Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk about How to Do It Right

by Linda K. Trevino, Katherine A. Nelson

The eighth edition of Managing Business Ethics shows students how the study of ethics is relevant to real-life business decisions. This highly-regarded text empowers students with the knowledge required to identify, understand, and solve ethical dilemmas while promoting ethical behavior in themselves, in their friends and colleagues, and in their organizations. Authors Linda Trevino and Katherine Nelson offer a pragmatic approach to prepare students for professional roles as managers, compliance officers, human resources managers, senior executives, and others.

Focusing on the types of problems that students will most likely encounter in their careers, this new edition includes carefully revised content that incorporates the latest research on ethics and organizational behavior. The authors integrate theory and practice to provide a balanced presentation of both classic and recent business ethics cases, examples, and approaches. Accessible and engaging chapters discuss ethics and the individual, managing ethics in an organization, the relation between organizational ethics and social responsibility, and more. Throughout the text, a diverse range of examples and case studies bring key concepts to life, while practical activities enable students to apply the concepts in their own lives and careers.

Genres: Business, School, Management

381 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 11, 2013

Reviews

[Noah Polacek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite boring. Nothing applicable in this book - it persuaded me to act unethically.

[Linh · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook, this one was quite well-written. Lots of relevant cases to business ethics today. I finished my ethics class with an A, and it was due to my success in comprehending the content in this book.

-1 star because it costs $130. JEEZUS.

[Michael L · Rating 3 out of 5]

When six authors and I recently wrote a research article on engineering ethics, we cited a chapter from this textbook on business ethics. So I decided to read the entire book. It covers both philosophical and psychological approaches to ethics for individuals, problems of ethics within organizations, corporate social responsibility, and ethics in international business, with many stories of real ethical disasters and successes: Enron, Malden Mills, etc. The latter part of the book poses challenging questions. For example, should corporations condone child labor in suppliers' factories overseas when those children contribute substantially to the income of their families? Sometimes the authors oversimplify issues. For example, they write, "A situation is said to be equitable when something is divided between two people according to the worth and inputs of the two individuals." Equity is so much more complex! Although the authors devote an entire chapter to organizational culture, when they describe ethical violations that require firing an individual ("discipline"), they do not ask whether the organizational culture promoted unethical conduct. Overall, this book provides a good overview of business ethics for undergraduate business majors.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot believe that I forgot to review this textbook after the semester was over. I had a few issues with this book, mainly the fact that it read like a actual book instead of a textbook. They left certain words undefined but then gave the definition of something ridiculous, such as drywall. That isn't a made up example, but an real one. I can't remember what some of the terms used were that I ended up googling, but "drywall' stuck with me. The chapters were long and tedious with very little breaks to give time to digest the overwhelming amount of information presented. Too many names, dates, companies and examples were given. The first test I took, I had no idea what they were gonna ask because I didn't take notes. I had trouble picking out core information and terms, so I was lost when the test started as I just tried to memorize as much of the entire chapter as possible.
I am glad that I didn't have this class during summer semester and I am quite relieved to be done with the book and the class. At least some of the other textbooks in the Business Management program covered ethics and made some of the information in this book stick, due to repetitiveness.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as the business textbook on ethics, this book is the best that I have read. It is comprehensive in scope, current in its case studies, and highly relevant to the current business environment. My 30+ years of experience in finance and accounting from multiple vantage points (practitioner, educator, consultant, and coach) likely contributed to the relatability of the content. I would have enjoyed more content on ethical frameworks and I found the heavy emphasis on the AICPA as an ethics oversight body for accountants misleading. However, beyond those two improvement opportunities, the content is useful for those who want to further their own ethical development.

[Gen Giggles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Enjoyed studying this information.