Moral Issues in Business
Last Updated on Monday, 23 August 2010 04:18 Written by admin Monday, 23 August 2010 04:18
Product Description
One of the most popular business ethics books available, MORAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS, Eleventh Edition, guides readers in thinking deeply about important moral issues that frequently arise in business situations and helps them develop the reasoning and analytical skills to resolve those issues. Combining insightful and accessible textbook chapters by the authors, cases that highlight the real-world importance of key ethical concepts, and reading selections from the mos… More >>
Well, I happen to disagree with previous comment. Not only did I like the course, I also liked the book. It wasn’t an easy reading, I got to tell you. Sometimes it took more than one reading and several minutes or reflecting to figure out what the authors were talking about. But in the end it all made sense. And as a bonus the book went into great detail on philosophy, psychology, political science, and economics which I found quite helpful, since as a business major I didn’t have a chance to take courses in first three subjects mentioned. The best thing, however, was, that almost a year later in packed Helsinki bar, I was able for about 15 minutes to talk about greatest German and French philosophers – all about them I learned from this book.
Rating: 4 / 5
4 stars= some good arguments to consider, and issues it provokes. Being a philisopher student, some of these arguments are strong.
Nuntius said: “Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman” were skipped in discussion. I know that Friedman was well included, in the case studies and in some chapters. Look at 4.3 for a real focus.
He also said that “Like ssaber, I was disappointed to find a three page “defense” of capitalism and a ten page attack of it in Chapter 4, “The Nature of Capitalism.”"
I noticed a sentence stating that we can’t dismiss a capitalist society because of the fact of where it brought us, where as the other systems didn’t do so well. Therefore, I wouldn’t really consider this a dismiss on capitalism.
For example, in page 158, they say “The debate over capitalism is a large and important one; the presentation that follows should be viewed as a stimulus to further discussion and not as the last word on th pros and cons of capitalism.” Furthermore, “complete coverage of capitalism’s features has filled many books” (154). This clearly states what the authors intend, as a mere stimulus. In fact, having a whole chapter seems to be sufficient to their intent.
Maybe they can expand the subject to add more back and forth criticisms, but we know that debate can be long. As long as they made that statement of it merely being a stimulus, I’m ok with it.
After all, capitalism is a very new concept with the foundation of the industrial revolution. Of course debate should ensue. But I guess they should end the chapter stating the “nonetheless, a capitalist framework has got us great heights.”
God Bless.
-NVS
Rating: 4 / 5
condition was a little worse than expected from the description but still good enough to use.
Rating: 4 / 5
At first I thought this book was going to be dull. However, many of the topics are very interesting. I am still not done with the course, but this book gives you a general idea how business environments are affected by many of the topics discussed. Some of the subjects that caught my attention were the economics distribution, and capitalism. The good thing about the topics discussed is that it gives you the pro’s and con’s. It does not take sides. I believe any person with economics, political, and social interest can enjoy this book.
Rating: 4 / 5
As a professor, I have used MIB for over 15 years in university classes in business ethics. As a (rare) campus conservative, I would argue that the outline, and case studies, are quite good, albeit, not always complete, especially with the rush job in the seventh edition on Enron. However, MIB is not dispassionate politically, and it it harder to find such reads these days in academe. Unfortunately, the author(s) of many of these books on business ethics have never themselves been business owners in order to understand the day-to-day issues of competition, pricing, motivation, and the rest. I came to academics after having run two successful businesses which has given me a breadth and depth to the classroom. Back to MIB: please be sure to read all of the reviews thus far that share the inherent shortcomings of this book. Since I agree with them I will not restate them here as they are well written. Still, along with the obvious anti-capitalist overtones in MIB, there is another philosophical factor that must be considered, to wit: the authors insist that morality and ethics do not necessarily have a religious connection, or better, that they do not hang on the necessity of objective epistemology (to know, and to know how we know). Au contrare: a little history-doing will demonstrate that up until the Enlightenment (ca. 1750 AD)that virtually all of Western moral philosophy was deeply rooted in theology and/or religious primary sources. The ancient Greeks and Romans appealed to the gods, Judaism appealed to Yahweh (Greek: Adonai), and Christianity appealed to Jesus as the divine Logos (Word). Thus, if we added up objective epistemology and subjective epistemology in terms of years in operation, the Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians win. We must also consider the words of probably the greatest representative of Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, the Frenchman who witnessed the brutality of the Nazis during WWII, who quite emphatically stated in his book, “Existentialism and Human Emotions,” that he actually grieved that God does not exist, because, he said, since God does not exist, we have no basis to establish ethics or morals. Thus, Sartre clearly understood the God-connection concerning ethics and morals, but do modern students?
In this post-modern world, objective ethical constructs have been substituted for what I call the Eternal-I, i.e., individuals appeal not to objective authority to establish morality and ethics, but to the subjective, Eternal-I, the “Me,” or what I think is right or wrong. If everyone is able to appeal to their own standard of ethical behavior, then there is little objective bases for determinining true right and wrong.
If you decide to purchase MIB, I would balance the sections on capitalism with Von Hayek and Milton Freidman, two free market capitalists who understand both the beauty and necessity of wealth, human nature as desirous of incentive and rewards, limited government restriction and human autonomy (freedom), and the failure of Socialism, Marxism and confiscatory taxation. Concerning the failure of the last three, didn’t we already learn that in high school economics?
Rating: 1 / 5