Above the Bottom Line: An Introduction to Business Ethics - Hardcover

Solomon, Robert C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0155003909 ISBN 13: 9780155003903

Publisher: Harcourt College Pub, 1983

Synopsis

ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE focuses on the issues of the individual in the business environment, rather than focusing on large-scale, ethical decision making. Business is defended as a necessary and valuable component of contemporary life, a range of entrepreneurial ventures that should be approached in a principled, thoughtful, and honest manner. Looking at the importance of corporate culture, students are given direction in making personal and professional decisions at work, relating these to the concepts of social responsibility, employer and employee rights, whistle-blowing, corporate governance, bankruptcy, and many other timely business issues. This text explores moral choices within the business environment, and considers current business policy issues. It is also a guide on how to think about business and a life in business, using vignettes from history and bits of literature and anthropology to broaden the students' outlook on commercial endeavors.

About this title

About the Author

Robert C. Solomon (1942-2007) was internationally renowned as a teacher and lecturer in philosophy. He was Quincy Lee Centennial Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and over the course of his career taught at numerous institutions, including Princeton University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Auckland, and the University of California, in addition to the University of Texas. He authored more than 40 books, including INTRODUCING PHILOSOPHY, A SHORT HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, THE PASSIONS, IN THE SPIRIT OF HEGEL, ABOUT LOVE, ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE, Fourth Edition (with Clancy Martin), ETHICS AND EXCELLENCE, THE JOY OF PHILOSOPHY, and TRUE TO OUR FEELINGS, and he was co-editor of TWENTY QUESTIONS, Fifth Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels), and SINCE SOCRATES (with Clancy Martin).

Clancy Martin has published textbooks and articles on business ethics, normative ethics, and 19th century European philosophy. In 2003 he co-authored, also with Robert Solomon, the third edition of ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE. He is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and has taught at Southwestern University, St. Edward's University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Review

Introduction: Business Ethics as Personal and Professional Integrity. 1. Business, Ethics, and the Good Life. 2. Business Life, Law, and Ethics. 3. Conflicts of Interest and the Meaning of Morality. 4. Corporations and Cultures. 5. Rules, Roles, and Responsibilities. 6. Competition, Games, and Decisions. 7. Rationality, Ends and Means, Co-Operation, and Co-Ordination. 8. "It's Not My Problem:" The Concept of Responsibility. 9. Social Responsibility and the Stakeholder. 10. Free Enterprise and Social Justice. 11. Human Rights and International Business. 12. Freedom and Power: Privacy and Pressures in the Workplace. 13. The Meaning of Work. 14. The Personal Side of Business: Friendship, Family, Sex, and Marriage. Conclusion: Doing Good and Doing Well.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt College Pub
• Publication date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0155003909
• ISBN 13: 9780155003903
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 441