The Ethics Challenge: Strengthening Your Integrity in a Greedy World

by Bob Stone, Mick Ukleja

Overview

The news pages are full of unethical politicians, the sports pages full of rule breaking players and parents, the business pages full of sleazy companies and greedy CEOs, the education pages full of students who cheat on exams. What's a person to think? Perhaps you really do have to cheat to win. Perhaps you need to shade the truth to get ahead. Good people hear that ""everybody does it,"" and wonder.

Read THE ETHICS CHALLENGE: STRENGTHENING YOUR INTEGRITY IN A GREEDY WORLD and wonder no more. This breezy, story-filled guide to becoming a more ethical person explains why ethical behavior is a winning strategy, then lays out six things everyone can do to keep strong and to follow their good intentions. It prepares people to stick to their basic values in the face of ethical challenges they meet every day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614483069
Publisher:	Morgan James Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	164
File size:	462 KB

About the Author

Bob Stone served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Installations, where he radically decentralized authority, cut regulations, fostered excellence, and got into occasional hot water. He then led the White House effort to reinvent government. His Confessions of a Civil Servant: Lessons in Changing America's Government and Military, has been praised by senior aides to Presidents, by chiefs of the army, air force, and navy, and by the chairmen of Motorola, Harley Davidson, and TRW. Tom Peters calls the book ""maybe the best text ever on large-scale organizational change. Anywhere."" He is an internationally known author and speaker on ethical leadership, on leading change, and on reinventing government. He serves on the Governing Council of the Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership at California State University, Long Beach, and teaches business ethics at the University of Redlands. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from MIT.
Mick Ukleja is president of Leadershiptraq, a leadership-consulting firm. He helped found the Ukleja Center For Ethical Leadership at California State University, Long Beach, the second largest university in the state. His recent book, Who Are You And What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life, has been praised by legendary coach John Wooden and many prominent leaders and CEOs. Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, writes in the Foreword, ""This book is powerful. If you can answer the questions in a thoughtful way, you'll come out a better person, because you'll know who you are, what you're doing, and what's going to guide your journey."" He works with entrepreneurs and CEOs, and chairs the Board of Trustees of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation at the Kennedy Space Center, which oversees the Center for Space Education. He holds a B.A. in philosophy, a master's in Semitic languages, and a Ph.D. in theology.

Table of Contents

Dedication ix

Acknowledgements xiii

Closing the Integrity Gap xv

Part 1 Got Ethics? xix

1 The Ethics Challenge: Why is it that so many of the nicest people aren't as ethical as they think they are? 1

2 Obey Your Unenforceables: What rules of ethical behavior do you have, and how can you put them into practice? 9

Cheaters Never Win: Why do people think they can win by cheating, and why can't they? 17

Part 2 Strengthening Your Integrity in a Greedy World 23

4 Six Actions for Meeting the Ethics Challenge: How to strengthen your ethical behavior and grow as an ethical individual and leader 25

Part 3 Ethics at Work 39

5 Ethics for Bosses: How should bosses balance their own needs against those of their people and their organization? 41

6 Telling Truth to Power: How should one handle unwise or hurtful behavior by the boss or a friend? 49

7 Impartiality: How impartial can we really be, and what to do about it? 57

8 Giving and Receiving: What are the ethical issues around exchanging gifts with people who are neither friends nor family? 63

9 How Would it Look in the Paper? What is the relationship between appearances and ethics? 67

10 Breaking Rules: When is it ethical to break rules? 73

11 What's Fair?: Should organizations treat people all the same, or should they try to meet the special needs of each person? 77

12 Lies, White Lies, and Shiny Shoes: When are we being deceptive, and when is it OK? 83

Part 4 Ethics Around Us 89

13 Ethics in Politics: Do we put ethics aside when we think about politics? 91

14 How You Play the Game: Is winning or losing more important than how you play the game? 101

15Other People's Money: When is it legitimate to gain benefits from other people's property? 107

16 Ethics and the Media: How does an ethical person deal with sometimes unethical media, and what is his obligation to be informed? 117

17 Ethics and the Clergy: What should we do when our religious leaders preach the inferiority of others? 123

Appendix: The Three Theories of Ethics 129

Index 131

About the Authors 137

Notes 141

Editorial Reviews

"Please read The Ethics Challenge. Please act on it. Your professional and family life alikeliterally depend on it. Bravo!" — Tom Peters"uber-guru of management" (The Economist)"

From the Publisher