Halbert, Terry and Elaine Inqulli (2008) Law and Ethics in the Business Environment, South-College/West Publications, 6th edition.

Product Description: "Modern business is full of ethical dilemmas and snares. But LAW AND ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, 6e, equips you with the tools and practice you need to effectively handle the ethical issues you will likely face as a manager. Offering a unique interdisciplinary blend of theory and practical applications, LAW AND ETHICS combines up-to-the-minute issues in business ethics with the latest in case law. A refreshing change from the rote learning of many texts, LAW and ETHICS includes contemporary readings, current cases, historical quotes, chapter problems, chapter projects, and Internet-based assignments. A wealth of interactive projects--including role plays, mock trials, mock hearings, debates, roundtables, and negations--gives you hands-on experience grappling with real-life ethical dilemmas. The text also includes insightful case and end-of-chapter questions that help sharpen your critical-thinking skills. LAW AND ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, 6e, empowers you with the skills needed to make difficult ethical decisions--and ultimately become a better business leader. " (From Amazon)

Review: "What I do NOT like about the other textbooks is that they are more "red-eye" type telling about the ethical concern and not requiring critical thinking on the part of the student to determine what is "ethical and moral" in the legal context. For example, all of the other texts tend to show "employment-at-will" with the boss being able to fire the employee with or without cause as being unethical. However, in your text, you present both sides of the legal doctrine with the employer's side being presented also. This is something that the students have never even thought about. Because of the format of this Textbook, I am able to engage the students in a lot of critical thinking on subjects of legal and ethical interest to all of them. For instance, most students have never heard the other side to things like Affirmative Action. This causes the students to begin thinking not only in the classroom but in their current and future jobs. Because of this, my course in Business Ethics with your textbook is often rated one of the most interesting and most useful course students have taken in their college life. I also get calls often from former students that have run into an ethical/legal issue in their current work that we have covered. They want to refresh their knowledge of what they learned. Therefore, your current textbook is having an impact on students in real-life situations."

"I found the Instructor's Manual invaluable. The introductory tips helped me "break the ice" more effectively, and the sources and background (especially to the cases) saved me many, many hours of additional work while making me better prepared to anticipate and answer questions about the course content." (From Amazon)

Ferrel, O.C., Fraedrich, J., and Ferrell, L. (2008). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 7th edition.

"Philosophy of This Text: Business ethics in organizations requires values-based leadership from top management and purposeful actions that include planning and implementation of standards of appropriate conduct, as well as openness and continuous effort to improve the organization’s ethical performance. Although personal values are important in ethical decision making, they are just one of the components that guide the decisions, actions, and policies of organizations. The burden of ethical behavior relates to the organization’s values and traditions, not just to the individuals who make the decisions and carry them out. A firm’s ability to plan and implement ethical business standards depends in part on structuring resources and activities to achieve ethical objectives in an effective and efficient manner.

The purpose of this book is to help students improve their ability to make ethical decisions in business by providing them with a framework that they can use to identify, analyze, and resolve ethical issues in business decision making. Individual values and ethics are important in this process. By studying business ethics, students begin to understand how to cope with conflicts between their personal values and those of the organization." (From the Preface of the book, p. xvi)

There are many real-world examples and cases, as well as exercises, simulations, and practice tests in this text that provide numerous opportunities for students to master the material. It also covers the complex environment in which managers confront ethical decision making. Using a managerial framework, the authors address the overall concepts, processes, and best practices associated with successful business ethics programs–helping students see how ethics can be integrated into key strategic business decisions.

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)