Business Ethics

J.S. Nelson is a professor of law and an expert legal advisor. She holds the first tenure-track appointment in a U.S. law school specifically to teach business ethics and develop law-school curricula around the subject. She teaches at Villanova University's Charles Widger School of Law, has a courtesy appointment at Villanova's Business School, and is a senior fellow at the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She has received numerous awards from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, and she publishes in top law reviews and peer-reviewed journals.Lynn A. Stout was an American corporate law scholar, and a Distinguished Professor of Corporate & Business Law at Cornell Law School. She researched and wrote about corporate law, securities and derivatives regulation, law and economics, business ethics, and prosocial behavior in relation to the law. Her other books include Cultivating Conscience: How Good Laws Make Good People (2011); The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Corporations First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public (2012); and Citizen Capitalism: How A Universal Fund Can Provide Influence and Income to All (published posthumously in 2019). She died in 2018, with this book in progress.

Nelson and Stout have written a readable and eminently usable book that answers the questions that real business people—whether they are organizational leaders or middle managers or entry employees—wonder and even worry about. What's more, their answers are informed and supported by research but presented in a directly applicable manner. Most importantly, their responses are in themselves 'tools' and 'scripts' for those of us who want to behave in accordance with our best values. And the research presented here clarifies that this is most of us.

• Chapter 1: An Overview of Business EthicsChapter 2: The Benefts of Acting EthicallyChapter 3: Moral Philosophical Bases for Business EthicsChapter 4: What Does Science Tell Us About Ethical Behavior?Chapter 5: Legal Foundations for Business EthicsChapter 6: Understanding Corporations, LLCs, and Other Legal "Persons"Chapter 7: The Corporation as an Ethical "Person" in Modern SocietyChapter 8: The Costs of Acting EthicallyChapter 9: Major Ethical Traps in Modern BusinessChapter 10: NegotiationsChapter 11: Specific Liability Questions and Whistleblowing OptionsChapter 12: Special Issues of Ethics in LeadershipChapter 13: How to Institute Best PracticesChapter 14: How to Respond to Investigations and Protect Your ReputationChapter 15: Additional Resources and People You Can Reach Out ToNotesReferencesIndex