Title: Ethics in modern management /
Authors: Williams, Gerald J.
Publisher: Quorum Books,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Business ethics; Industrial management Moral and ethical aspects
Abstract: "This book confronts business managers with media accounts of alleged ethical misconduct by business people and the low opinion the public has of the honesty of business people in general. Gerald J. Williams agrees that greed and self-interest are surely at work here, but he points out that these vices can be found in just about every area of human endeavor. He asks whether business people might think there is some special characteristic of the business enterprise that sometimes justifies acting in ways that would be considered immoral in nonbusiness situations. Does the impact, for instance, that a business may have on the economic welfare of its shareholders, employees, and the social and political communities in which it operates sometimes require its managers to follow a "double ethic," one that applies to their business lives but not to their private lives? Not so, according to the author, who argues that there is no such thing as "business ethics"; there are only ethical principles applicable to all circumstances and conditions of human life.".
Contents: Moral theories -- Human dignity and justice -- Moral responsibility -- Moral aspects of economic systems -- Employment and wages -- Employee privacy -- Performing appraisals -- Firing employees -- Loyalty to a company -- Employee and public safety -- Truth to the free-market economic system -- Advertising -- Closing down an operation -- Protecting the environment -- Summing up -- Utilitarianism, natural law, and cultural moral relativism--an expanded version.