Book contents
- Ethics and Business
- Cambridge Applied Ethics
- Ethics and Business
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 An Overview of Business Ethics
- 2 Insights from Ethical Theory
- 3 Capitalism and Its Ethical Implications
- 4 Responsibility
- 5 Autonomy
- 6 Justice and Equality
- 7 Rights
- 8 Beneficence
- 9 Business and the World
- Select Bibliography and Further Reading
- Index
1 - An Overview of Business Ethics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2022
- Ethics and Business
- Cambridge Applied Ethics
- Ethics and Business
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 An Overview of Business Ethics
- 2 Insights from Ethical Theory
- 3 Capitalism and Its Ethical Implications
- 4 Responsibility
- 5 Autonomy
- 6 Justice and Equality
- 7 Rights
- 8 Beneficence
- 9 Business and the World
- Select Bibliography and Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This overview chapter introduces philosophical tools that can be used to aid managers in making decisions in situations which go beyond simple cost/benefit analyses. Value terms such as right, wrong, fair, justice, beneficence, responsibility, eco-consciousness, and discrimination are discussed and illustrated using real-world examples. Starting with the world’s worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, India and the contemporary aftermath, it examines the complexities such situations present and assesses the usefulness of creating a theoretical framework that can lead to principled and defensible policies and actions. The challenges of exclusive self-interest and ethical relativism are examined, where morality simply echoes personal preference. Immediate profit maximization is compared to a more subtle long-term and more encompassing stakeholder approach. Reliance on the law is shown to be an insufficient ethical guide, while principle-based approaches that can be applied across a wide range of cases are more successful in working out what we should do in novel and difficult situations.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ethics and BusinessAn Introduction, pp. 1 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023