Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, 8th edition

Published by Pearson (July 27, 2017) © 2018
Manuel G. Velasquez

Title overview

Dynamic content designed for the way today's students read, think, and learn brings concepts to life
  • Integrated within the narrative, interactives empower students to engage with concepts and take an active role in learning. Revel's unique presentation of media as an intrinsic part of course content brings the hallmark features of Pearson's bestselling titles to life. Revel's media interactives have been designed to be completed quickly, so students stay focused and on task.
  • End-of-chapter quizzing affords students opportunities to check their understanding before moving on.
  • The Revel mobile app lets students read, practice, and study — anywhere, anytime, on any device. Content is available both online and offline, and the app syncs work across all registered devices automatically, giving students great flexibility to toggle between phone, tablet, and laptop as they move through their day. The app also lets students set assignment notifications to stay on top of all due dates.
  • Revel’s writing functionality enables educators to introduce writing — among the best ways to foster and assess critical thinking — into the course without significantly impacting their grading burden. Self-paced Journaling Prompts throughout the narrative encourage students to express their thoughts without breaking stride in their reading. Assignable Shared Writing Activities direct students to share written responses with classmates, fostering peer discussion.
  • Highlighting, note taking, and a glossary let students read and study however they like. Educators can add notes for students, too, including reminders or study tips.

The author focuses on resolving moral issues in business
  • The text provides a critical discussion of four kinds of moral principles: 1) utilitarian principles; 2) principles based on moral rights; 3) principles of justice; and 4) principles of an ethic of care.
  • Employing a practical orientation, the author applies ethical theory to specific moral issues such as the ethics of markets and prices, environmental and consumer issues, and employee issues.
  • The text emphasizes the strategic importance of ethics to securing a competitive advantage in business. The author argues that ethical behavior can give a company significant competitive advantages over another company that is unethical.

The text includes tools to improve students’ critical thinking
  • Summaries of the basic ideas discussed within each section of the text are found in the margins, helping students learn to identify the core issues.
  • The author presents conceptual matters first in standardized chapters, and then offers discussion cases second in order to prompt students to critically think about the material.

Engaging strategies and content foster student interest
  • Pedagogical tools ensure students’ complete understanding of the material. These include study questions at the beginning of each chapter, definitions of key terms in the margins, a glossary, and chapter-end study and discussion questions.
  • Chapter-opening concrete examples or cases highlight concepts to be discussed.
  • End-of-chapter web resources direct students to additional information to improve their ability to reason about moral matters.
  • UPDATED! Significant content changes in each chapter keep all material current and relevant. Highlights of revised and updated content include the following:
    • Chapter 1 features a new “On the Edge” short case entitled “Blowing the Whistle on J.C. Penney’s Fake Sales”. An older case entitled “WorldCom’s Whistleblower” has been removed. The end-of-chapter cases on “Slavery in the Chocolate Industry” and “”Aaron Beam and the HealthSouth Fraud” have both been updated.
    • In Chapter 3, the statistics related to inequality in the discussion of Locke have been updated, and the discussion of Marx has been revised.
    • Chapter 6’s introduction has been revised. A new “On the Edge” case on Mr. Trump’s university has been added, the case on selling personalized genetics direct to consumers has been updated and slightly expanded, and the case entitled “Selling Death to Kids?” has been expanded to include a short discussion of e-cigarettes. A new end-of-chapter case entitled “Promoting Infant Formula in the 21st Century” has been added and the case “Becton Dickinson and Needle Sticks” has been removed.

Superior assignability and tracking tools help educators make sure students are completing their reading and understanding core concepts
  • Revel’s assignment calendar allows educators to indicate precisely which readings must be completed on which dates. This clear, detailed schedule helps students stay on task by eliminating any ambiguity as to which material will be covered during each class. When they understand exactly what is expected of them, students are better motivated to keep up.
  • Revel’s performance dashboard empowers educators to monitor class assignment completion as well as individual student achievement. Actionable information, such as points earned on quizzes and tests and time on task, helps educators intersect with their students in meaningful ways. For example, the trending column reveals whether students' grades are improving or declining, helping educators to identify students who might need help to stay on track.
  • Revel’s Blackboard Learn™ integration provides institutions, instructors, and students easy access to their Revel courses. With single sign-on, students can be ready to access Revel’s interactive blend of authors' narrative, media, and assessment on their first day. Flexible, on-demand grade synchronization capabilities allow educators to control exactly which Revel grades should be transferred to the Blackboard Gradebook.
Dynamic content designed for the way today's students read, think, and learn brings concepts to life
  • Integrated within the narrative, interactives empower students to engage with concepts and take an active role in learning. Revel's unique presentation of media as an intrinsic part of course content brings the hallmark features of Pearson's bestselling titles to life. Revel's media interactives have been designed to be completed quickly, so students stay focused and on task.
  • End-of-chapter quizzing affords students opportunities to check their understanding before moving on.
  • The Revel mobile app lets students read, practice, and study — anywhere, anytime, on any device. Content is available both online and offline, and the app syncs work across all registered devices automatically, giving students great flexibility to toggle between phone, tablet, and laptop as they move through their day. The app also lets students set assignment notifications to stay on top of all due dates.
  • Revel’s writing functionality enables educators to introduce writing — among the best ways to foster and assess critical thinking — into the course without significantly impacting their grading burden. Self-paced Journaling Prompts throughout the narrative encourage students to express their thoughts without breaking stride in their reading. Assignable Shared Writing Activities direct students to share written responses with classmates, fostering peer discussion.
  • Highlighting, note taking, and a glossary let students read and study however they like. Educators can add notes for students, too, including reminders or study tips.

