European Business Ethics Cases In Context

Business ethics as a discipline leans on cases but flourishes by thorough analysis and reflection. The present volume offers both. After three introductory chapters into business ethics eight recent European cases, mainly stemming from The Netherlands and Belgium and all of them with a clear moral impact, are extensively described and analysed. Among them are the Lernout and Hauspie speech technology disaster, Heineken’s struggle with the promotion girls selling beer in Cambodia, cartels in the Dutch construction industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the Aids crisis, and Unilever allegedly making use of child labour in the cotton industry in India. Each case is followed by two expert comments, from the fields of general ethics, but also of law, economics, management and organisation theory, sociology and social psychology. Cases and comments together offer an unique entrance in varieties of moral reasoning and in the personal and institutional dimensions to be taken into account when facing a corporate case saturated with moral ambiguities. This book will be of interest to researchers as well as teachers of undergraduate and graduate courses in Business Ethics, Business in Society, Management and Organisation Theory and Strategic Management. It will also be useful for business practitioners eager to find moral guidance in their specific field.

Business cases are at the heart of business ethics as a discipline. Analysis and reflection on the morality of business often is triggered by concrete cases. After four introductory chapters into recent developments within business ethics and the value of case analysis, the present volume offers extensive description of eight recent European cases, mainly stemming from The Netherlands and Belgium and all of them with a clear moral impact. Among them are the Lernout and Hauspie speech technology disaster, Heineken struggle with the promotion girls selling beer in Cambodia, cartels in the Dutch construction industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the Aids crisis, and Unilever allegedly making use of child labour in the cotton industry in India. The book will be of interest to researchers as well as teachers of undergraduate and graduate courses in Business Ethics, Business in Society, Management and Organisation Theory and Strategic Management. It will also be useful for business practitioners eager to learn about business ethics by means of cases.

The new business opportunities and prospects emerging in Europe within the Common Market and other Western and European countries also raise important ethical challenges. This work comprises a collection of ethical insights to enhance the conduct of business in an evolving Europe.

"This book concentrates on some leading questions in business ethics research in the last two decades and tries to find explanations concerning cultural issues. It focuses on the alignment or congruence between business ethics and cultural contexts with a special emphasis on Eastern European countries. The core of this book is doing business in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to throw light on the cultural issues related to business ethics. Its primary purpose is a finer view of the impact of national, organizational and professional cultures in business ethics. The general questions encountered in this book are related to the nexus between culture and ethics in (CEE), national, organizational and professional cultures' link to (CEE) countries' ethics. The aim of this book is a deeper understanding of the cultural differences in Central and Eastern Europe. This might help organizations provide better opportunities for doing business across a wide cultural spectrum. With the increase of global mobility, cultural and ethical issues become more and more important. Multi-national corporations might garner a competitive advantage when they understand the importance of local culture and ethics. International business professionals may benefit from a deeper understanding of cultural values that affect the perceptions of individuals during negotiation and decision-making across cultures. Multinational companies that do not take into consideration or minimize the importance of cultural and ethical issues expose themselves to a higher risk of failure. The expectation of the authors of this book is that the conclusions would help alert international business scholars and practitioners of the need to thoroughly understand the cultural issues influencing ethics"--

This book describes how the ethical conduct of business has become a topic of major interest in the USA and a subject for serious study in American universities and business schools. In Europe, including Great Britain, public concern is increasing about the moral aspects of business behaviour. Professor Mahoney shows how this growing concern is reflected in the programmes of business studies offered by various European universities and business schools. The results of a survey point to future developments in this area.

This volume explores consultancy at many levels, in different fields and in different countries, including Eastern Europe. The focus is on the ethics of consultants in government, private enterprises, or those who are lobbying large organizations, with an emphasis on Eastern Europe. This book gives readers an insight into just how difficult it can be to behave `properly' in today's consulting world.

A follow-up to Key Issues in Business Ethics, this book looks at the practical issues involved in business ethics and shows, using case material, how European firms are dealing with the problems of profit versus the environment, excess greed in the financial sector and public service versus profit in the public sector. It also addresses national concepts of ethical behaviour.

The fourth edition of this book introduces business ethics concepts, tools and theories, then applies them to key stakeholder groups. It takes a global approach in a market dominated by US texts. The accessible style and thorough pedagogy ensure the book is both student- and teacher-friendly.

Georges Enderle Before presenting some introductory remarks on the topic of this volume I should like to outline briefly the context from which this selection of articles originates. (It seems to me necessary to emphasise these circumstances in order to make clearer the contours of what is said and what is not said and to understand it better. ) This context involves, flrstly, a general evaluation of the state of the business ethics debate today and, secondly, considerations of the question of what attitude and strategy should be chosen in order to promote business ethics most effectively. On the present state of affairs of the business ethics debate Today, it is extremely difflcult, if not impossible, to gain even a rough overview of the business ethics debate in the different countries of Europe and North America. Many activities take place in informal circles and on a local and regional level; linguistic and other barriers impede the spread of information about them and, often, they are not even labelled "business ethics". At the same time, so many other things sail under the flag of "business ethics" that one sometimes wonders if it should not be replaced by another flag, for instance new methods of public-relations or better motivation of company's employees. Yet, in spite of these difflculties in deflning business ethics activities, one statement at least can be made with certainty.