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Contents vii
Chapter Six: Moral Rights in the Workplace 113

Learning Objectives 113
Discussion Case: Freedom of Expression at Work 113
Discussion Questions 114
6.1 Introduction: Employee Rights 115
6.2 The Right to Work 116
6.3 Employment at Will 120
6.4 Due Process in the Workplace 121
6.5 Participation Rights 124
6.6 Freedom of Expression 127
6.7 Employee Health and Safety 129
6.8 Privacy in the Workplace 134
Reflections on the Chapter Discussion Case 136
Chapter Review Questions 137
Chapter Seven: Employee Responsibilities 139

Discussion Case: Conflicts of Interests and Fiduciary Duties in the Financial
Industry 139
7.1 Introduction 143
7.2 The Narrow View of Employee Responsibilities: Employees as Agents 144
7.3 Professional Ethics and the Gatekeeper Function 148
7.4 Managerial Responsibility and Conflicts of Interest 151
7.5 Trust and Loyalty in the Workplace 154
7.6 Responsibilities to Third Parties: Honesty, Whistle-Blowing,
and Insider Trading 156
Chapter Eight: Marketing Ethics: Product Safety and Pricing 165

Discussion Case: Social Harms: Obesity and Opioids 165
8.1 Ethical Issues in Marketing: An Overview 169
8.2 Ethical Responsibility for Products: From Caveat
Emptor to Negligence 173
8.3 Strict Product Liability 178
8.4 Ethics and Pricing 180
viii Contents
Chapter Nine: Marketing Ethics: Advertising and

Digital Marketing 187
Discussion Case: Digital Marketing, Consumer Privacy,
and Manipulation 187
9.2 Ethics of Manipulation and Deception 193
9.3 Government Regulation of Deceptive and Unfair Advertising 196
9.4 Digital Marketing and Consumer Privacy 199
9.5 Marketing Ethics and Consumer Autonomy 202
9.6 Targeting the Vulnerable: Marketing and Sales 206
Chapter Ten: Sustainability and the Natural Environment 213

Discussion Case: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Global Climate Change 213
10.1 Introduction: Business, the Environment, and Sustainability 216
10.2 Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment 217
10.3 Business’s Responsibility as Environmental Regulation 219
10.4 Business Ethics and Sustainable Economics 221
10.5 Business Ethics in the Age of Sustainable Development 224
10.6 The “Business Case” for Sustainability 228
10.7 Critical Reflections on Sustainability 229
Chapter Eleven: Workplace Diversity and Discrimination 234

Discussion Case: Sexual Harassment and Gender Equality 234
11.1 Introduction: Diversity and Equality 236
11.2 Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 239
11.3 Discrimination, Equal Opportunity, and Affirmative Action 243
11.4 Preferential Treatment in Employment 247
11.5 Arguments Against Preferential Hiring 250
11.6 Arguments in Support of Preferential Hiring 254
Contents ix
Chapter Twelve: International Business and Globalization 260

Discussion Case: Business Ethics in a Global Setting 260
12.2 Ethical Relativism and Cross-Cultural Values 264
12.3 Cross-Cultural Values, Human Rights, and the Ruggie Principles 267
12.4 Globalization and International Business 269
12.5 Globalization and the Poor 271
12.6 “Race to the Bottom” 274
12.7 Democracy, Cultural Integrity, and Human Rights 275
12.8 International Business and a Duty of National Loyalty 278
Index283
Preface to the
Sixth Edition
My overarching goal in the sixth edition of this text remains what it was for the first
edition: “to provide a clear, concise, and reasonably comprehensive introductory
survey of the ethical choices available to us in business.” This book arose from the
challenges encountered in my own teaching of business ethics. Over the years I
have taught business ethics in many settings and with many formats. I sometimes
relied on an anthology of readings, other times I emphasized case studies. I taught
business ethics as a lecture course and in a small seminar. Most recently, I taught
business ethics exclusively to undergraduates in a liberal arts setting. It is difficult
to imagine another discipline that is as multidisciplinary, taught in as many formats
and as many contexts, by faculty with as many different backgrounds and with as
many different aims, as business ethics.
Yet, although the students, format, pedagogy, and teaching goals change,
the basic philosophical and conceptual structure for the field remains relatively
stable. There are a range of stakeholders with whom business interacts: employ-
ees, customers, suppliers, governments, society. Each of these relationships creates
ethical responsibilities, and every adult unavoidably will interact with business in
several of these roles. A course in business ethics, therefore, should ask students
to examine this range of responsibilities from the perspective of employee, cus-
tomer, and citizen as well as from the perspective of business manager or executive.
Students should consider such issues in terms of both the type of lives they them-
selves wish to lead and the type of public policy for governing business they are
willing to support.
My hope was that this book could provide a basic framework for examining the
range of ethical issues that arise in a business context. With this basic framework
provided, individual instructors would then be free to develop their courses in vari-
ous ways. I have been grateful to learn that this book is being used in a wide variety
of settings. Many people have chosen to use it as a supplement to the instructor’s
own lectures, an anthologized collection of readings, a series of case studies, or
some combination of all three. Others have chosen to use this text to cover the
ethics component of another course in such business-related disciplines as man-
agement, marketing, accounting, human resources. The book also has been used
x
Preface to the Sixth Edition xi
to provide coverage of business-related topics in more general courses in applied or

