Both are needed for well-functioning organizations and societies. Among the more elusive benefits of ethics are trust (essential in a service economy) and values (“one’s core beliefs about what is important, what is valued, and how one should behave across a wide variety of situations”). Ethics is important and beneficial to employees, managers, leaders, industries and society. Relying on a managerial approach, they define ethical behavior in business as “consistent with the principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed upon by society.” Evidence shows we are motivated by economic and moral concerns. The authors state that ethics can be taught, so organizations must look for systemic causes of unethical behavior. However, “the business landscape is a varied one that is actually dominated by good, solid businesses and people who are even heroic and extraordinarily giving at times.” We must recognize those who are “doing things right.” The crisis launched an epidemic of cynicism about business, especially in the U.S., built on the media’s long-standing infatuation with corporate villainy. The book describes factors leading to the crisis: cheap borrowing, real estate speculation, bad loan origination, securitization, and failures of raters, risk managers, regulators and legislators. Capitalism will succeed only when firmly tethered to a moral base, which Adam Smith knew well. History has shown that divorcing business from ethics runs huge risks. “It’s an ongoing phenomenon that must be better understood and managed and for which business professionals must be better prepared.” The 2008 financial crisis has created an environment of outrage and mistrust like no other. Organized to be flexible, the book’s sections stand alone and may be taught in any sequence.Ĭhapter 1: Introducing Straight Talk about Managing Business Ethics: Where We’re Going and WhyĮthical debacles are a regular occurrence, so business ethics is far from a fad. With help of students and managers, the material was tested in universities and corporations.ĥ. Its examples are based on real incidents, which students and employees will likely encounter.Ĥ. Its approach is pragmatic, assuming that organizational ethics is about human behavior.ģ. It is written by a duo of authors combining decades of experience in both theory and practice.Ģ. We want to help businesspeople regain the trust that’s been squandered in the last few years.” The book differs from other business ethics texts in five key ways:ġ. “We want to make the study of ethics relevant to real-life work situations. Preface: Why Does the World Need Another Business Ethics Text? The result is a comprehensive learning experience that finds wisdom in both success and failure, which may prepare future generations of professionals to wrestle with tough situations in an increasingly complicated global business environment. With detailed references to historical crises (e.g., the financial collapse), they immerse their readers in the nitty-gritty of how individuals and organizations respond to ethical dilemmas and catastrophic circumstances. Throughout the text, Treviño and Nelson introduce practical suggestions to guide organizational culture toward this goal (e.g., audits of cultural systems)–and address difficulties and pitfalls that lead to the breakdown of ethical systems. They then show how intelligent systems design can encourage managers and employees to follow their predispositions for cooperation and uprightness. The authors start from the assumption that most people wish to behave ethically. Managing Business Ethics takes the view that ethical and unethical conduct are primarily the product of how systems align within an organization to promote certain kinds of behavior. As the authors develop their frameworks, they apply the concepts across multiple dimensions, dealing with not only managers and organizations but employees and stakeholders of all kinds. Managing Business Ethics tackles its subject matter both prescriptively and descriptively, treating the people in its examples critically but fairly as entities influenced by complex environments of interlacing and often competing systemic pressures. Replete with psychological research on moral judgments and conduct, as well as dozens of detailed cases drawn from ethical quandaries faced by real-world organizations, this text functions both as a teaching tool and as a practical guide for how employees and managers should comport themselves in difficult situations. Treviño and Nelson present a fresh look at management as an exercise in shaping human behavior. Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How To Do It Rightīy Linda K.
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