7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ethical Business Puzzles Spelled Out, August 21, 2003
This review is from: The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business (Paperback)
The Right Thing is a compendium of columns from "The Right Thing" column that has appeared monthly in the Money and Business section of the Sunday New York Times since 1998. In most cases, these brief essays take a contemporary news item and pull it apart from different perspectives to lay out the ethical dilemmas and possible solutions. In each case, Professor Seglin makes it clear that doing the right thing is what ethics is all about. He frequently draws on the research of many others who have studied ethics to help flesh out the issue.
The essays are grouped into six sections:
Ethics Policies and Life in the Corporation
Hiring
Bosses
Privacy
Lying, Cheating and Stealing
Leading by Example
These essays are unafraid to point out public inconsistencies with ethical behavior. For instance, Professor Seglin takes Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, to task for encouraging ethical behavior by others but not doing enough to be a good example himself. Harvard University is criticized by cashiering the dean of the Divinity School after sexual material was found on his PC. The dean's behavior was embarrassing to Harvard, but the behavior was not unethical in Professor Seglin's view.
I found my mind stretched by many situations I had not thought enough about. When a co-worker donated a kidney to her boss, how was the boss supposed to treat her after that? How did that treatment affect the ethical situation towards her other co-workers by that boss?
There's a nice section on whether the struggling start-up should "borrow" from IRS payroll taxes to keep afloat in hopes of a better day ahead. (Don't do it!)
I don't work in a large company, so the issues about privacy relating to e-mails were interestingly new to me. The conclusions seemed to me to be full of good sense. When you find inappropriate behavior, deal with it. Don't go trolling for it, however, as a part-time, catch-as-catch-can activity.
It's a commentary on our overly "free market" orientation towards business that you don't find many discussions of business ethics as applied to current situations except when executives are being carted off for a criminal arraignment. I hope that the New York Times and other news media take a hint from the content of these columns and expand the subject of ethics to include as many of their business news stories as possible. The events of the last few years seem to suggest that people are not observing the Golden Rule when it comes to their business activities.
I also recommend Dr. John Maxwell's new book, There's No Such Thing As Business Ethics.
Where else should more attention be paid to ethics? That's a good subject for dinner tonight with your family.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Right Thing, December 5, 2006
Library Journal, April 15, 2003
Well written and lucid ... brings objectivity, honesty, and wisdom to business ethics ... encourages ... honest questioning [on] integrity in the workplace.
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, April 21, 2003
The ... topic of corporate governance is further deepened in this ... collection of columns ... first published in The New York Times.
Inc. magazine online, May 19, 2003
Any owner could broaden...thinking...by spending a couple...hours with Seglin's book...[and]from circulating this book among employees....
Ethikos and Corporate Conduct Quarterly, May/June 2003
"...no preaching... The wide range of ethical problems..considered here...are discussed in a calm and rational way..."
Book Description
This engaging and provactive new book brings the issues of corporate and personal responsiblity in a profit-driven world down to the kind of everyday decisions we all have to make.
From the Inside Flap
Praise for The Right Thing:
"With trademark clarity Seglin showcases some of the prickliest real-life dilemmas. . .These stories reach out and grab you. They make you ask what you would have done in the same situation. You'll be surprised at the answers."
Nancy K. Austin, Co-author, A Passion for Excellence
"Jeff Seglin's "intellectual honesty and non-preachy style makes you think hard about the right thing, and what it means for your own behavior. He is a great teacher whose course you never want to end, and whose work is a great gift."
Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great.
"Jeff Seglin writes with passion, clarity and wisdom about the toughest issues facing the business community. We all `profit' from this important and readable book."
Ronald Thiemann, Harvard University
"An extraordinary compendium of real-life moral dilemmas which lead to productive moral discussion. He leads readers through actual business problems and sets readers thinking and groups talking . . .a thoughtful and thought provoking work."
Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, author of The Genesis of Ethics
"Seglin's mini-essays are gems of practical wisdom."
Joseph Badaracco, Professor of Business Ethics, Harvard Business School, author of Defining Moments and Leading Quietly
The Right Thing is just that: the right thing for today's business managers who want to take ethics seriously from a moral and practical standpoint. Written. . . with thoughtfulness and an informed opinion.
Laura Nash, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard University
"Seglin sees both the ethical dilemmas as well as their proposed solutions in a clear and objective light, offering unparalleled honesty to the discussion of business ethics. . .Essential reading for all managers involved in evaluating the effectiveness of their company's solutions to today's problems of integrity in the workplace."
David Gebler, President
The Working Values Group, Ltd.
About the Author
Jeffrey L. Seglin is a syndicated columnist on ethics for the New York Times and previously wrote for Fortune Magazine. He is a frequent commentator on NPR's Marketplace and the author of The Good, the Bad and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart. He was a Resident Fellow at Harvard University, an Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute, and is an assistant professor and director of the graduate program in pbblishing and writing at Emerson College in Boston. He holds a master's degree in theology and literature from the Divinity School at Harvard University. He lives in Boston with his wife, Nancy.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking, October 5, 2003
This review is from: The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business (Paperback)
Jeff Seglin, with his university degrees in Theological Studies and English, has been a popular writer in a number of business publications for years. His followers enjoy a style of writing that is comfortable, easy to relate to, and complete with concepts to engage the mind. Five years ago, while a Resident Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard University, he began writing a monthly column on ethics for the New York Times. This opportunity was a natural for Seglin, whose writing and objective observations benefit from a foundation of deep thinking about vital business issues.
This book is a collection of 46 of the columns Seglin wrote in the Times. Rather than a chronological sequence, the presentation is organized into six parts: Ethics Policies and Life in the Corporation; Hiring; Bosses; Privacy: Lying, Cheating, and Stealing; and Leading by Example. The columns are presented like a series of essays, one "chapter" following another without starting on a new page. This design gives the reader a sense of flow, that all these issues addressed by Seglin are tied together.
Readers will read thought-provoking pieces on a wide variety of topics, each of which could stimulate worthwhile conversations among corporate executives. The purpose of the essays is to raise ethical questions that people in business were likely to face. Discussion of the issues presented-by corporate executives, managers, and virtually every member of an organization-can build a productive openness and a process for dealing with situations that arise. The exploration of these issues, dilemmas, and implications will be valuable for university students about to enter the business world... especially those who desire to move into leadership positions where they may confront ethical considerations on a fairly regular basis-to resolve, advise, or mediate.
There are no black-or-white answers in this book. Seglin is careful to point out that "The discussion of ethics in business is one that at its best should be ongoing and always challenging assumptions." This book will be a useful tool to foster those health discussions.
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