professional ethics. I take this variety of uses as evidence that the first edition was
reasonably successful in achieving its goals.
NEW TO THE SIXTH EDITION
The primary goal of this new edition is to update cases with more contemporary
examples and to continue to revise the text for the sake of clarity and accessibility
for students. To those ends, readers will note the following major changes for the
sixth edition:
•• Every chapter begins with a new discussion case. Highlights include new
cases on such topics as: Social Media and Political Advertising, Digital
Marketing, Consumer Privacy, Freedom of Expression in the Workplace,
Sexual Harassment and Gender Identity, Life–Work Balance, Global Climate
Change, and Obesity and Opioids. The new cases include such well-known
companies as: Wells Fargo, Facebook, Google, and Volkswagen.
•• Beyond these new case discussions, new coverage has been included on
virtue ethics, freedom of expression in the workplace, consumer privacy,
a duty of national loyalty, the Ruggie Principles, and critical reflections on
sustainability.
As always, a new edition provides an opportunity to not only update material,
but to present it in a more accessible style. It has been gratifying to learn that read-
ers have found the book clearly written and accessible to students unfamiliar with
the field. In continuing to strive for these goals, I have rewritten some sections,
deleted some outdated cases and dated material, and worked to improve the clarity
of the more philosophical sections.
Readers of previous editions will find a familiar format. Each chapter begins
with a discussion case developed from actual events. The intent of these cases is to
raise questions and get students thinking and talking about the ethical issues that
will be introduced in the chapter. The text of each chapter then tries to do three
things:
•• Identify and explain the ethical issues involved;
•• Direct students to an examination of these issues from the points of view of
various stakeholders; and
•• Lead students through some initial steps of a philosophical analysis of these
issues.
The emphasis remains on encouraging student thinking, reasoning, and decision
making rather than on providing answers or promoting a specific set of conclu-
sions. To this end, a section on ethical decision making at the end of chapter 1
provides one model for decision making that might prove useful throughout the
remainder of the text.
xii Preface to the Sixth Edition
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As with previous editions, my greatest debt in writing this book is to those scholars
engaged in the academic research of business ethics. I tried to acknowledge their
work whenever I relied on it in this text, but in case I have missed anyone, I hope
this general acknowledgment can serve to repay my debt to the business ethics
community. I also acknowledge three members of that community who deserve
special mention and thanks. My own work in business ethics has, for over 35 years,
benefited from the friendships of John McCall, Ron Duska, and Laura Hartman.
They will no doubt find much in this book that sounds familiar. Thirty-five years of
friendship and collaboration tends to blur the lines of authorship, but it is fair to say
that I have learned much more from John, Ron, and Laura than they from me. Some
material on the decision-making model, digital marketing, and the Volkswagen case
is developed from sections I wrote for another McGraw-Hill book co-written with
Laura Hartman and Chris MacDonald, Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal
Integrity and Social Responsibility. I would like to thank Laura and Chris for their
kind permission to re-use that material here.
Previous editions have also benefited from the advice of a number of p eople
who read and commented on various chapters. In particular, I would like to thank
Norman Bowie, Ernie Diedrich, Al Gini, Patrick Murphy, Denis Arnold, and
Christopher Pynes. The normal disclaimers of responsibility apply.
I owe sincere thanks to the following teachers and scholars who were gracious
enough to review previous editions of this book for McGraw-Hill: Dr. Edwin A.
Coolbaugh—Johnson & Wales University; Jill Dieterlie—Eastern Michigan University;
Glenn Moots—Northwood University; Jane Hammang-Buhl—Marygrove College;
Ilona Motsif—Trinity College; Bonnie Fremgen—University of Notre Dame; Sheila
Bradford—Tulsa Community College; Donald Skubik—California Baptist University;
Sandra Powell—Weber State University; Gerald Williams—Seton Hall University;
Leslie Connell—University of Central Florida; Brad K. Wilburn—Santa Clara
University; Carlo Filice—SUNY, Genesco; Brian Barnes—University of Louisville;
Marvin Brown—University of San Francisco; Patrice DiQuinzio—Muhlenberg
College; Julian Friedland—Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at
Boulder; Derek S. Jeffreys—The University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Albert B.
Maggio Jr.—bicoastal-law.com; Andy Wible—Muskegon Community College;
Christina L. Stamper—Western Michigan University; Charles R. Fenner, Jr.—State
University of New York at Canton; Sandra Obilade—Brescia University; Lisa Marie
Plantamura—Centenary College; James E. Welch—Kentucky Wesleyan College; Adis
M. Vila—Dickinson College; Chester Holloman—Shorter College; Jan Jordan—Paris
Junior College; Jon Adam Matthews—Central Carolina Community College; Bruce
Alan Kibler—University of Wisconsin-Superior; Carla Johnston—St. Cloud State
University; Martha Helland—University of Sioux Falls; Jessica MacManus—Notre
Dame; David Levy—State University of New York—Geneseo; Barbara Barresi—
Capital University; Kenneth Ferguson—East Carolina University; Michael Shaffer—
St. Cloud University; Wake Maki—University of North Carolina-Greenboro; and
Richard McGowan—Butler. University
Preface to the Sixth Edition xiii
The sixth edition benefited from the thorough and thoughtful reviews by:
•• Kapp Johnson, California Lutheran University
•• Michael Hartford, Morehead State University
•• Aaron Butler, Warner Pacific College ADP
•• Paul Disney, Western Oregon University
•• Kenneth W. Gained, East-West University
•• Summer Zwanziger Elsinger, Upper Iowa University
•• Jonathan Krabill, Columbus State Community College
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1 C H A P T E R
Why Study Ethics?

L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Identify why the study of ethics is important;
• Explain the interdisciplinary nature of business ethics;
• Explain the activity of ethical decision making;
• Clarify the distinction between ethics and law;
• Explain why ethical relativism is unreasonable;
• Distinguish between ethics, morality, and social justice;
• Apply a decision-making model to a case study.
DISCUSSION CASE: Wells Fargo: Who’s Responsible?
W ells Fargo is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services
companies, operating in more than thirty countries with more than one-
quarter of a million employees and 70 million customers. With roots in the
mid-nineteenth century, it is also one of the oldest continuing operating financial
institutions in the United States.
Wells Fargo has long been known for its business strategy of cross-selling, the
practice of marketing additional products to existing customers. Traditionally,
banks and financial services companies saw themselves as professionals who pro-
vided advisory services to clients in much the same way that an attorney or an
accountant provides professional services to his or her clients. On this model,
success would be measured in terms of achieving the clients’ interests in manag-
ing risks, return on investment, and so forth. This model, which can be referred
to as the fiduciary model, aims to align the interests of the firm with the interests
of the client so that when the client succeeds, the firms succeeds. But many
banks and financial institutions have moved away from this fiduciary model in
recent decades to adopt a more transactional, consumerist model in which clients
are viewed simply as customers to whom the company sells products. Here, the
firm’s success is measured in terms of how many products are sold and how
much profit is earned from those sales. Of course, one trade-off of this shift is
that client and business interests may not always align in that the business can
1
2 Chapter 1
profit whether or not the customer does. Wells Fargo was among the first banks
to move aggressively in this direction.
Exactly how aggressive Wells Fargo had been in cross-selling became clear in
September 2016 when the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced
that Wells Fargo employees had fraudulently opened millions of unauthorized
credit card and deposit accounts in the name of present customers. Wells Fargo
admitted to the wrongdoing and agreed to fines of $185 million to state and federal
authorities. In paying these fines, Wells Fargo admitted to selling products to cus-
tomers who neither knew about nor consented to these actions. The resulting scan-
dal plagues Wells Fargo to this day.
At the time of the announcement, Wells Fargo admitted that between 2011 and
2016 employees had opened more than 1.5 million fraudulent accounts and more
than 500,000 unauthorized credit card applications in the names of present cus-
tomers. Further investigations that reviewed activities prior to 2011 discovered that
more than half a million additional fraudulent online bill-paying accounts had also
been opened and hundreds of thousands of fraudulent insurance policies were sold
to unsuspecting customers. As of spring 2018, Wells Fargo had admitted to selling
more than 3.5 million unauthorized financial products to customers.
The process involved in committing this fraud was reasonably easy. Employees,
mostly in the type of entry-level positions that recent college graduates might fill,
had ready access to the information needed for the new accounts: names, addresses,
social security numbers, and so forth. Applying for and confirming the sale of
a new product for an existing customer could be done with a few clicks of a mouse.
Investigations revealed that thousands of employees had taken part in the scheme.
Over 5,000 employees lost their jobs when the fraud was discovered.
Of course, such widespread fraud could not have gone unnoticed by the man-
agers who had oversight of these employees. It soon became clear that mid-level
management had actively participated in these activities, including providing
instructions on how to do it and how to avoid detection by customers. Employees
were advised on how to forge signatures and create fake PIN numbers. Managers
instructed employees to use some of their own personal information or fake e-mail
addresses on the accounts so that the defrauded customers would not receive
follow-up information or the new credit and debit cards. It also appears that
employees who were reluctant to participate, or who attempted to blow the whistle,
got punished by not only losing their jobs but also receiving negative evaluations
that effectively prevented them from finding future employment in the banking
industry. Less directly, but perhaps much more effectively, management partici-
pated in the practice by creating and enforcing demanding sales quotas. Employees
who missed targets for cross-selling were required to work nights and weekends
and were denied promotions and salary increases.
Initially, senior Wells Fargo executives, including CEO and Board Chair John
Stumpf, seemed to claim that the fault rested with “dishonest” individuals who had
been fired as a result. In testimony to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Stumpf
claimed that: “I do want to make it clear that there was no orchestrated effort, or
scheme as some have called it, by the company. We never directed or wanted our
Why Study Ethics? 3
employees, whom we refer to as team members, to provide products and services to

