Ethics at Work

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2000), "Ethics at Work", Library Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 49-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2000.21.1.49.2

Ethics have come back on to the corporate agenda in a big way. Kelley’s book is a view from inside management of how this happened and what its effects are. Best practice has taken on an ethical dimension (“do well by doing good”), as a result of an over‐emphasis on macho management, fat cats and sleaze, gender discrimination, affairs like Maxwell and Leeson, and a growing awareness of cultural and ethical diversity in global business practice. Kelley is Secretary‐General of the Music Industries Association and has wide experience of professional ethics.

This is a well‐structured, readable and up‐to‐date review of current ethical issues at work. It opens up principles (what is good, reasonable, personal or corporate, the ends and means debate), looks at both private and public sector organisations, demonstrates a wide knowledge of current work in the field (a good bibliography) and current issues (from the work of the Nolan Committee on standards in public life, and implications of the Social Chapter, to the role of law, self‐regulation, and professional bodies in the ethical life of the business and the wider community). He takes a stake‐holder approach to develop ideas and applications for owners (e.g. creative accounting, tendering), employees (e.g. whistle‐blowing, bullying), customers (e.g. consumer rights, advertising, inertia selling), suppliers (e.g. late payments), and the community (e.g. reasonable standards, accountability, environmental effects, ethical business). He points to the future as being one where “corporate citizenship” matters, even in a world of structural change, job insecurity, and e‐commerce.

The work adds an attractively intelligent and topical discussion to a busy field, although it is frustrating that Kelley does not answer his own, critical question (made at the start): to what extent can an ethical stance help the bottom‐line of a business? No analysis is offered, except discussion of The Body Shop, and solutions are merely implied. Material for another book perhaps and space for readers to go elsewhere for ethical audits? A timely book for the business library, good to dip into or to read systematically. Pity no paperback: it would sell well.