Core (required) readings:

There is a fair amount to read for this topic. Ethics is a big area to cover however the readings, including the Topic notes, have been selected to give you a reasonable overview (although not covering all we could!) of the subject matter without skipping some key issues or overloading the topic to the point it gets unmanageable in the time we have.

Begin by reading the Topic notes which give an overview of different ways in which we might make ethical decisions and the basis on which these decisions might be made. Note that the optional readings by Fisher & Lovell and by Chan discuss in some detail the Topic notes comments on ethical decision making. If you have time, it's worth browsing through these two optional articles. 

• Reading 3.1: Bazerman, M. H., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. 2011. Good People often Let Bad Things Happen. Why? Ethical breakdowns. Harvard Business Review, 89(4): 58-65.

 

• Reading 3.2: Johnson, C. E. 2012. Building an Ethical organization: 303-337. Los Angeles: Sage.

 

• Reading 3.3: Pless, N. M., Maak, T., & Stahl, G. K. 2012. Promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development through management development: What can be learned from international service learning
  programs? Human Resource Management, 51(6): 873-904.

 

Additional (optional) readings and resources:

 

For a good and fairly easy to understand discussion on different approaches to ethical decision making, try these links:

Ethics - an introduction 

Deontological ethics 

Consequentialist ethics 

Virtues ethics 

 

Video (TED talk - 14 min 38 sec) : The dangers of willful blindness 

EGS in the Press:

The GlaxoSmithKline case 
These press items raise a number of ethical issues. Consider in particular the reward systems that are discussed and their flow-on consequences.
What do you think GlaxoSmithKline and other firms with similar reward systems should do?

 

• Reading 3.4: Fisher & Lovell 2009 'Ethical theories and how to use them', in Business Ethics and Values, 3rd edn, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, UK, pp. 100-148.

 

• Reading 3.5: Chan, GKY 2011, 'Theories of Ethical and Social Responsibility: Asian and Western Perspectives', in Ethics and Social Responsibility: Asian and Western Perspectives, eds. GKY Chan & GTL Shenoy, McGraw-Hill, Singapore, pp. 56-80.

 

• Reading 3.6: The full Philip Morris/Arthur D Little report referred to in the Topic Discussion notes is available   (a copy is also available in course readings).

 

• Reading 3.7: Riepenhoff & Radcliffe 2001 'Maximizing the business value of sustainable development', Green@work - Corporate Sustainability Magazine; online article   
  (a copy is also available in course readings).
  This is the full article (quite short) referred to in the Topic Discussion notes.

 

• Reading 3.8: Business ethics: 
  This article provides a general overview of some key issues in the field of business ethics (this is a web based resource only).
  For more on various aspects of ethics, see:   and scroll through the the "ethics" listing (it's also worth looking at the "morality" and "justice" listings).
    

 

• Reading 3.9: Ackermann & Heinzerling 2004: Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing, The New Press, New York.
  This book gives a good critique of cost-benefit analysis (as referred to in the Bazerman et al article and in the Topic Discussion notes).

 

Other resources:

• Tom Regan: Ethics and non-human species - an ecocentric view (about 10 minutes) 

Tom Regan is a prominent philosopher in the area of environmental ethics. Here are his core set of arguments for an ecocentric view of life.