customers they did not want or need.” Stumpf explained the widespread nature of
the fraud as likely resulting from employees talking to each other.
But closer analysis showed a pattern of decisions, behavior, and tone at the
highest executive levels that contributed to a culture in which such widespread fraud
flourished. Stumpf himself was known for his mantra, “eight is great,” suggesting a
target of eight products for each customer in an industry where the average was less
than half of that. During every quarterly earnings call when the fraud was prevalent,
Stumpf had touted to investors the ever-increasing levels of record cross-selling.
Partially as a result, the value of Stumpf’s own stock ownership increased by more
than $200 million during the five years that the fraud was prevalent.
There was also evidence that senior executives knew of the fraudulent sales
well before the practice became public. A 2013 Los Angeles Times article, which
eventually led to the government investigations that uncovered the fraud, con-
tained allegations of this practice. Wells Fargo’s own training manual contained
a reminder not to sell products without the explicit consent of customers—a
reminder that was highlighted and emphasized in a way to suggest that the practice
was known to occur. Wells Fargo executives also had internal reports showing that
the steady increase in cross-selling was correlated with a steady increase in accounts
that were never used by customers.
Further, the entire culture of Wells Fargo seemed designed to encourage
cheating and discourage honest sales practices. For example, the incentive sys-
tem, ranging from sales targets for hourly workers to executive bonuses, made it
clear to everyone that aggressive cross-selling was the expectation for all. The
executive who had direct oversight of the sales division received over $125 million
when she retired just before the scandal was revealed. (Wells Fargo eventually
recovered half that amount in a clawback process.) Employees stated that reports
to an internal ethics hotline were ignored. In response to claims that they failed to
exercise their oversight function as required by U.S. federal law, board members
later claimed they were left in the dark, learning about the scandal from the
media. Like many corporations, the Wells Fargo CEO also served as the chair of
the board.
Various government agencies were involved in this case. City of Los Angeles
and California state investigators played a major role is uncovering the fraud. The
federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also worked on the investigations
and instituted the large fine against Wells Fargo. The U.S. Senate Banking
Committee held several hearings in which members very publicly criticized Wells
Fargo executives and its board. In February 2018, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank,
the primary regulator of U.S. banks, imposed strong penalties on the bank and its
board. In an unprecedented punishment, the Fed restricted Wells Fargo’s future
growth and required the replacement of several board members for failing their
oversight duty. But other government actions, including laws that prohibited fraud,
protecting whistle-blowers, and laws that required ethical compliance and over-
sight by the board, proved ineffective in preventing widespread fraud that went on
for many years.
4 Chapter 1
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. A helpful first step in ethical analysis is to look for harms and benefits.
What harms were done by this fraud? Can you explain exactly what the
ethical wrong was? Who, other than consumers, were harmed? Who
benefited? Did the parties who benefitted deserve the benefit? Were any
benefits unfair or unethical?
2. Where would you place primary responsibility for this scandal: individual
employees who forged customers’ accounts, managers who oversaw those
employees, senior executives, board members, or the corporation itself?
3. Sometimes when we assign responsibility, we are looking for someone to
blame, someone who is at fault. Who do you blame in this case?
4. Sometimes the question of responsibility is asked so that we can identify the
cause and, in turn, prevent it from happening again. What recommendations
would you make to prevent this from happening again?
5. How do you understand the difference between a fiduciary model and a
transactional, consumerist model of business–customer relationship? What
reasons exist for the fiduciary model? Is there an ethical difference between
the two?
1.1 BUSINESS ETHICS: THE WHAT AND THE WHY
What is business ethics and why should one study it? The short answer is that busi-
ness ethics is an academic discipline that examines ethical issues that arise within
businesses. But the word “ethics” is commonly used to refer to two different but
related things. On one hand, ethics refers to the beliefs, values, and principles that
guide a person’s life and decisions. In this sense, we might speak of the Wells Fargo
employees as having no ethics, or we might refer to someone else as having high
ethical standards. This meaning of ethics is sometimes applied not only to individ-
uals but also to organizations or even entire societies, as when we conclude that
Wells Fargo lacked a strong ethical culture. On the other hand, “ethics” is used to
identify an academic field that studies the beliefs, values, and principles that do,
and should, guide both individuals and organizations.
These two meanings of “ethics” are related because, from the earliest days of
philosophy, the major aim of studying ethical beliefs, values, and principles was to
try to influence individuals and organizations to become more ethical. A class in
business ethics should aim not only to help you learn some information about busi-
ness and ethics but it should also aim to help you do ethics and be ethical. That is,
the goal of business ethics is more than just teaching and learning about the aca-
demic field of ethics. The goal is also to help each of us become more ethical, to
make more ethically responsible decisions, and to help us create and promote ethi-
cal institutions.
But why do we need a class for this? Don’t we all know right from wrong? Isn’t
it enough for business to simply obey the law? Consider the Wells Fargo case as
Why Study Ethics? 5
an example. Everyone knows that creating fake accounts and fraudulently selling
products to customers without their consent is wrong and illegal. Why do we need
a class in ethics to figure that out?
But the world of ethics is more complicated than it might first appear. Some-
times an ethical issue will be as clear-cut as fraudulently opening an unauthorized
bank account. But sometimes we need to think carefully in order to simply identify
something as ethically wrong. For example, what, if anything, did Wells Fargo
board members do that was ethically wrong? A case could be made that the board
members were completely left in the dark about the fraudulent activities. Many of
the issues we examine in this book involve situations in which the ethical decision
and responsibility is not at all obvious. A class in business ethics can help us
develop the skills needed to identify ethical issues.
But even when the wrong is obvious and widely understood to be wrong, indi-
viduals and businesses still commit unethical acts. Sadly, all too often people who
should know better fail to do what is ethical. Literally, thousands of individuals
working at Wells Fargo knew about and participated in a massive fraud. All of us, as
employees, as managers, as citizens, have an interest in understanding how this
happens. A class in business ethics can help us understand how and why people
behave unethically. It should also help us think about what type of employee, con-
sumer, or manager we should be. Of course, understanding unethical behavior is
not the end of the matter. We want to understand why unethical behavior occurs
because we also want to prevent it from happening in the future. A third goal of
a class in business ethics, therefore, is to help us think about and create ethical
organizations.
This point reminds us that ethical decisions and actions occur on several levels.
As the Wells Fargo case demonstrates, business ethics involves decisions and
actions of individuals, organizations, and at the level of governments and the wider
society. As individuals, each of us will interact with businesses in several ways,
most importantly as customers and as employees. A business ethics class can help
us think about what we would do if we were the customers defrauded by Wells
Fargo, or what we might have done had we been the individual employees who
were expected to open fraudulent accounts.
But individuals do not exist in a vacuum. Again, as the Wells Fargo case sug-
gests, it can be difficult for good people to live up to their standards within a cor-
rupt organization. Likewise, it can be difficult for bad people to act unethically
within an organization that promotes and lives up to high ethical standards. As we
will see later in this book, organizations, corporate culture, and corporate leader-
ship count. Finally, business organizations themselves do not exist in a vacuum.
Every business is situated within one or more social, economic, and political struc-
ture. Just as individual decisions and behaviors are influenced by the surrounding
organization, so too are the decisions of individual businesses and entire industries
influenced by social, economic, and political environments. Obviously, the law
itself is the major means by which a society imposes standards and expectations
upon business. Needless to say, the social, economic, and political environments in
which businesses operate are heavily value-laden, and a class on business ethics
should help us think through these social, economic, and political values.
6 Chapter 1
Given this description, it is clear that business ethics is a multidisciplinary

