Profits and Professions

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Professional Ethics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Professional Responsibility

      • Wade L. Robison

      Pages 3-8

   3. Professional Responsibility and the Responsibility of Professions

      • Kenneth Kipnis

      Pages 9-22

   4. Professionalization

      • Lisa H. Newton

      Pages 23-36

   5. Moral Responsibility in Professional Ethics

      • Gerald J. Postema

      Pages 37-63

   6. Professionals, Clients, and Others

      • Michael D. Bayles

      Pages 65-73

3. Business Ethics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75

      PDF

   2. Business Ethics

      • Joseph Ellin

      Pages 77-87

   3. Is Action Within the Law Morally Sufficient in Business?

      • L. Duane Willard

      Pages 89-99

   4. The Theoretical Twist to Irresponsibility in Business

      • Robert V. Hannaford

      Pages 101-112

   5. A Laissez Faire Approach to Business Ethics

      • Donald R. Koehn

      Pages 113-132

   6. The Business of Ethics

      • Norman Chase Gillespie

      Pages 133-140

   7. The Moral Status of Bluffing and Deception in Business

      • Thomas L. Carson, Richard E. Wokutch

      Pages 141-155

   8. The Social Business of Business

      • Richard T. De George

      Pages 157-174

4. Professionals in a Corporate Setting

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 175-175

      PDF

   2. Professionals in a Corporate Setting

      • Michael S. Pritchard

      Pages 177-182

   3. Moral Leadership in the Corporate Setting

      • William F. May

      Pages 183-213

   4. Accountability and the Bureaucratization of Corporations

      • Thomas Donaldson

      Pages 215-224

   5. Evaluating Codes of Professional Ethics

      • John Kultgen

      Pages 225-264

Suppose an accountant discovers evidence of shady practices while ex­ amining the books of a client. What should he or she do? Accountants have a professional obligation to respect the confidentiality of their cli­ ents' accounts. But, as an ordinary citizen, our accountant may feel that the authorities ought to be informed. Suppose a physician discov­ ers that a patient, a bus driver, has a weak heart. If the patient contin­ ues bus driving even after being informed of the heart condition, should the physician inform the driver's company? Respect for patient confidentiality would say, no. But what if the driver should suffer a heart attack while on duty, causing an accident in which people are killed or seriously injured? Would the doctor bear some responsibility for these consequences? Special obligations, such as those of confidentiality, apply to any­ one in business or the professions. These obligations articulate, at least in part, what it is for someone to be, say, an accountant or a physician. Since these obligations are special, they raise a real possibility of con­ flict with the moral principles we usually accept outside of these spe­ cial relationships in business and the professions. These conflicts may become more accentuated for a professional who is also a corporate employee-a corporate attorney, an engineer working for a construction company, a nurse working as an employee of a hospital.

• Whistleblowing
• autonomy
• confidentiality
• ethics
• morality

• Kalamazoo College, USA

  Wade L. Robison

• Western Michigan University, USA

  Michael S. Pritchard, Joseph Ellin

Policies and ethics