assess dilemmas critically and work to resolve them on a principled basis. Using case studies drawn from around the world, he examines topics including stakeholder responsibilities, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and women and business. Because business can no longer be isolated from its effects on communities and the environment, these concerns are brought to the forefront. The book also captures the dynamic nature of business ethics in the era of globalization where jobs can be outsourced, products are made of components from scores of countries and sweatshops often provide the cheap goods the public demands.

Kevin Gibson is Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics Studies at Marquette University.

"Last month we completed our first undergraduate business ethics course and thanks to your book it was a great success. Much discussion, good theoretical base for student case presentations, useful examples and easy to teach from." --Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma, University of Canterbury, New Zealand "...The writing is clear and accessible. Gibson has chosen contemporary cases that students can relate to involving companies they have heard of - Nike, Wal-Mart, Enron, Shell - and issues they are no doubt engaged with - pornography, sweat shops, drug use, discrimination, and so on. As a result, any student who reads and works through Gibson's book will get a solid introduction to many of the issues and concepts central to business ethics.... Gibson's book is thoughtful, sensitive to many of the controversies among business-ethics theoreticians, and clearly the product of many years of reading and thinking through the world of business, ethics, and philosophy...." --Stephen R. C. Hicks, Professor of Philosophy, Executive Director, The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, Rockford College, Teaching Philosophy