by Max H. Bazerman & Ann E. Tenbrunsel
Princeton University Press, $24.95, 191 pages
Ethics are a slippery concept to master. It is one that we demand not only from ourselves, but also from companies, scientists, and other people. It is something we all strive for, though many of us fail to reach the goal of behaving ethically. Many of us think we are behaving ethically, but in reality we are not. In this book the authors take a different track, they examine why we fail. Why we have these ethical blind spots, and what we can do about them. They focus their examples on the business world, since many of the high profile examples come from the failed business of Enron and others. They then examine the different ways we can compromise our ethics, from group think to rational thought processes. They look through the lens of behavioral ethics, trying to get at the core of the problem. This is a well thought out book, with many good qualities. This is a must read for those who want to understand ethics issues in business. Only problem I found is that the pacing is a bit of a problem.
Kevin Winter