A Primer on Business Ethics [Paperback]

Tibor R. Machan (Author), James E. Chesher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003 | ISBN-10: 0742513890 | ISBN-13: 978-0742513891

A Primer on Business Ethics is an accessibly written, engaging introduction to the fundamental questions of business ethics, for use in the undergraduate classroom. Machan and Chesher approach the business enterprise in a friendly, pro-business spirit, and identify the virtue of prudence as its moral foundation. Various branches of business including advertising, financial services, management, employment, corporate ethics, responsibilities of corporate management, public policy matters, and political economy are considered at length. The book is supplemented with an overview of various moral and political theories relevant to the subject matter, as well as a collection of useful case studies to inspire further discussion. An electronic instructor's manual enhances the material in the book with chapter abstracts, a bank of true/false questions for each chapter, essay questions, and mini-essays. This manual can be requested directly from the publisher for instructors using the book in the classroom. To request a copy, send an email to [e-mail]. Instructor Manual

Editorial Reviews

Review

Wonderfully provocative. It includes two helpful appendixes: a brief review of moral and political theory, and a helpful guide to case study formulation and analysis. Recommended. (Choice )

Machan's book is an unabashed celebration of commercial society. It is a welcome addition to a literature that is too often anti-business. (Capaldi, Nicholas )

The authors of this book convey the essence of classical liberalism to the business world: powerful arguments in a graceful style. (Professor Alberto Benegas-Lynch, Jr. )

This is a lively, provocative, and thoughtful exposition and defense of the moral legitimacy of the enterprise of business. I have been looking for a good text to use in teaching business ethics. This is a great one. It could not have come along at a better time. (Charles W. Baird )

A Primer on Business Ethics is a clear and lively text dealing with fundamental issues. It is well written and takes the important problems into account. It makes a good text for a basic undergraduate course in business ethics thanks to its engaging style. (Rescher, Nicholas )

Finally we have a well-organized and clearly written work that distinguishes 'business ethics' from 'business bashing.' A Primer on Business Ethics challenges the assumptions of critics and defenders of business alike. This brave and thoughtful work is excellent for the classroom--it both assists the beginner and engages the expert. (Rasmussen, Douglas B. )

For those predisposed to view commerce with suspicion, this book will cause some face-scrunching. Machan and Chesher offer pointed discussions of business ethics, even as they eschew business-bashing. That is all the more reason to read this philosophically well-grounded, stimulating book. (Magnell, Thomas )

A conceptual, pithy, philosophical work. The Appendix A (Moral and Political Theories in Brief) provides a solid foundation for those business students who have not yet studied philosophy and an effective review for those who have. (B. Barbara Boerner )

A remarkably enlightened approach to understanding business ethics. (Richard A. Barker )

An excellent primer that introduces the subject and provides students with a clear and well-organized view of the major issues/concepts in business ethics. (Harold C. Warlick, Jr. )

Written with friendly approach, pro-business spirit. The book is supplemented with an overview of various moral and political theories relevant to the subject matter and a collection of useful case studies that inspire further discussion. The book can also be used as a text for teaching business ethics. (Educational Book Review )

About the Author

Tibor R. Machan is professor emeritus of philosophy at Auburn University and currently Distinguished Fellow and Freedom Communications Professor of Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at Chapman University. James E. Chesher is assistant professor of philosophy at Santa Barbara City College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742513890
• ISBN-13: 978-0742513891
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done, May 22, 2003

By 

Richard Doczy (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Primer on Business Ethics (Paperback)

After reading one review of this book I wanted to see for myself and lo and behalf found that there is a discussion of Enron in the Epilog. (The reviewer spoke out without reading the book, which is dirty pool.) In any case, while the authors are indeed champions of the free market, this doesn't by any means tell the whole story. They also defend a virtue ethics in terms of which various professions are held to their (explicit or implicit) oath. People in business, in particular, are committed to make their enterprise prosper and if they engage, for example, in racial, sexual or other kinds of irrelevant discrimination, they are guilty of violating the ethics of their profession and may also be guilty of injustice in general. This book, thus, is full of precise enough guideliness for how to conduct oneself in business, what would make one an unethical advertiser, manager, personnel director, and corporate executive. The authors' view of advertising as an means of promotion rather than information dissemination is especially useful, as is their discussion of employment ethics. All in all a good text that is by no means easy on business, even if not a business basher as most such texts manage to be.

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How business friendly should business ethics be?, March 7, 2003

By 

Annelies Van Rie (Chapel Hill NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Primer on Business Ethics (Hardcover)

This is a clearly written, lucid and interesting business ethics primer that will be useful for anyone interested in business ethics. The main shortcoming of the book in my opinion is the general perspective of libertarianism from which it is written. While it is true that the book does not indulge in 'business ethics', it veers towards the other extreme of business apologetics at many stages. What are we to think of a business ethics primer, with a chapter on insider trading, which makes no mention of Enron or ImClone?

3 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How 'business friendly' can business ethics be?, March 13, 2003

By 

Annelies Van Rie (Chapel Hill NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Primer on Business Ethics (Paperback)

This informative and well-written book is only as good as the philosophical vision which informs and supports it, which in this case is the philosophy of libertarianism. However, libertarianism extols the virtues of the free market to such an extent that it seems toothless as a basis for business ethics. In my opinion, A Primer on Business Ethics could be retitled as A Primer on Business Apologetics on account to its excessive tolerance towards business practices (including kickbacks and bribery) which most people rightly find ethically dubious. What are we to make of a business ethics book written in 2002, which makes no mention of Worldcom, Enron or ImClone in its text or index? If ripping off stockholders is compatible with a libertarian conception of business ethics, then so much the worse for that conception. If it is not compatible with that conception, the authors should have mentioned it. The silence is deafening.

I would also like to add that the dedication of the book to the victims of 9-11 'because they were members of the business community' is in poor taste, because many of the victims were not business persons, and because the authors (absurdly) make the victims sound like martyrs for capitalism. It sounds like an opportunistic attempt to recruit the dead for the libertarian world-view. Perhaps the dedication is good for the business of selling the book, but that only shows that what is good for business is not necessarily good, period.