Business Ethics Beauchamp et al eds, Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics Crane et al eds, Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility Archie Carroll, Business Ethics: Brief Readings on Vital Topics Visser et al, A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility Others: Solomon et al Anthology Archie Carroll and Ann Buchholtz, Business & Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Management Readings Business Ethics: Perspectives from Economics, Philosophy, and Real-World Practice (?) Corporate Social Responsibility and the Ethics of Business Do different rules apply in business than in ordinary life? For example, is ruthlessness and lying permissible in business in a way that it is not in ordinary life? Does a business have a general obligation to society, or is its only
goal to maximize its profits? What if a business intentionally breaks
laws and accepts the
relevant fines, knowing that such a course of action will maximize
profits? Is it OK for a firm to break laws intentionally when they are foolish and
counterproductive? Albert Carr, "Is Business Bluffing Ethical?", Harvard
Business Review, 1968 Ray Kroc, "If your competitor is drowning, then shove a fire hose down his throat" etc Larry Ellison and Genghis Khan Steve Jobs, pirates, allegedly stealing other people's ideas etc Milton Friedman, "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits", New York Times, 1970 Robert Frank, "Can Socially Responsible Firms Survive in a Competitive Environment?, in Messick et al eds. Codes of Conduct: Behavioral Research into Business Ethics, 1996 Peter Singer, "Putting Ethics Before Profits", The Guardian, 2009 John Mackey et al, "The CEO as Animal Activist: John Mackey and Whole Foods", in In Defense of Animals, Singer ed. 2005 Kenneth Arrow, "Social Responsibility and Economic Efficiency" Porter articles Lynn Stout, selections from The Shareholder Value Myth, Berrett-Koehler, 2012 Reinhardt, Stavins, Vietor, "Corporate Social Responsibility through an Economic Lens", National Bureau of Economics Working Papers, 2008 Paul Portney, "The (Not So) New Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Perspective", Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2008 John Mackey, selections from Conscious Capitalism (see also HBR piece) Timothy Clark and Kristen Grantham, "What CSR is Not: Corporate Social Irresponsibility", in Tench et al eds Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept Greenwashing, CSR just covers up CSI Budolfson, "The Imperative of Ethical Innovation, and How a Firm's Unilateral Rejection of Unethical Industry Practices can Avoid Futility and Unacceptable Cost to Shareholders" WANTED: a good paper on 'stakeholder theory' etc. WANTED: papers/case studies on laying off employees, unnecessary strategic bankruptcy and restructuring merely to increase profits (vs to maintain viability) Peter French..."Corporate Moral Agency"? Margaret Gilbert Case study: Google comes out in favor of gay rights Case study: "Blankfein's Gay-Rights Stance Shows Wall Street's Dilemma", Bloomberg, 2012 Case study: Criticism of Warren Buffett qua CEO for his public advocacy of 'The Buffett Rule' Case: google don't be evil, google glasses, prism Case: apple and aluminum enclosures: innovation that improves product and profitability while improving along the social rep dimension Case: apple and labor, foxconn, NYtimes articles, relocating jobs to USA, etc Operations and Management Ethics Leavitt and Whisler, "Management in the 1980s", Harvard Business Review, 1958 Peter Maass, selections from Crude World Series of articles on Apple and Foxconn, New York Times, 2011 Tom Hill, "Symbolic Protest and Calculated Silence" Greg Smith, "Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs" Cheshire Calhoun, "Standing for Something" Christopher Kutz, selections from Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age Anthony Appiah, "Racism and Moral Pollution", The Philosophical Forum, 1987 Mark Budolfson, "The Ethics of Supply Chain Management and Purchasing Decisions" Paper on Careerism and Personal Decision-Making Matt Zwolinski, "The Ethics of Price Gouging", Business Ethics Quarterly (2008) F.A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society” Malcolm Gladwell, "Disclosure Statement: Conflicts of interest, Bias vs. Opinion" Richard Feynman, "Cargo Cult Science", in Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman Case Study: "Blankfein: Goldman Has No Duty To Disclose Own Position", Bloomberg, 2010 Case Study: "Goldman Sachs and the $580 Million Black Hole", New York Times, 2012 WANTED: something good on NGO operations ethics Buffett against diversification, pro-shareholder rights etc. Denis Arnold, "Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster: Disloyal Employee or Courageous Whistleblower?", Ethical