field. First, the field of business ethics includes the more general discipline of phil-
osophical ethics. The role of philosophical ethics is to provide the fundamental lan-
guage and categories of ethics. For thousands of years, philosophers have thought
and theorized about such things as rights and duties, virtues and values, social jus-
tice, responsibilities, liberty, equality, and the common good. How these various
concepts fit together, how they might be justified, what their strengths and weak-
nesses are, and how and where they apply in life are questions that philosophers
have examined for millennia. Learning about philosophical ethics provides a knowl-
edge base for our own study of business ethics so that we won’t have to start from
scratch.
Business ethics also requires resources from such fields as psychology, business
management, organizational behavior, leadership studies, and sociology. How and
why people behave as they do, how the organizational environment encourages
and discourages behaviors, and how organizations and individuals within them can
create a culture in which ethical behavior flourishes are questions that arise from
this diverse group of social sciences.
Broader social disciplines such as law, economics, and political science contrib-
ute to business ethics as we think about how business organizations fit into
a broader social and political context.
To summarize, as a field, business ethics investigates ethical questions that
arise at the individual, organizational, and social or political level. As ethically
responsible people, each of us should consider how we interact with businesses as
individual consumers or employees, as managers and executives, and as citizens.
This text is a contribution to the academic field of business ethics. Its aim is to
describe, examine, and evaluate ethical issues that arise within business settings
and to help each of us become more ethical individuals and help us create more
ethical institutions. A business ethics class therefore has many goals, including the
following:
1. A class in business ethics can help us develop the knowledge base and skills
needed to identify ethical issues.
2. A class in business ethics can help us understand how and why people behave
unethically.
3. A class in business ethics can help us decide how we should act, what we
should do, and the type of person we should be as individuals.
4. A class in business ethics can help us create ethical organizations.
5. A class in business ethics should help us think through the social, economic,
and political policies that we should support as citizens.
1.2 BUSINESS ETHICS AS RESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING
There is an important philosophical challenge that faces an ethics course. One

would think that any ethics course should aim to improve ethical behavior. Why
else do we require a class in ethics, as is often the case in business schools, if not to
Why Study Ethics? 7
try to reduce the type of unethical behavior that occurred at Wells Fargo? Yet, ethi-
cal behavior is notoriously hard to teach. Philosophers have struggled with this
issue since Plato himself opened one of his dialogues with this very question: Can
ethics be taught? Unlike some academic disciplines, including some business disci-
plines, there is no single set of answers in ethics, no single body of information, nor
is there even a single framework for thinking about ethics.
But this does not mean that there are no common goals, concepts, principles,
and frameworks in ethics. The academic study of ethics can be traced back at least
2,500 years to the time of the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle. As is true for any academic discipline, studying ethics requires that you
become familiar with some of the basic ideas, concepts, and categories. Just as there
are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for accountants and a disci-
plinary language for fields such as economics and finance, there are a set of princi-
ples, standards, concepts, and language that are common within business ethics.
Learning about ethics means understanding such concepts as rights, duties, auton-
omy, and character; such values as honesty, loyalty, integrity, and trustworthiness;
and such principles as fairness, treating people with respect, and serving the com-
mon good. Chapter 2 will introduce some common ethical theories and principles
that have significant impact on business ethics.
There is also a growing body of scholarly literature in business ethics itself, and
an important element of a course in business ethics is to become familiar with that
scholarly literature. In each of the following chapters, we will rely on some of this
scholarship to review various ethical issues so that we may enter the business ethics
conversation at a more advanced level than if we were starting from scratch. As the
old adage reminds us, there is no reason to try to reinvent the wheel.
But beyond this academic side of learning information, business ethics also has
a practical goal in the sense that it aims at judgment, behavior, and actions. We still
all hope that a book or a class in business ethics will translate into more ethical
decisions and behavior among business practitioners.
Unfortunately, this can be a difficult challenge. First, there is the daunting gap
between ethical judgment and ethical behavior. From at least the time of Plato and
Aristotle, Western philosophy has acknowledged a real discontinuity between judg-
ing some act as right and following through and doing it. (In contemporary vernac-
ular, this is the challenge to “walk the talk.”) It is difficult enough to know the
difference between good and bad, or right and wrong. But knowing is different
from doing, and not everyone has the fortitude, strength of character, or motivation
to act in ways that we know are best. It is not at all clear, for example, that an ethics
course would have made any difference to the individuals who perpetrated the
fraud at Wells Fargo.
A second complication is that while we would all hope to encourage ethical
behavior, few teachers would think that it is the role of an ethics course to tell
students the right answers or proclaim what they ought to think and how they
ought to live. That seems more like indoctrination than education. The role of an
ethics course should not be to convey information to a passive audience, nor to
treat students as children to be told what to believe and how to act. The goal is to
treat students as active learners and engage them in an active process of thinking
8 Chapter 1
and questioning. Taking Socrates as the model, philosophical ethics rejects the
view that blind obedience to authority or the simple acceptance of customary
norms is an adequate ethical perspective. Teaching ethics must, in this view,
involve students thinking for themselves. The unexamined life, Socrates claimed, is
not worth living.
The problem, of course, is that when people think for themselves they don’t
always agree with each other, and they certainly don’t always act in a way that oth-
ers would judge as ethical. If the ethics classroom does not teach students the right
answers, many students will conclude that there are no right answers. Thus, a major
challenge for business ethics is to find a middle ground between preaching
dogmatic truths to passive listeners on one hand and encouraging the relativistic
conclusion that all opinions are equal to one another.
A common goal for most courses in business ethics navigates this difficulty by
emphasizing the process of ethical reasoning. Business ethics is concerned more
with reasoning than with answers. Responsible reasoning must begin with an accu-
rate and fair account of the facts; one must listen to all sides with an open mind,
one must become familiar with all the relevant issues at stake, and one must pursue
the logical analysis of each issue fully and with intellectual rigor. One must be famil-
iar with the language and basic concepts of ethics, as well as the thinking that has
gone before. Business ethics essentially involves this process of ethical analysis.
Without it, one risks turning ethics into dogmatism; with it, one has gone as far as
possible to defeat relativism. With this process, we are best prepared to avoid the
dilemma of dogmatism and relativism.
This dilemma not only confronts business ethics in an academic setting, it is
true for ethics within business settings as well. Even if they could be successful in
doing so, few business managers would want to approach ethical issues by making
pronouncements of ethical dogma. Like good teachers, good business managers
and leaders seek to empower their employees to make their own decisions. But
responsible businesses also do not suggest that anything goes or that all values are
equal. Value relativism in the workplace will likely lead only to power struggles and
conflict.
In summary, a major goal of business ethics is to help people develop skills for
responsible decision making. Responsible decisions may not always reach the same
conclusions, which itself seems reasonable given the complexity of ethical issues.
Yet, there are standards for making responsible decisions. Not every decision is as
reasonable or responsible as every other. There are good and bad, reasonable and
unreasonable, responsible and irresponsible decisions. This book hopes to aid you
in this process of responsible decision making.
1.3 SKEPTICAL CHALLENGE I: ISN’T THE LAW ENOUGH?
Due, perhaps, to the difficulties just described, business ethics sometimes faces
some real skepticism among students, teachers, and business practitioners. This
skepticism emerges in a variety of forms, but two are worth considering at length.
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When the prince learned of this command, his grief at the loss of the
child was swallowed up in the greater one of losing his wife. All his
love for the beautiful girl, whose life with him had only these two
blots, swept over his heart. He hastened to his father, prostrated
himself before him, and begged that, once more, her life might be
spared.
The king, seeing the grief of his son, and experiencing a like
tenderness in his own heart, was gracious once more and annulled
the sentence.
Time came and went. At the end of another year a boy was born to
the young couple. When the boy had reached the age of the other
children [144]when they disappeared, the prince began to reflect,
saying within himself: “Should the savage instincts take possession
of the princess and she, unconsciously, destroy this child, nothing
would prevent my father from commanding and insisting upon her
death.”
Thinking thus, he made up his mind to remain awake all night and
watch. After the princess had gone to sleep, the prince took a needle
in his hand, and held it in such a manner against his chin that,
should he become sleepy and nod, the point would enter the flesh
and waken him. Finally, however, a strange, heavy sleep, against
which he had no power of resistance, overcame him, and the needle
dropped from his hand.
About twelve o’clock the bird came, after it had smeared blood upon
the mouth and nose of the mother, and took this third child; upon
which it wakened her, saying: “Verily, my sultana, I am going to take
your boy from you. Hereafter you shall see me again. There are
other afflictions. I will bring them to you.”
The princess tried, frantically, to detain him. But it was impossible.
Neither was she able to cry aloud. Dumb with terror, she remained
helpless while the bird disappeared with her youngest child.
When morning came and the prince arose—what [145]should he find?

