Ethics and Business

Bart Wernaart is Lecturer in International Business and Management at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.

• Introduction Part 1Ethics and the individual 1 What is ethics? 1.1 Ethical behaviour? 1.2 Ethics as an academic discipline 1.3 Morality 1.4 The structural analysis 1.5 The structural evaluation 1.6 Ethics and related disciplines Summary Literature 2 Responsibility 2.1 The meaning of responsibility 2.2 The ability to take responsibility 2.3 Situational factors that influence responsibility Summary Literature 3 Normative ethics 3.1 Directions in normative ethics 3.2 Ethics for people 3.3 Ethics from people 3.4 Directions in ethics applied Summary Literature 4 A model for ethicaldecision-making 4.1 An ethical dilemma 4.2 Step 1: moral questions 4.3 Step 2: moral stakeholders 4.4 Step 3: alternatives 4.5 Step 4: an informed choice Summary Literature Part 2Business and ethics 5 A short history of ethics in business 5.1 The industrial revolution 5.2 Current trends in society 5.3 The triple bottom line Summary Literature 6 Social values 6.1 The industrial revolution and social values of workers 6.2 Rights of workers in developed countries 6.3 Challenges in developed countries 6.4 Challenges in developing countries 6.5 Corruption 6.6 Social values of consumers Summary Literature 7 Ecological values 7.1 The tragedy of the commons 7.2 Towards a circular economy Summary Literature 8 Economic values 8.1 Economic values 8.2 Profit Summary Literature 9 Accountability 9.1 Transparency and compliance 9.2 The business of business is business 9.3 Voluntary accountability 9.4 Mandatory accountability 9.5 Collective industry self-regulation Summary Literature Part 3Ethics in a globalized world 10 Cultural diversity 10.1 Culture 10.2 Cultural differences on various levels 10.3 Cultural differences and business 10.4 Cultural differences between countries Summary Literature 11 Globalization: does the system work? 11.1 Why globalization is a good thing 11.2 Why globalization is a bad thing Summary Literature Index About the author