W. Michael Hoffman - Böcker

This volume represents discussion and comments from a conference of academics, corporate executives, and federal officials examining the ethics of mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers. Topics addressed are timely considering the massive restructuring occurring in corporate America as well as the trend to more fully integrate ethics into business school curriculums. . . . This book provides a thought-provoking and wide-ranging survey of the issue of ethics in US business. Highly recommended. Choice This book seeks to relate ethical and philosophical considerations to the pragmatic concerns of business operation. Its audience is corporate executives and financial planners involved in mergers and takeovers. Business Information AlertIn the wake of major insider trading scandals on Wall Street and serious debates over the benefits of corporate mergers and takeovers, ethics in business has become a topic of paramount importance--both in the corporate world itself and in the business school community. This volume presents a discussion by a distinguished group of corporate executives and academic specialists of the ethical issues involved in mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers. The result of a major conference sponsored by the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College, the book seeks to relate ethical and philosophical considerations to the pragmatic concerns of business operation. In their provocative exploration of the issues involved, the contributors address such subjects as employee interests, stakeholder welfare, managerial ethics, the problem of insider trading, and more.Divided into five major sections, the volume begins with several chapters that offer an overview of ethical and moral issues in organizational transformations. The second section presents corporate, labor, and government views of the issues involved and includes chapters by Edward L. Hennessy, Jr. of Allied-Signal; Daniel W. Sherrick of the UAW; and David T. Scheffman of the Federal Trade Commission among others. In the following chapters, the contributors address ethical aspects of the strategies and tactics used to effect mergers and takeovers, paying particular attention to their impact on management and employee interests. Section Four presents some alternative approaches to corporate restructuring, while the final section includes actual case studies of the relationship between ethical issues and practical bottomline business concerns. Must reading for corporate executives and financial experts involved in the business of mergers and takeovers, this book is also an ideal supplemental text for graduate courses in business ethics.

Business, Ethics and the Environment explores the public policy debate surrounding the issue of business and its role in environmental matters. Unlike other discussions on this subject, the major focus here is not the monetary cost/benefit of environmental protection, but instead, the ethical obligations businesses may have for protecting the environment. A variety of questions are addressed by the contributors, including: Are businesses obligated to protect the environment? Should private enterprises take an active and leading role in solving a national problem? Should the solution be entirely a matter of public policy, involving business only to the extent that businesses are bound by law?The work begins with a brief foreword by W. Michael Hoffman and an introduction by Robert Fredrick that outlines a framework for the debate and the major questions it entails. The essays are grouped in three separate sections, covering business and government interaction, public attitudes and involvement in environmental issues, and environmental problems and solutions. The first of these sections addresses a variety of topics and case studies, including hazardous waste management, low-level radioactive waste facilities, lessons from CPC regulation, and a Massachusetts solid waste dispute. The second section features a range of issues involving the public, such as the world-wide response to the environmental crisis, customers as environmentalists, and community-corporate conflict and the new environmentalism. Finally, the third section highlights such problems as the dolphin-tuna controversy, the use of animals by business, and international toxic waste trade. The work concludes with a comprehensive index. As a companion to The Corporation, Ethics, and the Environment, this volume of essays will be an important resource for courses in business, public policy, and environmental issues, as well as a useful addition to business, academic, and public libraries.

For the past few years, a growing chorus of concern has been raised over the way humanity is mistreating the earth and its environment. Animosity has traditionally existed between environmental advocates and those they perceive as the enemy--the business community--as evidenced by a recent survey that showed that 75 percent of Americans believe business has a definite responsibility to reduce pollution. But business has also not always been recognized for what it has done for the environment. This volume seeks to address those issues, as well as the extent of the corporate world's ethical responsibility for cleaning up the environment.The book focuses on the role of corporations and businesses in protecting the environment, utilizing studies of previous cases and crises as well as strategies and methods for future corporate conduct. The work begins with a foreword by Gregory H. Adamian, an introduction by Robert Frederick, and collected essays in four main subject groups. The first section provides an overview of the topic of business, ethics, and the environment, treating such issues as the ethical dilemmas of hazardous waste, the corporate commitment to the environment, and the corporation's environmental conscience. Section two presents a series of cases and analyses, including the Exxon Valdez crisis and the Union Carbide Bhopal gas incident, while section three probes corporate strategies such as the development and implementation of industry-wide codes of practice. Finally, section four looks to the future of and new approaches to business and environmental problems, considering the need to move environmental issues into the business school and to retool cultures for an ecologically sound future. As a companion to Business, Ethics, and the Environment this volume is an important resource for courses in business, public policy, and environmental issues, as well as a useful addition to business, academic, and public libraries.

Hoffman explores worldwide developments in the field of business ethics. The book is unique in that it not only discusses ethical issues faced by transnational corporations, but it also addresses the possibilities for international cooperation after the cold war, as well as regional business ethics issues from around the world. Included in the volume are discussions of business ethics in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Pacific Rim, and North and South America. A variety of issues and cases are contained in the volume including: the BCCI scandal, the IBM-Fujitsu case, intellectual property rights, transnational codes of ethics and theoretical and empirical studies about the moral responsibilities of transnationals, ethics and international law, ethics and development, and business ethics and cultural differences.The work begins with a brief introduction that summarizes major themes contained in the book. The essays are collected in five sections. Section one contains cases and issues that are unique to regions and nations worldwide. Section two focuses on cases involving ethics and international law. These first two sections include a number of regional studies including ones from Brazil, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Hong Kong, and case studies including the BCCI scandal and the IBM-Fujitsu case. Section three features analyses of ethical issues faced by transnational corporations, for example, their relationship to host nations, their social responsibilities, and ethics programs within transnationals. Section four contains a summary and a debate about the development of transnational codes of business conduct including a discussion of efforts being sponsored by the United Nations. Finally, section five looks into the ethical problems that arise during economic development. Included here are contributions that raise questions about ethics and emerging financial markets, land-use, and the role of multinational corporations. This volume of essays will be an important resource for courses in business ethics, and international law, as well as a useful addition to business, academic, and public libraries.

Edited and revised specifically for this volume, here are the best papers from the Tenth National Conference on Business Ethics, sponsored by Bentley College's Center for Business Ethics. Throughout, the contributors emphasize the ethical dimensions of problems and issues that confront the financial services and accounting industries, issues that are also of critical importance to business generally. Included among the contributors are members of the academic community, lawyers, government officials, and financial services and accounting professionals, each with his or her own special perspective, but all focused on the central theme: the importance of ethics and its proper role in the way financial services and accounting are done. Throughtful, challenging reading, not only for academics but for finance and accounting professionals as well.Part I examines the ethics of the fiduciary relationship between principals and agents, defining the nature of trust and helping readers understand the fiduciary responsibility and conflicts of interest characteristic to the industry. In Part II, the contributors look at specific issues in ethics and financial disclosure, with particular focus on nonprofit healthcare organizations, financial derivatives, and confidentiality in a professional context as representative cases. More cases are presented in Part III, examining a variety of situations and events, such as the BCCI affair and the failure of banks. Part IV offers lessons from the past and a look toward the future, with such topics as the ethics of financial derivatives in the history of economic thought and the development of moral reasoning and professional judgment of auditors in public practice.