That his little son was gone, no one knew whither; and that the
mouth and even the nose of the princess were all covered with
blood. Horror possessed him. He was frantic with grief, and the king,
learning within the hour of the dreadful matter, sent an order to the
chief executioner that the princess must be killed immediately.
In obedience to the royal command, the executioner bound the

hands of the princess behind her and led her toward an open
square. But the royal prisoner was so fair and seemed so innocent
and heartbroken, that even the heart of the executioner was
touched. When they were beyond sight of those in the palace, he
said to her:
“O, my princess! I cannot put you to death! Fly from here. Go in any
direction you choose; only do not return to the palace. And may Allah
give you peace!” Thus speaking, he set her free.
The unhappy young woman went away weeping bitterly. Grief at the
loss of her husband’s love, and terror as to the fate of her little ones,
broke her heart. Knowing not whither, she unconsciously pursued
the path by which the prince had rescued her when upon the
mountain.
But even then she was not to escape. Presently the bird appeared.
“Ai!” she cried. “And art thou come again? [146]Hast thou not afflicted
me according to thy wish thus far? Leave me now, I beseech thee! to
mourn over all thou hast taken from me!”
But the bird lifted her by her clothing and flew off with her.
After some time they came to a palace which was all covered with
precious stones—one never before seen by human eyes nor
described by a human tongue. It was so beautiful that the eyes of
any beholder must become dazzled at the sight of it.
Into the garden of this palace the bird descended with his burden. As
soon as their feet touched the marble wall he gave himself a shake,
and at once turned into a young prince who was like the full moon for
beauty.
When the princess saw this transformation, her terror was changed
to amazement. The prince then took her hand to lead her up the
steps into the palace, when a servant met them, leading three
children whose faces shone like the beams of a star—so fair were
they to look upon.
When the princess saw them her heart beat fast and her eyes filled.
But the prince would not permit her to tarry. He conducted her—the
children following them—up the stairs, through a hall inlaid with
precious stones, and into a spacious salon. Here, after seating her,
he sat down beside her. [147]
During all this time the children had not once removed their eyes
from the beautiful princess, whom they had met upon the staircase.
Then the prince of the fairies spoke; and these are the words that he
said: “My sultana, unto you I have done many injuries. I also took
your children from you and caused that you be delivered over to the
executioner. But not once did you tell those who afflicted you that it
was I, and not you, who had done the evil. You were patient and
endured all without complaint. Consequently, I caused this palace to
be built for you. Everything is yours. And the children, whom I took
from you, have been carefully nourished. These children, whom you
now see, are those whom you have mourned as lost. All three are
yours. And, henceforth, I am your slave.”
Upon hearing this, the princess embraced the little ones, kissing
them on the eyes and pressing them to her breast. And the children
threw their arms about their mother’s neck, weeping most piteously
at the remembrance of their grief at being torn from her.
In this reunion of mother and children whole new worlds seemed to

be opened up to them. They could not bear to be separated from
each other, neither day nor night. [148]
Let these four remain in the summerhouse of the magnificent palace,

glad in their reunion, while we return to the other prince.
The poor young man was torn with grief—now, over the death of his
children; then, because of the reawakened love for his wife; and
again, because he believed her to be dead. Both day and night he
gave himself up to lamentations.
Now, there was an old clown, whose duty it had been to come every
day and tell amusing stories to the prince. But one day his opium
gave out, and he obtained a half hour’s leave to go to the market.
While upon the way he looked before him and saw a palace, so
magnificent as to make him rub his eyes in astonishment and
exclaim: “This palace! When was it built? Here have I been passing
by, at any hour of every day, and there has not been seen the
slightest sign of such splendor. Is this a dream, or some trick played
upon me?”
Thinking thus within himself, he began to walk around its walls and
investigate. While he was doing this, the fairy prince and the
princess were sitting with the children, in the summerhouse. The
fairy prince looked out through the gateway and saw the clown from
a distance.
“My sultana!” he said, “here is the prince’s [149]clown. If you

