Beauchamp, T. L., Bowie, N. E., and Arnold, D. G. (2008). Ethical Theory and Business. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 8th edition.

Thsi book is a comprehensive anthology of readings, legal perspectives, and cases in ethics in business. Ethical Theory and Business provides students with a strong understanding of ethics in business and the tools needed to address ethical situations in business.The authors examine ethical theory and business practice, the purpose of the corporation, corporate character and individual responsibility, acceptable risk, the ethical treatment of employees, diversity and discrimination in the workplace, marketing and disclosure of information, ethical issues in information technology and, ethical issues in international business. For those interested in examining the ethical challenges we face today.

Here is an excerpt from the first chapter of the book:

“Can large business organizations be just? Should the chief obligation of business be to look out for the bottom line? Is non-voluntary employee drug testing immoral? How far should business go to protect and preserve the environment? These are some of the many questions that permeate discussions of the role of ethics in business.

The essays and cases in this book provide an opportunity to discuss these questions by reading and reflecting on influential arguments that have been made on these subjects. […]” (p. 1)

Milton Friedman’s famous article “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” is included in this text and here is an excerpt from that article:

“When I hear businessmen speak eloquently about the “social responsibilities of business in a free-enterprise system,” I am reminded of the wonderful line about the Frenchman who discovered at the age of 70 that he had been speaking prose all his life. The businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they declaim that business is not concerned “merely” with profit but also with promoting desirable “social” ends; that business has a “social conscience” and takes seriously its responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution and whatever else may be the catchwords of the contemporary crop of reformers. In fact they are—or would be if they or anyone else took them seriously— preaching pure and unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades. […]” (pp. 50-51)

DesJardins, Joseph R. (2008) An Introduction to Business Ethics. McGraw-Hill, 3rd edition.

“Why Study Business Ethics? Why should anyone study business ethics? As recently as the mid-1990s, articles in such major publications as the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and U.S. News and World Report questioned the legitimacy and value of teaching classes in business ethics. Few disciplines faced the amount of skepticism that commonly confronted courses in business ethics. Many students believed that, like “jumbo shrimp,” business ethics was an oxymoron. Many also viewed ethics as a mixture of sentimentality and personal opinion that would interfere with the efficient functioning of business. After all, who’s to say what’s right or wrong?

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, this skeptical attitude was as common among business practitioners as it was among students. But this simply is no longer the case in contemporary business. The questions today are less about why or should ethics be a part of business, than about which ethics should guide business decisions and how can ethics be integrated within business. Students unfamiliar with ethical issues will find themselves as unprepared for careers in business as students who are unfamiliar with accounting and finance. Indeed, it is fair to say that students will not be fully prepared even within fields such as accounting, finance, human resource management, marketing, and manage­ment unless they are familiar with the ethical issues that arise specifically within those fields. You simply will not be prepared for a career in accounting, finance, or any area of business if you are unfamiliar with the ethical issues of these fields.

Why has this change come about? To answer this question, consider who was harmed by the collapse of Enron. Stockholders lost over a billion dollars in stock value. Thousands of employees lost their jobs, their retirement funds, and their health care benefits. Consumers in California suffered from energy shortages and blackouts that were caused by Enron’s manipulation of the market. Hundreds of businesses that worked with Enron as suppliers suffered economic loss with the loss of a large client. Enron’s accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, went out of business as a direct result. The wider Houston community was also hurt by the loss of a major employer and community benefactor. Families of employees, investors, and suppliers were also hurt. Many of the individuals directly involved will themselves suffer criminal and civil punishment, including jail sentences for some. Indeed, it is hard to imagine anyone who was even loosely affiliated with Enron who did not suffer harm as a result of the ethical failings at Enron. Multiply this harm by the dozens of other companies implicated in similar scandals and one gets an idea of why ethics is no longer dismissed as irrelevant. The consequences of unethical behavior and unethical business institutions are too serious to be ignored.

Today, business managers have many reasons to be concerned with the ethical standards of their organizations. Perhaps the most straightforward rea­son is that the law requires it. In 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes­Oxley Act to address the wave of corporate and accounting scandals. […]” (From the first chapter of the book, p. 3)

Carrol, Archie B and Buchholtz, Ann K. (2008). Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management. South-Western College Publications, 7th edition.

Book Description: Introduce your students to important and diverse stakeholder management and ethical frameworks for considering and protecting critical stakeholder interests with the latest edition of BUSINESS AND SOCIETY. Students learn how responsible business decision makers balance and protect the interests of various stakeholders, including investors, employees, the community, and the environment. Proven content within the book emphasizes the social, legal, political, and ethical responsibilities of a business to all external and internal groups that have a stake, or interest, in that business. 

Strong coverage of ethics and the stakeholder model is balanced with new discussion on corporate governance and other current, relevant issues shaping business today. A variety of quality business cases, Ethics in Practice cases, and other real-world applications provide abundant opportunities to apply stakeholder and ethical systems to specific business problems. Practical applications prepare future managers for business situations that will test their values and ethics in the workplace. Students learn to focus their reasoning and enhance the precision with which they consider and make ethical decisions. A strengthened, comprehensive package accompanying this edition provides a refined Test Bank now correlated to AACSB standards and a wealth of resources to help provide the solid understanding of both individual organizational and society topics that your students need for business success.

Shaw, William H. (2007). Business Ethics. Wadsworth Publishing, 6th edition.

Book Description: Combining engaging discussions and stimulating case studies, BUSINESS ETHICS brings you a comprehensive survey of business ethics that will guide you toward becoming an ethical professional-even if you've never studied philosophy before. Rich with real-world examples and introductions, the text introduces you to important philosophical concepts and principles via a range of perspectives that will help you begin to grapple with the compelling theoretical and practical issues of the evolving commercial landscape. In addition, this edition of the text features an updated two-color design and new pedagogical features.

About the Author: The author and editor of numerous books in the areas of ethics and social and political philosophy, William H. Shaw obtained a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from the London School of Economics and currently teaches at San Jose State University. He was selected by SJSU's President Robert Caret as the 1998-99 President's scholar and is the author of several other successful books with Wadsworth.