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Business Ethics

The resources below may be helpful for research on topics in business ethics. They include both print and electronic resources.

• General References
• Cases
• Model Codes of Ethics
• Books
• Journals and Databases
• Useful Internet Resources
• Professional Associations and Societies
• Research Centers at Carnegie Mellon

General Reference Sources:

• Bick, Patricia Ann. Business Ethics and Responsibility: An Information Sourcebook. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1988. (annotated bibliography)
  Hunt Library 016.65069 B58B1 (2nd Floor)
  Although this list of books and journal articles is somewhat old, it contains references to many other resources dealing with a range of business ethics topics, including corporate responsibility, employee rights, and more general overviews of the subject.*
• Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management Vol. XI, “Business Ethics," Hunt Ref 658.003 B632 (Also available as Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics, Hunt Ref 174.4 B632)
  This reference source, one volume of a well-regarded management encyclopedia, contains short entries (1-3 pages) on a wide array of topics, concepts, and individuals in business ethics.
• Annotated Bibliography of Accounting Ethics (Centre for Accounting Ethics, University of Waterloo)
  A list, with commentary, of journal articles discussing the ethics of accounting. While there is no search function, the bibliography can be browsed by subject. See the rightmost tab ("Annotated Bibliography of Articles") for the article citations themselves.*

• Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics (4 Volumes)
  Hunt Ref 170.3 E562
  The Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics features longer articles than the Blackwell encyclopedia (10-20 pages) and is a good first source of information for broad topics in business ethics (or other areas of applied ethics). A few representative pieces include "Auditing Practices," "Conflict of Interest," and "Socially Responsible Investment."
• Encyclopedia of Bioethics (5 Volumes)
  Hunt Ref 174.2 E56a3
  This third edition (2004) of a comprehensive work on that introduces the issues of ethics as they related to all aspects of life sciences and health care. Although it is not specifically geared to business researchers, there are many entries that related to medical economics, business ethics in healthcare, and a range of topics that have an impact on business or in the workplace, such as drug testing, medical records issues and issues faced by the bio-pharma industry.
  
  
• Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime (2 Volumes) 
  Hunt Ref 364.168 E56
  This set provides a comprehensive overview to administrative and corporate crimes, with a chronology of development, and approximately 475 narrative definitions on a wide range of criminal activity. The book is international in scope, and includes overview articles on countries and regions. There also are articles on specific ndividuals and companies. Broad areas of fraud covered, like business, consumer, financial and securities, medical and healthcare, scams and swindles, and war profiteering. Other entries offer contextual treatments of topics in justice and criminology, as well as legislation and regulation. Less expected areas of coverage include pollution, products, political scandals, and organized crime. Each of these areas has detailed entries. For example, consumer fraud includes entries for age discrimination, cyberstalking, the tobacco industry, toxic shock, and much more.
  
  
• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Carnegie Mellon users only)
  see Business Ethics, Professional Ethics, Applied Ethics, Economics and Ethics, Ethics of the Market, etc.
  An online reference providing general information about philosophy. The articles listed above are good starting points, and each contains a link to "Related Articles" that may be helpful.

  * If an article or book listed in one of the above bibliographies is not at Carnegie Mellon, it may be available through Interlibrary Loan.

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Cases:

All of these collections contain case studies (most based on actual events) for discussion and consideration. Case Histories in Business Ethics contains relatively few cases, but also includes a discussion of the role of such cases in education. The materials from the Center for International Corporate Responsibility include many cases from the Arthur Andersen Case Study Library as well as links to additional cases on the web.

