QUESTIONS
1. Describe several reasons why ethics is relevant to business. Can a “good business” be an unethical business?
2. What are values? What is the difference between ethical values and other types of values? What is the difference between “value” when used as a verb, and “value” when used as a noun?
3. What is the difference between “ethics” and “ethos”?
4. How is descriptive business ethics different from normative business ethics?
5. This chapter introduced a distinction between morality, virtues, and social ethics. How would you describe each?
6. How would you answer someone who asked: “Why should I study ethics if I want to be an accountant?”
7. Other than business managers and owners, which other constituencies might have a stake in business decisions?
REFERENCE
1A persuasive case for why this shift has occurred can be found in Value Shift by Lynn Sharp Paine (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003). 2Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, James Collins and Jerry Porras (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 73. 3Ibid., p. 67. The Fortune article quoted is “How Philip Morris Diversifi ed Right,” Fortune, October 23, 1989. 4This decision-making model is adapted from a more detailed version offered in Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Integrity and Social Justice, by Laura Hartman and Joseph DesJardins (McGraw-Hill, 2nd ed., 2010).
