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Rating: 
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: Jeff Seglin, with his university degrees in Theological Studies and English, has been a popular writer in a number of business publications for years. His followers enjoy a style of writing that is comfortable, easy to relate to, and complete with concepts to engage the mind. Five years ago, while a Resident Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard University, he began writing a monthly column on ethics for the New York Times. This opportunity was a natural for Seglin, whose writing and objective observations benefit from a foundation of deep thinking about vital business issues. This book is a collection of 46 of the columns Seglin wrote in the Times. Rather than a chronological sequence, the presentation is organized into six parts: Ethics Policies and Life in the Corporation; Hiring; Bosses; Privacy: Lying, Cheating, and Stealing; and Leading by Example. The columns are presented like a series of essays, one "chapter" following another without starting on a new page. This design gives the reader a sense of flow, that all these issues addressed by Seglin are tied together. Readers will read thought-provoking pieces on a wide variety of topics, each of which could stimulate worthwhile conversations among corporate executives. The purpose of the essays is to raise ethical questions that people in business were likely to face. Discussion of the issues presented-by corporate executives, managers, and virtually every member of an organization-can build a productive openness and a process for dealing with situations that arise. The exploration of these issues, dilemmas, and implications will be valuable for university students about to enter the business world... especially those who desire to move into leadership positions where they may confront ethical considerations on a fairly regular basis-to resolve, advise, or mediate. There are no black-or-white answers in this book. Seglin is careful to point out that "The discussion of ethics in business is one that at its best should be ongoing and always challenging assumptions." This book will be a useful tool to foster those health discussions.
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Summary: Business Ethics: Role Playing in today's environment
Review: The columns featured in this book began during an era of unusual optimism and boom in the economy. By almost any measure (low unemployment, high stock market valuations, capital investment in dotcoms) times were good and therefore a secondary concern like ethics was easily dismissed. During the four years of the column these conditions changed radically with the economic recession and the explosion of corporate scandals. It became obvious that ethics could not be ignored, regardless of the economic metrics. While it would be an exaggeration to say that ethical lapses caused the recession, Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and other corporate disasters proved that ethics matter. Business managers must always make ethical considerations an important element in their decisions, recognizing that any action that benefits one group could harm another. In hiring, technical qualifications should not outweigh an assessment of the candidate's ethical makeup. Will this person fit with the espoused principles of the corporation? That is a question to be thoroughly considered. Of course, this is not easy, but precisely because ethics is so difficult to integrate into corporate thinking, the effort should be continuous and sincere.
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Summary: Ethical Business Puzzles Spelled Out
Review: The Right Thing is a compendium of columns from "The Right Thing" column that has appeared monthly in the Money and Business section of the Sunday New York Times since 1998. In most cases, these brief essays take a contemporary news item and pull it apart from different perspectives to lay out the ethical dilemmas and possible solutions. In each case, Professor Seglin makes it clear that doing the right thing is what ethics is all about. He frequently draws on the research of many others who have studied ethics to help flesh out the issue. The essays are grouped into six sections: Ethics Policies and Life in the Corporation
Hiring
Bosses
Privacy
Lying, Cheating and Stealing
Leading by Example These essays are unafraid to point out public inconsistencies with ethical behavior. For instance, Professor Seglin takes Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, to task for encouraging ethical behavior by others but not doing enough to be a good example himself. Harvard University is criticized by cashiering the dean of the Divinity School after sexual material was found on his PC. The dean's behavior was embarrassing to Harvard, but the behavior was not unethical in Professor Seglin's view. I found my mind stretched by many situations I had not thought enough about. When a co-worker donated a kidney to her boss, how was the boss supposed to treat her after that? How did that treatment affect the ethical situation towards her other co-workers by that boss? There's a nice section on whether the struggling start-up should "borrow" from IRS payroll taxes to keep afloat in hopes of a better day ahead. (Don't do it!) I don't work in a large company, so the issues about privacy relating to e-mails were interestingly new to me. The conclusions seemed to me to be full of good sense. When you find inappropriate behavior, deal with it. Don't go trolling for it, however, as a part-time, catch-as-catch-can activity. It's a commentary on our overly "free market" orientation towards business that you don't find many discussions of business ethics as applied to current situations except when executives are being carted off for a criminal arraignment. I hope that the New York Times and other news media take a hint from the content of these columns and expand the subject of ethics to include as many of their business news stories as possible. The events of the last few years seem to suggest that people are not observing the Golden Rule when it comes to their business activities. I also recommend Dr. John Maxwell's new book, There's No Such Thing As Business Ethics. Where else should more attention be paid to ethics? That's a good subject for dinner tonight with your family.
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