Business Ethics and Common Sense

(Hardback)

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Description

Many business ethics books take a basically collectivist approach to the subject. They speak in terms of collective rights and interests, the public interest, social justice, the greatest good for the greatest number, and so forth. If individualism is mentioned at all, it is mentioned disparagingly. This book takes a different approach. While some of the contributors to this volume take the more popular, collectivist approach, many of them do not. Thus, the book tries to offer a more balanced presentation of business ethics than that found in most books on the subject. The book is divided into four parts. The contributors to Part 1 offer an enlightening look at the philosophical foundations of business ethics via discussions on the teaching of business ethics, on the relationship between capitalism and morality, on the philosophical concepts of selfishness, exploitation, and the profit motive, as well as a unique chapter where business ethics issues are looked at against the foil of the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Part 2 addresses business ethics issues that involve the relationship of the corporation to outsiders. Among the topics discussed are the concept of corporate duty and social responsibility, environmental issues, and business ethics applied to so-called "anti-competitive" practices. Part 3 discusses some issues regarding the responsibility of the corporation to insiders, and Part 4 covers some of the ethical responsibilities of employees and the corporation. This edited work should be useful to scholars, practitioners and the general public.

Reviews

Recommended for large, comprehensive business ethics collections.-Choice
"Recommended for large, comprehensive business ethics collections."-Choice

Author Bio

ROBERT W. McGEE is Professor of Accounting at the W. Paul Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University. He has authored or edited more than thirty books and monographs and has written more than 200 articles for various professional and scholarly journals. Among his books are, Analytical Contribution Accounting: The Cost Accounting/Pricing Policy Interface (Greenwood Press, 1987), Accounting and Tax Aspects of Computer Software Manufacturing (Praeger, 1987), and Accounting for Data Processing Costs (Greenwood, 1988).