Thoroughly revised content ensures an up-to-date learning experience
  • Chapter 1:
    • Includes a new “On the Edge” short case entitled “Blowing the Whistle on J.C. Penney’s Fake Sales”; an older case entitled “WorldCom’s Whistleblower” has been removed. 
    • The end-of-chapter cases on “Slavery in the Chocolate Industry” and “”Aaron Beam and the HealthSouth Fraud” have both been updated.
  • Chapter 2:
    • Introduction is completely revised; discussion of business responses to the South African apartheid regime has been removed and replaced with a discussion of Unocal’s activities in Burma under a military regime. 
    • Several small but important revisions have been made to the discussion of Ford and its decision to produce and market the Pinto.
    • The discussion of utilitarianism has been revised at several points to emphasize that utilitarianism requires comparing the benefits and costs of every available courses of action. 
    • The introduction to the section on justice and fairness now opens with a discussion of wages in the fast food industry instead of the discussion of brown lung disease that was in the previous edition.
    • The introduction to the section on virtue ethics now opens with a discussion of Joe Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest Communications,replacing discussion of Ivan F. Boesky.
    • The end-of-chapter case on Unocal in Burma has been removed and replaced with a new case on testing drugs in the developing world.
  • Chapter 3: The statistics related to inequality in the discussion of Locke have been updated, and the discussion of Marx has been revised.
  • Chapter 4: Includes a revised introduction, and the tables in the chapter have been updated. In addition, the discussion of oligopoly markets has been revised.
  • Chapter 5:
    • The introduction has been revised, and the graphs, statistics, and other data in the section discussing the dimensions of pollution and resource depletion have all been updated.
    • Discussion of nuclear wastes has been revised to include a comparison of the human costs of nuclear power plants with the human costs of fossil fuel-based power plants.
    • Discussion of the depletion of oil reserves has been updated to take into account the development of new technologies such as “fracking.” 
    • The “On the Edge” case on Ford’s toxic wastes has been revised and updated, and so has the end-of-chapter case entitled “Gas or Grouse?”
  • Chapter 6:
    • The introduction has been revised.
    • A new “On the Edge” case on Mr. Trump’s university has been added, the case on selling personalized genetics direct to consumers has been updated and slightly expanded, and the case entitled “Selling Death to Kids?” has been expanded to include a short discussion of e-cigarettes.
    • A new end-of-chapter case entitled “Promoting Infant Formula in the 21st Century” has been added and the case “Becton Dickinson and Needle Sticks” has been removed.
  • Chapter 7: All statistical data, graphs, and tables have been updated in the section on “The Extent of Discrimination.”
  • Chapter 8:
    • All statistics have been updated.
    • A new “On the Edge” case entitled “Beyonce’s Gym Clothes” has been added, and the end-of-chapter case entitled “Death at Massey Energy Company” has been brought up to date.

Superior assignability and tracking tools help educators make sure students are completing their reading and understanding core concepts
  • Revel’s assignment calendar allows educators to indicate precisely which readings must be completed on which dates. This clear, detailed schedule helps students stay on task by eliminating any ambiguity as to which material will be covered during each class. When they understand exactly what is expected of them, students are better motivated to keep up.
  • Revel’s performance dashboard empowers educators to monitor class assignment completion as well as individual student achievement. Actionable information, such as points earned on quizzes and tests and time on task, helps educators intersect with their students in meaningful ways. For example, the trending column reveals whether students' grades are improving or declining, helping educators to identify students who might need help to stay on track.
  • Revel’s Blackboard Learn™ integration provides institutions, instructors, and students easy access to their Revel courses. With single sign-on, students can be ready to access Revel’s interactive blend of authors' narrative, media, and assessment on their first day. Flexible, on-demand grade synchronization capabilities allow educators to control exactly which Revel grades should be transferred to the Blackboard Gradebook.

Table of contents

  • 1. Ethics and Business
  • 2. Ethical Principles in Business
  • 3. The Business System: Government, Markets, and International Trade
  • 4. Ethics in the Marketplace
  • 5. Ethics and the Environment
  • 6. The Ethics of Consumer Production and Marketing
  • 7. The Ethics of Job Discrimination
  • 8. Ethics and the Employee

Author bios

Manuel Velasquez is the author of Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, the most widely used business ethics textbook in the world.

Known as the father of academic business ethics, Velasquez is the Charles J. Dirksen Professor of Business Ethics at the Santa Clara University, where he holds appointments in the department of Management and the department of Philosophy; he teaches courses in business ethics, business and public policy and in business strategy.

The author of numerous articles and case studies on business ethics, he has provided consulting and training in business ethics for several companies, as well as workshops on teaching business ethics to more than 2,000 business school faculty.  

Velasquez received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Gonzaga University and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
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