command, we will have him within and, perhaps, gain some
amusement.”
“I would have that done which will please you,” was the careful
answer.
Accordingly, as the clown was examining the outer walls of the

palace, the fairy prince threw an enchanted rose down upon him;
which the clown, seeing, picked up, and when he had smelled it said:
“O, how sweetly does this rose smell! Say, you, there! Can you, also,
smell?” And, although there was no sense in the words, he kept
repeating them.
It became noised about the streets that the prince’s clown was losing
his senses. And all who saw him, to the number of fifty or sixty
persons, stopped to hear the foolish utterance and to shake the
head, saying, “Alas! yes; the clown is crazy!”
Let us return to the true prince.
After two hours had passed without the return of the clown, he began
to be troubled, and ordered the chamberlain to go out and learn what
had become of the old man; also, to bring him back to the palace.
The chamberlain had gone but a little way, when he noticed a large
crowd in the public square and went near, to learn the cause of the
gathering. To [150]his surprise, he saw that the clown was in the very
middle. Making his way to this side, he said, “The prince sends for
you.”
Only the words caused by the enchantment came in answer: “Your
rose smells sweet. Can you also smell?” But this time was added, as
the speaker looked at the chamberlain: “If they throw a rose to you,
from the palace yonder, be warned! Do not pick it up!”
These words served only to arouse the curiosity of the chamberlain.

He desired to look more closely at this marvelous palace.
The fairy prince saw him approaching and said to the princess: “Aha!
we have here the prince’s chamberlain. Shall he be invited to enter?”
“Your will should answer that, my lord!” was her reply.
Then the fairy prince gave command that the gates of the palace
should be opened and, when the chamberlain entered, servants
approached to conduct him up the stairs into the palace.
The host commanded that the chamberlain’s clothes of state should

be removed before entering his presence. Accordingly, the
chamberlain was conducted to another room; but when he attempted
to remove his turban, behold! it could not be loosened from his head.
[151]
He sat down in astonishment at this strange matter. And the servants

went to their master, with news that the prince’s chamberlain could
not take off his turban!
“What manner of man is this, that he cannot remove his turban?”

cried the fairy prince, in assumed anger. “Put the fellow without!”
So they led the chamberlain to the gates of the palace, when, as he

stooped to put on his shoes, behold! his turban fell from his head!
“Well, well!” he said to himself, as he picked it up. “You are a great

fellow! You could not take off your turban when inside the palace;
why do you remove it when you are outside?”
So he threw the troublesome thing upon the ground, hastened to

where the clown was standing, and, in a low tone that could not be
heard by those standing near, told him his story. This caused the
curiosity of these two to increase greatly.
Let us return to the prince.
After he had sent the chamberlain to bring the clown and neither of
them had returned, he called the lord of the treasury and
commanded him to find the two and bring them, straightway, into his
presence.
So the lord of the treasury went out, as the others [152]had done, and,
seeing the same crowd in the public square, joined it and took notice
of the state in which were those two whom he had come to seek. He
drew near to them and inquired the cause.
“If a rose is thrown to you from the newly builded palace,” answered
the clown, “be advised; do not smell of it!”
“And if, by chance, you enter this palace,” added the chamberlain,
“remove your turban before going in.”
The lord of the treasury, unwisely, turned to look at the palace; and,
as he looked, his will became weak. He, also, was drawn toward it.
When the fairy prince saw this, again he turned to the princess:
“Here is the lord of the treasury!” he cried. “Shall he, also, be made
foolish in mind?”
“It is you who know best,” answered the princess.

Accordingly, the lord of the treasury was admitted, who carefully
removed his turban as he entered.
“Let him take off his state garments and enter my presence in
nightclothes!” commanded the one who had drawn him thither.
The lord of the treasury attempted to obey, but found that he could
not remove his coat. However hard he tugged at it, not one fraction
of an inch would it budge! [153]
The servants ran to tell this to their master, who exclaimed: “What
sort of man is this, who cannot remove his coat? Does he expect me
to believe such a foolish statement? Put him out, quickly!”
The servants made haste to obey, and the bewildered lord of the
treasury had taken scarcely a step when, of itself, his coat fell from
his back!
“Well, well!” exclaimed the amazed man. “Since you would remain
on when I was within the palace, why do you come off now that I am
without?”
In anger he threw the coat upon the ground and went to join the
others.
Time passed by, and the prince, whose people loved to obey him
quickly, became very much excited with wondering what could have
become of his messengers. He went out to seek them himself, and
presently came upon the three.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “Why have you all

tarried so long?”
At which question the clown made reply: “If the people in the new
palace throw a rose to you, do not smell it!”
And the chamberlain added: “If you enter there, remove your turban
before you pass the threshold.” [154]
While the lord of the treasury murmured: “Leave your coat behind
when you go.”
At these strange answers the prince nearly lost his head. He felt that,
as their prince, it was his duty to solve the mystery. So he turned
and, without one word, went swiftly to the palace and demanded
admission.
The moment he stepped inside, the fairy prince, the princess—who

could hardly restrain her joy at seeing him—the three children, and
all the servants came forward to do him honor.
Speechless with astonishment, he suffered himself to be conducted

up the grand staircase and into the reception room. The eldest child
brought a chair, which it presented with deep obeisance; the second
spread a serviette upon his knee; while the tiny one, kneeling,
proffered a golden tray upon which was a costly plate. Upon the
plate were some pears, and a spoon lay beside the plate.
The surprise of the prince continued to grow; but, commanding

himself and wondering if he could be dreaming, he asked, “Should
pears be eaten with a spoon?”
Whereupon all the children made answer in chorus: “Should one

believe that a loving mother would eat her own children?”
At this answer the prince became dumb. [155]

“Look!” they continued. “We are all your children. And this is our
mother, who loves us.”
At that moment the fairy prince appeared and said: “Ai, my prince!
may your eyes become luminous! This is, indeed, your princess. And
these are your children.”
When he had said this, the children threw themselves upon their
father’s neck. Then the princess came forward and embraced her
lord. And to the very depths of their souls were these five persons
happy.
When their rapture had become somewhat calm, the fairy prince
again approached and, making obeisance, said: “I am your slave.
Long ago I was purchased for the princess, with her own money.
Before that time I had been very wicked. My own mother, the queen
of the fairies, had cursed me. As a consequence, I was thrown into
this condition. I beg your royal pardon for all I have unwittingly
caused you to suffer.
“Now, if it be your good pleasure, and if you, graciously, will grant

permission, I will return to my own country and seek out my own
father and my mother. Perchance they may care to see me once
more.”
“Since these later acts were not your immediate fault,” replied the
prince, “you have the gracious [156]permission of my princess and
myself. Go in peace and refrain from future evil-doing!”
Accordingly, the fairy prince bade them adieu and went away,
leaving the beautiful palace, with its setting of costly gems, unto the
others.
Then the princess caused a messenger to carry the news of her final
good fortune to her own father; who rejoiced, greatly, that the
daughter, whom he had mourned as dead, was still alive and living in
the estate due to her birth. He sent royal presents and his blessing.
Then were the prince and princess married again; and their second
wedding was celebrated during forty days and forty nights. They
lived happily ever afterward.
And may Allah grant the same to us! [157]

