Customer Reviews

Better Ethics NOW: How To Avoid The Ethics Disaster You Never Saw Coming (Second Edition)

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The CEO of one Fortune 500 company told me that this topic is what keeps him up at night, because the exposure is so incredible when you're responsible for tens of thousands of employees. But I also know from my clients that the problem can still spell disaster for managers of small businesses, non-profits, and even in the government sector. Dr. Bauer summed it up best on page 78 in the section titled "Ninety-Nine Percent Ethical Is Not Enough". This book should be a requisite for anyone in any supervisory capacity.

Glenn Shepard
Author of "How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without" and "How to Manage Problem Employees"

A straightforward basic book on ethics in large corporate environments. Dr. Bauer makes some important points, including the differences among behavior that is legal but not ethical (such as working for a concentration camp), ethical but not legal (Gandhi's campaigns against the British), or both legal and ethical.

Other interesting points:

* Lawyer review creates the danger of mealy-mouthed statements that hold up in court but may actually make your company seem less ethical. Make sure the language is clear even after the lawyers go through it.

* Ethics programs are useless without employee buy-in

* Effective modeling of leadership and excellent customer service make ethics problems less likely

* Where to look for ethics challenges before they turn into crises (one benchmark: understanding the difference between a valid incentive and an ethically problematic inducement)

In Bauer's view, most ethics problems have roots outside the workplace, in emotional and financial issues faced by an individual employee; he has some ideas about minimizing their impact. Also about ensuring alternative reporting channels, so if a subordinate has to report a boss, there's someone other than the boss who can receive the message.

Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.