• Beauchamp, Tom L., ed. Case Studies in Business, Society, and Ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1983 and 1998 (two editions).
  Hunt Library 658.408 B37C4 (2nd Floor)
• Ethics Teaching Materials from Carnegie Mellon's Center for International Corporate Responsibility (includes Arthur Andersen Case Study Library)
  Some of these files may not be accessible to Internet Explorer users; if you have this problem try using a Netscape browser.
• Megone, Chris and Simon J. Robinson, ed. Case Histories in Business Ethics. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  Hunt Library 174.4 C37 (2nd Floor)
• Matthews, John B., Kenneth E. Goodpaster, and Laura L. Nash. Policies and Persons: A Casebook in Business Ethics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985.
  Hunt Library 174.4 M43P (2nd floor)
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Model Codes of Ethics:

These books and websites collect the published ethics statements of a variety of corporations and professional organizations. The Codes of Ethics Online collection from the Illinois Institute of Technology is the largest, but many of the codes of ethics presented there are not business-related. Murphy's Eighty Exemplary Ethics Statements is the best print source, as it is relatively recent, focuses exclusively on corporations, and includes some editorial commentary. The Executive's Handbook of Model Business Conduct Codes takes a more instructional approach, using excerpts from corporate codes to illustrate the characteristics of a well-written code of ethics.

• Codes of Ethics Online from Illinois Institute of Technology
• Corporate Codes of Ethics Online from University of British Columbia
• Gorlin, Rena A., ed. Codes of Professional Responsibility. Washington, DC: Bureau of National Affairs, 1990.
  Hunt Ref 174 C669a2, or older edition at Hunt Library 174 C669 (2nd floor)
• Manley, Walter W. Executive's Handbook of Model Business Conduct Codes. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991.
  Hunt Library 174.4 M27e (2nd floor)
• Murphy, Patrick E., ed. Eighty Exemplary Ethics Statements. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998.
  Hunt Ref 174.4 E34
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Books:

Books on business ethics can be found in Cameo under subject headings like "Business Ethics" and "Social Responsibility of Business." You can also look under "Moral and Ethical Aspects" in other business-related subjects (e.g. "Corporations--Moral and Ethical Aspects"). Most books are located on the second floor of Hunt Library under call number 174.4.

A few introductory books:

The books below are all designed as introductions to business ethics. DeGeorge's Business Ethics is a fairly traditional textbook, while It's Good Business by Robert C. Solomon is a less academic approach to the subject. The other three books are primarily compilations of essays. Essentials of Business Ethics is notable for the inclusion of essays by Ralph Nader and Milton Friedman, among others. Donaldson and Werhane's Ethical Issues in Business features these experts as well, and offers more content by historical figures like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Locke. Beauchamp and Bowie's book is frequently cited as a good introduction to the field, and includes a textbook-like introductory section before the essays.

• Beauchamp, Tom L. and Norman E. Bowie. Ethical Theory and Business. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983.
  Hunt Library 174.4 E849A2 (2nd floor)
• De George, Richard T. Business Ethics, 4th Ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.
  Hunt Library 174.4 D31B, or First Ed. at Hunt Library 650.69 D31B (2nd floor)
• Donaldson, Thomas, and Patricia H. Werhane. Ethical Issues in Business. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988.
  Hunt Library 174.4 E842A3 (2nd floor)
• Madsen, Peter, and Jay M. Shafritz, ed. Essentials of Business Ethics. New York: Meridian, 1990.
  Hunt Library 174.4 E78 (2nd floor) or SEI HF5387 .E78
• Solomon, Robert C. It's Good Business: Ethics and Free Enterprise for the New Millennium. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.
  Hunt Library 174.1 S681 (2nd floor)
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Journals and Databases:

(Carnegie Mellon users only)