[Contents]
STORY OF THE WATER-CARRIER
The tellers of stories and narrators of tales say that, once upon a
time, there was a king who had only one child and that a daughter.
Now, it happened that the king’s vizier, whose house was directly
opposite the palace, was likewise circumstanced with regard to his
family. And, moreover, the two young ladies had each a room in the
very front of her dwelling, and each was very beautiful.
One day the two were sitting at their respective windows, furtively
regarding each other across the street, when a tall and handsome
water-carrier chanced to pass. Seeing him thus, the king’s daughter
spoke.
“O, water-boy, water-boy! Which is the more beautiful, the vizier’s

daughter or I?”
The water-carrier gazed upon each in turn, then answered: “My

princess, both of you are very beautiful; but, since one must not lie to
the child of his king, the vizier’s daughter is the more so.” [158]
This testimony so wrought upon the jealous princess that she

became ill in consequence, and was unable to rise from her bed.
The king was greatly disturbed at this. He summoned the court
physician and the other learned men, who came to discover what
was her ailment and to cure her, if possible.
The princess gave gold pieces to these men and ordered them to tell
her father that this illness would prove fatal, unless the vizier’s
daughter were killed and some of her blood given as a medicine.
The physician was a weak man and afraid to anger the daughter of
his king. He went to her father with the cruel request. Immediately a
command was sent to the vizier. But that fond and daring father
killed a little kitten and sent its blood instead.
Then, becoming afraid, he summoned a carpenter and had a walnut

box made and beautifully fitted up, inside; into which he put his
daughter and then ordered his faithful servant to take it to the market
and sell it, regardless of the price.
Placing himself in the shadow, the anxious father waited to note the
disposal of the box with its precious contents. He had not waited
long, when the water-carrier, whose truthfulness had caused all the
mischief, came by and stopped to look at the walnut box. [159]
“Here is a handsome fellow, whose heart surely will be touched into

pity and love at sight of my daughter,” thought the vizier; so he made
a sign to the servant, who asked the young man if he would not like
the box.
“Surely I would like it,” was the response. “But the wood is valuable
and the parts are well joined. The price will be high.”
“Indeed, no,” answered the servant. “I am worn with waiting and

must be off at once. Give me five paras and the box is yours.”
The water-carrier smiled. “Aha! I see the price is naught to you. I will
give you three.”
“Take it and hasten! For I am needed already, at a great distance.”
The purchaser gave him the money, called a porter, and ordered him
to bring the box along with him to his house.
Offering a prayer to Allah for the safety of his child, the vizier,
followed by his servant, hastened away; while the porter strapped
the box upon his back and then followed the water-carrier, until, in
obedience to his direction, he placed it in the young man’s room,
where it remained that night.
After the young man had gone out, the next day, to follow his
avocation, the vizier’s daughter unlocked the box from within,
opened it, stepped out, [160]and looked about her. The whole house
was in disorder. She was a girl of very tidy habits and decided to
make the bed, sweep, and put at rights the whole place generally.
This she did and, when the time approached for the return of her
young owner, lay down again in her box and locked it from within.
Imagine the surprise of the water-man when he returned in the

evening and found everything in delightful order!
“I wonder who has been here?” he thought. Then, being very tired
with long walking, he went to bed and slept soundly all that night.
Morning came. “I must get a locksmith to open this walnut box for
me,” he said; then went out upon his daily round.
No sooner had he gone than the maiden unlocked the casket, arose,
and did as on the day preceding. At evening she lay down in the
walnut box, as before.
The young man entered, saw everything in beautiful order, and stood
for some time thinking. Then he went to the box and tried the lock. It
would not yield.
“If anyone is within, let him come forth!” commanded the water-man.
But, though he waited long, no sound was heard [161]in answer. He

then went to bed and slept peacefully until morning, when he arose
earlier than usual.
This caused the heart of the girl in the walnut box to tremble.
However, she remained quiet, and soon found that wisdom had
impelled her silence; for the young man returned very shortly, with a
fine piece of meat, which he had gone to the butcher’s to buy. Laying
it down upon a table, he said:
“If Allah approve, I will cook this to-morrow.” Then he took up his
water skins and went out for the day.
The maiden no longer feared discovery. She arose, swept the house,
as upon other days, cooked the meat, carefully covered and laid it
away; then, seeing many pieces of soiled clothing about, she said: “It
is better to wash clothes than to be killed at the caprice of a
princess,” and began busying herself in that way when, most
unexpectedly, the master of the house entered!
At sight of him the poor girl covered her face and cried: “Alas! alas!”
But the water-man recognized her and was filled with joy. He asked
how her condition had become so changed; and, after hearing her
story, went nearer to her and said:
“Ai, my princess! You are mine; but I, also, am yours. Let us be

married!” [162]
The young woman gave her consent, a few of the neighbors were
summoned hastily, and, with due ceremony, they were married and
lived very happily until, both of them fearing discovery, the husband
loaded forty donkeys with merchandise, placed his wife upon
another, and sent her to the home of his mother, with whom the
young woman lived for some time.
However, it is a true saying that the beauty which causes envy in the
hearts of others seldom brings happiness to its possessor. Some of
the women of the place became jealous of the newcomer and wrote
a letter to the husband, telling him that his wife had forgotten him
and was in love with another.
This so incensed the young husband that he sent word that he was
coming home, bought a dagger, and set out to kill his wife. As he
approached the house he saw her coming to meet him, with silver
candlesticks in her hands.
But when she saw that his face was dark and threatening, and that
he was drawing a dagger from his belt, she ran to the bank of a
stream which flowed in front of the house, sprang into it, and was
carried away toward the sea.
“Let her go!” cried all the neighbors, who had come out to watch the
affair. “She is not worthy of a good home nor of a kind husband.” [163]
Now, farther down, there were fishermen upon the banks of the
stream. As the drowning girl was swept along by the current, the
nets caught her, and the fishermen, feeling something heavy in the
nets, made haste to draw them in. Their surprise upon finding a girl,
instead of a heavy draught of fishes, was very great. They hastened
to work over her until she had come to life, when—because she was
very beautiful—they began to quarrel as to whom she belonged.
Finally, as they were coming to blows, one of them said: “Let me

throw this arrow; then let all of us run after it. Whichever finds it first
shall have the prize.”
Accordingly, he threw the arrow, and all of them started off. While
they were engaged in seeking it the girl caught the opportunity to run
away. And as the one who threw the arrow was very strong of arm,
they were so long in finding it that she had accomplished a goodly
distance before they discovered their loss.
The poor girl ran and ran, until she met a Jew, who laid rough hands
upon her and said: “Ai, my girl! as you seem to belong to no one, I
am going to take you. You shall not be let to run wild in this manner.
Henceforth you are mine.”
Then the despairing girl held up the two silver [164]candlesticks—

