Obstacles to Ethical Decision-Making

Patricia H. Werhane is the Callista Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics and Director, Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University. She is also Professor Emeritus at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. Her previous publications include Ethical Issues in Business, 7th edition (edited with Tom Donaldson and Margaret Cording, 2001). Laura Pincus Hartman is Vincent de Paul Professor of Business Ethics at DePaul University's College of Commerce. She serves as Research Director of DePaul's Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. Her recent publications include Alleviating Poverty Through Profitable Partnerships (with Patricia H. Werhane, Scott Kelley and Dennis Moberg, 2009). Crina Archer is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University, and a Senior Research Fellow to Vincent de Paul Professor Laura Hartman, and senior scholar with the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, at DePaul University. She is the co-editor of Second Nature: Rethinking the Natural Through Politics (2013). Elaine E. Englehardt is Distinguished Professor at Utah Valley University. Specializing in practical and professional ethics, she has authored and/or edited eight books. Michael S. Pritchard is the Willard A. Brown Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University. His previous publications include Professional Integrity (2007) and The Ethical Challenges of Academic Administration (with Elaine Englehardt, Kerry Romesberg and Brian Schrag, 2010).

'The authors do a wonderful job of connecting the problem of obedience to the merging field of behavioral ethics. Their articulation highlights how common aspects about how humans make decisions lead us to be obedient when a more reflective analysis dictates action. Managers and scholars will be prompted to more courageous acts of disobedience after reading this book.' Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor, Harvard Business School

• 1. Introduction; 2. The role of mental models in social construction; 3. The Milgram studies: obedience, disobedience, and ethical challenges; 4. Obstacles to ethical decision-making in the perception of ethical context; 5. Obstacles to ethical decision-making in impact analysis and action; 6. Managing ethical obstacles; 7. Problematic mental models: some applications; 8. Conclusion; Author index; Subject index.