Following the remarkable growth of interest in the ethical dimesion of economic affairs, the contributors provide evaluations of work in business ethics and examine the place of ethics in the economics of the future.
There has been a remarkable growth of interest in the ethical dimension of economic affairs. Whilst the interest in business ethics has been long-standing, it has been given renewed emphasis by high profile scandals in the world of business and finance. At the same time many economists, dissatisfied with the discipline's emphasis on self-interest and individualism, and by the asocial nature of much economic theory, have sought to enlarge the scope of economics by looking at ethical questions. In this volume a group of interdisciplinary scholars provide contributions which include evaluations of work in business ethics, empirical studies of such issues as social and ethical investing, the place of ethics in the new economics and perspectives from other disciplines.
The Role of Business Ethics in Economic Performance is a major edited collection of papers on why and how the conduct of business behaviour effects its commercial success. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to the issues looking at the lessons from economic theory, the institutional setting and the supply and demand side conditions which are forcing firms to take ethics seriously. Lord Eatwell considers the ethical foundations of the market economy. Mark Casson analyses the economic importance of leaders, while Simon Deakin and Frank Wilkinson empirically examine the role of contractual obligation in the UK. Adrian Cadbury and Norman Barry examine voluntary institutions and government's importance in setting ethics. Maurie Cohen and Russell Sparkes look at the ethical consumers and ethical investors increasing influence on business conduct. Finally Clive Wright and Neil Hood examine the internal organisation of national and transnational firms which increasingly build an ethical dimension into their corporate decision making.
This timely book offers a nuanced critique of the nudge narrative, and demonstrates why and how ethical behaviour can have significant positive economic and wellbeing outcomes. Morris Altman models a complex alternative to the expectations of ethical behaviour and shows how this behaviour can be consistent with competitive market economies, contrary to what conventional economic theory suggests.
There is a revival of interest by economists in ethical issues and beliefs, and by moral philosophers and theologians in economics. This book is intended to make a contribution to this cross-fertilisation of ideas. Rodney Wilson has undertaken an extensive survey of Jewish, Christian and Muslim views on economics, and reviewed the rapidly expanding business ethics literature from a religious perspective. The juxtaposition of the work of theologians and moral philosophers with that of economists results in some interesting comparisons.
Annotation Modern happiness research has produced a wealth of evidence on the relationship between economic conditions and life satisfaction. This book provides an interpretation of this evidence and shows that it can be understood with the help of a handful of psychological and economic effects.
The Ethics of the Market makes a distinctive contribution to the literature on the morality of the market by synthesizing the work of a number of liberal scholars into a systematic defence of the free market on ethical grounds. This defence addresses questions of social justice, the moral pre-requisites of a market economy, the nature of the needs that the market satisfies and the appropriate boundaries that should be placed around the operation of the market.
This book reconstructs major paradigms in the history of economic ethics up to, and including, the present day. Asserting that ethics should be integral rather than marginal to economics and management education, Reframing Economic Ethics highlights the need for a paradigm change from mechanistic to humanistic management, and argues that the failures of markets and managers in recent years were paved by a misguided management education. The author shows how the reader can and must learn from the history of economic thinking in order to overcome the theoretical shortcomings and the practical failings of the present system.
The title provides an overview of the key structural issues at the interface of ethics and economics and collection will be welcomed by all those with an interest in economics and philosophy.
Suppose an accountant discovers evidence of shady practices while ex amining the books of a client. What should he or she do? Accountants have a professional obligation to respect the confidentiality of their cli ents' accounts. But, as an ordinary citizen, our accountant may feel that the authorities ought to be informed. Suppose a physician discov ers that a patient, a bus driver, has a weak heart. If the patient contin ues bus driving even after being informed of the heart condition, should the physician inform the driver's company? Respect for patient confidentiality would say, no. But what if the driver should suffer a heart attack while on duty, causing an accident in which people are killed or seriously injured? Would the doctor bear some responsibility for these consequences? Special obligations, such as those of confidentiality, apply to any one in business or the professions. These obligations articulate, at least in part, what it is for someone to be, say, an accountant or a physician. Since these obligations are special, they raise a real possibility of con flict with the moral principles we usually accept outside of these spe cial relationships in business and the professions. These conflicts may become more accentuated for a professional who is also a corporate employee-a corporate attorney, an engineer working for a construction company, a nurse working as an employee of a hospital.
