Scarcely a day goes by without revelations of an organizational scandal in business, government, or other institutions. We are all constantly faced with ethical decisions, and the choices we make determine success or failure in our careers. Craig Johnson shows how we can develop our ethical expertise, just as we develop our abilities to manage or oversee operations. Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach, Second Edition provides opportunities for readers to practice problem-solving and to defend their decisions. This book is a significant revision of the author’s earlier book Ethics in the Workplace: Tools and Tactics for Organizational Transformation . It retains the practical focus of the first edition but now addresses organizational ethics in both work and volunteer organizations.
This book was used as a textbook for a class recently took. In all the classes I have taken, this has been the worst book I have ever experienced. The book doesn't sufficiently discuss ethical theory, and copies concepts from other academic disciplines. It is not intellectually stimulating and the author seems to be out of touch with complexities of modern organizations. The author makes bold statements with no academic references. Here is an example regarding downsizing: "significant numbers of people undergo suffering as profits and nonprofits alike participate in “cycles of destruction” involving restructuring and downsizing. Others are victimized when they lose out on promotions and pay raises." Organization do not restructure or downsize for no reason. The author does not discuss the reasons for restructuring and downsizing such as globalization and automation. Statements such as this are made throughout the book, without discussing the complexities of the modern world.
Here is a solid read that generally explores ethical concepts in business--pretty good, and a great number of case studies are presented. This would be a great addition for classroom discussion, especially at the upper collegiate level.
A pretty good ethics textbook that focuses on ethics in a way that is not too abstract or theoretical to be useful. I appreciated that. Much better than some other ethics material I have read.