• ABI/Inform in ProQuest Direct
  This database provides full text coverage of management journals, business news publications, and trade journals. It also includes the full text of the Journal of Business Ethics, one of the most important business ethics periodicals. ABI/Inform is a good place to search for coverage of ethical issues in the news and academic analysis and research on topics in ethics.
• Business and Management Practices in FirstSearch
  Business and Management Practices includes a set of materials that is similar to, but smaller than, ABI/Inform. Since the databases have different assortments of periodicals, you may wish to search both for the same topic.
• CQ Researcher
  Contains information about current issues and controversies. Look in categories "Business and Industry," "Business Ethics," "Consumer Protection" (Browse by Topic) or search for other specific topics (whistleblowers, corporate crime, etc.). Individual articles contain a chronology showing the historical development of the topic in question.
• Econ Lit in FirstSearch
  EconLit, published by the American Economic Association, is an index of academic literature in economics. Articles may be found by searching by keyword and/or using EconLit's special hierarchy of subject headings, which can be viewed on the EconLit website. For example, A130 (Relation of Economics to Social Values) and M140 (Corporate Culture; Social Responsibility) are Descriptor Codes that can be used to browse for many ethics-related articles, books and dissertations in EconLit.
• General Business File ASAP in InfoTrac
  General Business File covers much of the same subject matter as ABI/Inform, but includes a different mix of publications. For best results, search for the same topic in both databases. If one database does not have the full text of a certain article, the other often will.
• Journal of Business Ethics
  Hunt Library microfiche (3rd Floor): 1984- present
  Full text in ProQuest: 1982 - 1985, 1987- present
• The Philosophers' Index in Silver Platter
  While The Philosophers' Index does not contain full text articles, it is a useful index of abstracts in philosophy, including many dealing with business ethics.
• Social Science Citation Index in Web of Science
  This index contains articles from academic management journals, as well as other publications in the social sciences. In addition to the normal methods of searching (author, title, source, subject), SSCI makes it possible to find articles that cite a certain source, which can help to identify the key writers and papers in a subject area. This is useful for developing a comprehensive review of the academic literature on a topic. Another strength of SSCI is its interdisciplinary nature - by following citations you can find relevant articles in a a variety of fields. It is also possible to simultaneously search the Humanities Citation Index, which includes articles on business ethics published in philosophy and other humanities disciplines.

• WilsonSelect in FirstSearch (Carnegie Mellon users only) Wilson Select contains full text articles in several disciplines, including business and philosophy, published in international English language journals. Wilson Select is more limited than ABI/Inform, General Business File or LexisNexis, but is interdisciplinary, which can be a plus for this topic. It is updated weekly, and may be most useful when trying to locate full text of less widely-read journals, which tend to get loaded somewhat more slowly in the other competing databases.

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Useful Internet Resources:

• Business Ethics Resources from Business Open Learning Archive (Chris Jarvis, Brunel University)
  Created as a supplement to a "Business, Society, and Responsibility" course, this site could be used as a self-guided introduction to business ethics.
• Business Ethics Resources on WWW (University of British Columbia)
  One of the best collections of business ethics links on the Internet. The university also collects links dealing with the broader area of applied ethics, some of which may be relevant to or overlap with topics in business ethics.
• Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers (Carter McNamara, Authenticity Consulting, LLC)
  This work is intended as a practical guide to implementing ethics in an organization rather than a theoretical or philosophical approach to the subject.
• International Business Ethics Forum (University of Pittsburgh)
  This site provides information about the ethical environment of business in various countries, including important cultural factors and legal issues in each nation as well as significant court cases pertaining to business ethics. Some of the information here may be out of date, however.
  
  
• Video Library for Business & Society (The University of Auckland Business School and Kansas State University)
  Includes suggestions for films and videos to use in teaching ethics, along with teaching notes, and a short bibliography on films in ethics teaching.
  
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Professional Associations and Societies:

• Business for Social Responsibility
• Caux Roundtable
• Ethics Officer Association
• Ethics Practitioners' Association of Canada
• International Business Ethics Institute
• Society for Business Ethics
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Business Ethics Related Centers at Carnegie Mellon:

• Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics
• Center for International Corporate Responsibility
  --Information on the Thomas M. Kerr Ethics in Business Award
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Back to Business Research Guides pages

This guide originally developed for Carnegie Mellon University Libraries as part of a field placement by David McGreevy, graduate student in the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Pittsburgh, Spring 2003.