C H A P T E R 1
What Is Business Ethics?
CHAPTER OVERVIEW Chapter 1 defines business ethics and sketches how debates within the field happen. The history of the
discipline is also considered, along with the overlap between business and personal ethics.
1. WHAT IS BUSINESS ETHICS?
1.1 Captive Customers
Ann Marie Wagoner studies at the University of Alabama (UA). She pays $1,200 a year for books, which is exasperating, but what really ticks her off is the text for her composition class. Called A Writer’s Reference (Custom Publication for the University of Alabama), it’s the same Writer’s Reference sold everywhere else, with slight modifications: there are thirty-two extra pages describing the school’s particular writing program, the Alabama A is emblazoned on the front cover, there’s an extra $6 on the price tag (compared with the price of the standard version when purchased new), and there’s an added sentence on the back: “This book may not be bought or sold used.” The modifications are a collective budget wrecker. Because she’s forced to buy a new copy of the customized Alabama text, she ends up paying about twice what she’d pay for a used copy of the standard, not-customized book that’s available at Chegg.com and similar used-book dealers.
Review the Case Study (Gray Matters) on page 16 of the attached PDF and answer the following questions. Minimum 200 words and 2 references. No format required. The questions DO NOT count as part of the word count.
- What are the facts pertinent to an ethical evaluation of this case?
- From the facts and information provided, can you sketch a set of values and chain of reasoning justifying the answer that the quiz’s original authors sanctioned as the right one?
- According to the quiz authors, the worst answer is A. Maybe they are wrong, though. What values and reasoning may lead to the conclusion that doing “nothing because she’s doing her job just fine” is an excellent response?
