Robert Marks, AGSM, September, 2009

Mngt 5192 BUSINESS ETHICS


Course Outline Here.


Contents of Readings CD:


Week 1

  1. Malcolm Knox, Reasons for honour in a godless society, Sydney Morning Herald, April 29, 2009. Here.
  2. Joseph Badaracco, The discipline of building character, HBR, March−April, 1998. Here.
  3. Michael Bratman, What does it mean? How do you know? The Stanford Observer, Nov. 1981. Here.
  4. Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, What the bagelman saw, NYT, June 6, 2004 Here.
  5. Albert Carr, Is business bluffing ethical? HBR, Jan-Feb., pp. 143-153, 1968. Here.
  6. Damian Grace’s summary of Robert Jackall’s Moral Mazes, 1988. Here.
  7. John Tierney, Deep down, we can’t fool even ourselves, New York Times, July 1, 2008. Here.
  8. Michael Lewis, The irresponsible investor, NYT, June 6, 2004. Here.
  9. Rushworth Kidder reviews a new book, Can profits and ethics coexist? The Christian Science Monitor, 18 July 2006. Here.

Homework for Week 2 Here.


Week 2

  1. Milton Friedman, The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 13, 1970. Here.
  2. Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business: A Reason debate featuring Milton Friedman, Whole Foods’ John Mackey, and Cypress Semiconductor’s T.J. Rodgers, 2005. Here. http://www.reason.com/news/show/32239.html
  3. John Kay, The rôle of business in society, 03 February1998. http://www.johnkay.com/print/133.html Here.
  4. David Ash, Curtains for the corporate veil, Sydney Morning Herald, April 18, 2009. Here.
  5. Amartya Sen, Does business ethics make economic sense? Business Ethics Quarterly, 3: 45−54, 1993. Here.
  6. Landon Thomas Jr. and Micheline Maynard, On Wall Street, a rise in dismissals over ethics, New York Times, 29 March 2005. Here.
  7. Paul Sullivan, From wine bars to iron bars, Financial Times, 9 March 2006. Here.
  8. John Plender and Avinash Persaud, Failure of business ethics, FT, August 22−24, 2006. Here.

Homework for Week 3 Here.


Week 3

  1. Ian Verrender, Crime eclipses the colour of a collar, Sydney Morning Herald, June 28, 2008. Here.
  2. David Brearley, HIH: moral hazard, The Australian, 19 April 2003. Here.
  3. Gideon Haigh, Corporate culture rot starts at the top, SMH, 7 June 2003. Here.
  4. Ann-Maree Moodie, Think about it, CFO: The Business End of Business, August 2003. Here.
  5. Gideon Haigh’s Asbestos House: The Secret History of James Hardie Industries, A Book Review By Elisabeth Sexton SMH, February 13, 2006 Here.
  6. AWB faces $1 billion damages lawsuit, July 11, 2006, Article from: AAP Here.
  7. The Economist, The ethics of business, January 20, 2005. Here.
  8. Warren Bennis, A corporate fear of too much truth, NYT, Feb. 17, 2002. Here.
  9. Norman Barry, Value systems, Ch. 2 of his Business Ethics, West Lafayette: Ichor Business Books, 1998. Here.
  10. E. Schnebel and M.A. Bienert, Implementing ethics in business organizations, JBE, 53: 202−211, 2004. Here.
  11. Bernstein, William J., Corporate finance and original sin, Financial Analysts Journal, Volume 62; Issue 3, 1 May 2006. Here.
  12. Thomas L. Friedman, All fall down, New York Times, November 25, 2008. Here.
  13. Robert Marks, Timeline of the Global Financial Crisis, September 2009. http://www.agsm.edu.au/bobm.iows/timeline.pdf Here.

Homework for Week 4 Here.


Week 4

  1. Morgen Witzel, How to respond when only bribe money talks, Financial Times, 11 July 2005. Here.
  2. Michael Peel, Hurdles in countering cross-border corruption, Financial Times, 14 August 2006. Here.
  3. P. Steidlmeier, Gift giving, bribery and corruption: Ethical management of business relationships in China, JBE, June 1999. Here.
  4. Siri Schubert and T. Christian Miller, At Siemens, bribery was just a line item, New York Times, December 20, 2008. Here.
  5. Philip Delves Broughton, Harvard loses its lustre, Prospect Magazine, Issue 150, September 2008. Here.

Homework for Week 5 Here.


Week 5

  1. Philip Delves Broughton, Harvard's masters of the apocalypse, The Sunday Times, March 1, 2009. Here.
  2. A Hippocratic Oath for Managers? mimeo, Here.
  3. The Enron Code of Ethics. Here.


Week 11

  1. Geoffrey Cousins, When you step off the ledge of doubt, there are rewards, Sydney Morning Herald, August 29, 2009. Here.
  2. Philip Delves Broughton, A lesson in moral leadership, Financial Times, 25 April 2005. Here.
  3. Laura Nash, Ethics without the sermon, HBR, 1981. Here.
  4. Laura Nash’s Twelve important questions, mimeo. Here.
  5. Avinash Persaud and John Plender, Ethical framework. Financial Times, 23 August 2005 Here.
  6. The Economist, Ethical capitalism: how good should your business be? January 17, 2008. Here.