which had been in her hands all the time—and while he was
securing them in his pack, she ran again, until she came to a
fountain, where she sat down exhausted.
While she was sitting thus, the son of the king of that country came
by, and, seeing her, sat down and talked with her. Notwithstanding
her weariness and all through which she had passed, her
attractiveness was so great that, after he had been beside the
fountain but a little while, he asked if she would accompany him to
the palace and become his bride.
To this she made answer: “Most gladly will I do this that you ask, O,
most noble prince! if you first will grant a request of mine.”
“It is granted already, my princess! Now tell it to me.”
“Since it is beside this fountain, and because of it, that I may have
been found by you, may I ask that an agreeable place may be built
here in which travelers may drink of the water and rest a little? And,
since you seem pleased to look at me, will you have my portrait put
into the bottom of the basin, so that all who lean over to drink in the
fountain may see it?”
“All this will I have done at once, my princess,” answered the prince.
He then took her by the hand and together they went to the palace.
[165]
The fountain was builded as described, and, not far away, a tiny
tower was put up from which the prince and the young woman whom
he had found could see all those who came to drink at the beautiful
fountain.
Now, it very soon happened that the fishermen, passing that way,
stopped to drink of the water which flowed clear and bright. As they
leaned over the marble basin they saw the girl’s image, and each fell
to the ground in a faint.
While they were lying thus the Jew approached, and, in stooping to
drink, he, too, lost his senses and fell down beside the others. Last
of all came the water-carrier; and no one needs wonder that
consciousness left him upon the instant.
Now, the one whose portrait had so distressed them all—the evil
each had done her being so upon his conscience that he felt the
image had come to wreak vengeance—was watching from the
window of the little tower.
“My prince,” said she, gently, “will you graciously come and look
toward the fountain?”
Upon seeing the fallen bodies of the men, he turned to her, saying:
“There is some mystery here. These men have wronged you in some
way.” And without waiting for an answer he commanded that they all
be put in irons. [166]
When they had recovered consciousness and were safely lodged in

prison, the prince and the young woman went in to look at them.
“O, prince, gracious and kind!” said she. “These fishermen drew me
out of the water, and, while they quarreled over me, I made my
escape. This Jew met me in my flight, treated me roughly, and would
have made me his slave, but, while he was dazzled with the silver
candlesticks in my hand, I fled again. This water-carrier was my
husband. Without granting me the privilege of proving myself
innocent, he believed evil reports which jealous persons related to
him, and came prepared to kill me. It was because of this that I tried
to drown myself.”
“Is all this possible?” exclaimed the astonished prince. “Then the Jew
and the fishermen shall be punished with forty stripes and forty days’
imprisonment. As for the water-carrier, do you decide what shall be
done with him. In this matter your word shall be my law.”
Thereupon the water-carrier fell down at the woman’s feet and

kissed the hem of her raiment. “Kill me, O, my beloved!” he cried,
“for, indeed, I am worthy only of death. But first grant thy forgiveness!
It was the madness of my love which drove me to kill thee, when
those evil tidings came. [167]I had been diligent in business, praying
Allah to grant me success, so that I might build a fitting home for
thee and me. And my efforts were crowned with the answer to my
prayer. At the very time when the tidings came, I was about to come
to thee with the precious news; and, therefore, was the more easily
incensed. But I ask not for mercy, O, my beloved! Do as thou wilt
with me. It will be just.”
“Then, if the prince will be gracious still, and I return unto thee, wilt
thou, henceforth, learn the truth before thou sharpenest thy dagger?”
“Canst thou believe me, O, my wife? A thousand times, yes!”
Then the prince, whose eyes were full, gave the woman to her
husband. They returned home, were married all over again; the
wedding was celebrated for forty days and forty nights, after which
they lived long and happily. Salaam! [168]

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(eBook PDF) An Introduction to

Business Ethics 6th Edition by Joseph

An Introduction to Business Ethics 6th Edition (eBook

(Original PDF) An Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Business Law 6th Edition by

(eBook PDF) The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to

(eBook PDF) Living Ethics: An Introduction with Reading

(eBook PDF) Environmental Ethics: An Introduction with

(eBook PDF) Business and Society A Strategic Approach

(eBook PDF) Second Opinion : An Introduction to Health

Chapter Six: Moral Rights in the Workplace 113

Chapter Seven: Employee Responsibilities 139

Chapter Eight: Marketing Ethics: Product Safety and Pricing 165

Chapter Nine: Marketing Ethics: Advertising and

Chapter Ten: Sustainability and the Natural Environment 213

Chapter Eleven: Workplace Diversity and Discrimination 234

Chapter Twelve: International Business and Globalization 260

to provide coverage of business-related topics in more general courses in applied or

NEW TO THE SIXTH EDITION

SUCCESSFUL SEMESTERS INCLUDE CONNECT

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Make it simple, make it affordable.

Solutions for your challenges.

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Learning for everyone.

Why Study Ethics?

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

DISCUSSION CASE: Wells Fargo: Who’s Responsible?

employees, whom we refer to as team members, to provide products and services to

1.1 BUSINESS ETHICS: THE WHAT AND THE WHY

Given this description, it is clear that business ethics is a multidisciplinary

1.2 BUSINESS ETHICS AS RESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING

There is an important philosophical challenge that faces an ethics course. One

1.3 SKEPTICAL CHALLENGE I: ISN’T THE LAW ENOUGH?

When morning came and the prince arose—what [145]should he find?

In obedience to the royal command, the executioner bound the

In this reunion of mother and children whole new worlds seemed to

Let these four remain in the summerhouse of the magnificent palace,

“My sultana!” he said, “here is the prince’s [149]clown. If you

Accordingly, as the clown was examining the outer walls of the

Let us return to the true prince.

These words served only to arouse the curiosity of the chamberlain.

“Your will should answer that, my lord!” was her reply.

The host commanded that the chamberlain’s clothes of state should

He sat down in astonishment at this strange matter. And the servants

“What manner of man is this, that he cannot remove his turban?”

So they led the chamberlain to the gates of the palace, when, as he

“Well, well!” he said to himself, as he picked it up. “You are a great

So he threw the troublesome thing upon the ground, hastened to

Let us return to the prince.

“It is you who know best,” answered the princess.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “Why have you all

The moment he stepped inside, the fairy prince, the princess—who

Speechless with astonishment, he suffered himself to be conducted

The surprise of the prince continued to grow; but, commanding

Whereupon all the children made answer in chorus: “Should one

At this answer the prince became dumb. [155]

“Now, if it be your good pleasure, and if you, graciously, will grant

And may Allah grant the same to us! [157]

“O, water-boy, water-boy! Which is the more beautiful, the vizier’s

The water-carrier gazed upon each in turn, then answered: “My

This testimony so wrought upon the jealous princess that she

Then, becoming afraid, he summoned a carpenter and had a walnut

“Here is a handsome fellow, whose heart surely will be touched into