Theory and Business, 8th ed. Beauchamp et al eds, 2008 Richard Feynman, "Comments on the Challenger Disaster" WANTED: discussion of topics such as: building a skyscraper when it is virtually certain that someone will die in the construction, the right to information about risks in the workplace, etc. Tom Hill, selection from "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments" Cost Benefit Analysis ford pinto automakers, dangerous products, cost/benefit calculations based on a valuation of innocent lives, other critiques of CBA, etc. Arrow et al Cost Benefit Analysis Science Sandel Critique NY Times see environ econ book Replies NY Times(?) see environ econ book Schmidtz Full Cost Accounting in Schmidtz environmental ethics Liar's poker, etc Finance Ethics Hostile Takeovers, Nabisco, Corporate Raiders, Icahn Carol Loomis, "Lies, Damned Lies, and Managed Earnings", Money (1999) Accounting tricks that are tricky but not clearly unethical; Enron The Smartest Guys in the Room Taking advantage of unintended tax loopholes Taking advantage of govt. subsidies (suppose everyone else in your industry is doing it, and you'll go out of business if you don't; financial crisis) Roger Lowenstein, selections from When Genius Failed Jennifer Moore, "What Is Really Unethical About Insider Trading?" Taleb More Marketing Ethics Theodore Levitt The Morality of Advertising Harvard Business Review, 1970 Cigarettes, GMOs, Disclosure of information, free choice, etc Manipulation Kahneman and Tversky and Nudge-ish: even if disclosure and free choice, still problems of manipulation Predatory Pricing, Predatory Lending Wasteful packaging More Descriptive Ethics: Using Economic Incentives and Insights from Empirical Psychology to Promote Ethical Behavior and Avoid Ethical Lapses J. Scott Armstrong, "Social Irresponsibility in Management", Journal of Business Research, 1977 Many, many, many Justice Inside and Outside of the Workplace Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" response to singer David Lewis, "Illusory Innocence?" Peter Singer, selection on luck from The Life You Can Save Warren Buffett, "The Ovarian Lottery" Nassim Nicholas Taleb, selections from Fooled by Randomness Buffett, executive compensation Judith Jarvis Thomson, "Preferential Hiring", Philosophy and Pubic Affairs (1973) california university court case example Robert Fullinwider, "Affirmative Action", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009) WANTED: moving first hand reports, case studies, etc Iris Marion Young, selection from Justice and the Politics of Difference incl "Affirmative Action and the Myth of Merit" (1990) Oppression Andrew Altman, "Discrimination", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2011) Linda Babcock, et. al., "Nice Girls Don't Ask", Harvard Business Review, 2003 Anne-Marie Slaughter and Responses the Atlantic Sheryl Sandberg, selections from Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead Patricia Smith, "Feminist Philosophy of Law", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009) sweatshops exploitation Globalization* labor unions, strikebreaking; due process for workers sexual harassment Environmental justice Larry Summers Case study: Ronald Reagan firing the air traffic controllers Case study based on the film American Dream Sustainability, Externalities, and Environmental Responsibility Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons", Science, 1968 Ostrom video Pigou The Economics of Welfare (small selection) public domain (?), 1920 Market Failure, Government failure, public choice theory Externalities and Social Cost Coase The Problem of Social Cost Journal of Legal Studies, 1960 Ostrom, drama of the commons Elinor Ostrom, "A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems", Science, 2009 Mark Sagoff, "Do We Consume Too Much?", The Atlantic, 1997 Robert Solow Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective National Geographic Research and Exploration, 1992 Jon Christensen, "Are We Consuming Too Much?", Conservation Magazine, 2005 Kenneth Arrow, et al., "Are We Consuming Too Much?", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2004 more good left wing articles Budolfson Climate change and Business ethics compare Arnold and Bustos in Ethical Theory and Business Beauchamp eds The Morality of Property and Capitalism Adam Smith on the invisible hand Milton Friedman, selections from Capitalism and Freedom obligatory Rawls Robert Frank, "Positional Externalities and How Rising Inequality Hurts the Middle Class", from Falling Behind Karl Marx, good stuff on alienation etc. Satz Epstein, Richard. 1984, “In Defense of the Contract at Will,” University of Chicago Law Review 51: 947-982 Locke Of Property Simmons Locke on Charity Schmidtz, "The Institution of Property" WANTED: good readings on intellectual property etc. |