Improving Business Ethics: The President's Lonely Task
John I. Reynolds is a Professor of Management and Business Analysis and Research at Texas A&M University. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Princeton, an M.B.A. from Harvard and a D.B.A. from Harvard. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Review, Business Horizons, Logistics Spectrum and Business Logistics. There has never been a shortage of calls for the ethical improvement of business decisions. Few couch the issue, in the apocalyptic terms of Robert L. Heilbroner, as a &dquo;long-run challenge to a business civilization,&dquo;’ but no one who has thought deeply about the problem treats it lightly. Some think of it as a need for &dquo;social responsibility&dquo; in business; others are more concerned with &dquo;morality&dquo; or &dquo;justice&dquo; in an absolute sense. Few people, in or out of the ranks of management, are completely satisfied with the status quo. But there is a great deal of controversy over how to effect the needed changes. .
The Prospect of Ethical Advisors for Business Corporations
John F. Steiner is Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Department of Management, California State University, Los Angeles. He holds the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from the University of Arizona. His work has appeared in Casebook in Business and Society, Instructor’s Manual for Business and Society, Los Angeles Business and Economics, Los Angeles Times, Arizona Star and a number of other places. JOHN F. STEINER
Elementary Conditions of Business Morals
This subject has been selected as consonant with the purpose of the founder of the Barbara Weinstock Endowment.' Although "Business Morals" is somewhat broader than "The Morals of Trade," the phrase he used includes the latter. Please note also that I am not talking about "Principles of Business Morals" but "Elementary Conditions" and that the emphasis is empirical rather than theoretical or philosophical. What follows is not an essay in sociology, social psychology, or the philosophy of ethics, nor is it a theological discussion of virtue and sin in or of business organizations. What follows is the result of reflection upon long personal experience in a wide variety of organizations-business, governmental, and philanthropic-with extensive opportunity for observation, although of course I have benefited from the views of many others expressed