This latest volume in the acclaimed Ruffin Series in Business Ethics brings together the contributions to the annual Ruffin Lecture series, in which some of the leading scholars in business ethics addressed the question: Can business, and business education, be considered one of the humanities, or is it in a class by itself? At a time when business is coming under attack for its apparent transgressions, this book iluminates the special values that inhere in the business world. Arguing all sides (...) of the issue, the distinguished contributors include Richard DeGeorge, Ronald Green, Thomas Dunfee, Robert Solomon, Edwin Hartman, Peter French, Patricia Werhane, Clarence Walton, W. Michael Hoffman, David Fedo, Kenneth Andrews, Joanne Ciulla, Manuel Velasquez, and George Brenkert. The editors contribute an informative Introduction and an Epilogue to set the debate in its proper context. (shrink)

This paper speculates upon the reasons for Peter Drucker's ongoing and vigorous denial of the relevance of business ethics. It contemplates whether Drucker consciously, or even perhaps subconsciously, associates the aims of business ethics with the aims of those associated with the Arbeitsfreude movement in Germany prior to the outbreak of the second world war. If this is the case the paper questions whether Drucker's distaste for some of the more notorious outcomes of that movement in Germany are reflected in (...) his hostility to business ethics. Drucker's reflections regarding the social responsibilities of business are discussed, as are the limitations which he imposes upon such corporate social responsibility. Drucker's distinction between societal ethics and individual ethics are also discussed. (shrink)

Reprint of the Knopf edition of 1972 with a new introduction by Fritz Stern. Now printed on acid-free paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Major biography and examination of the business philosophy of Peter Drucker, the century's most influential management thinker. For many business managers across the world, Peter Drucker is the Doyen of management theory. Born in Austria in 1909, Drucker was raised in Vienna between the wars. Emigrated to America in 1937, beginning a brilliant career in management. 1942, he became a Professor of Philosophy amd politics at Bennington college and later Professor of Management at New York University. He had an uncanny (...) ability to spot trends, years ahead of other thinkers who have since picked them up and made them the height of managerial fashion. Now 87, Drucker is the Professor of Social Sciences at Claremont Graduate School in California, and continues to teach and write with enthusiasm. An objective and at times critical assessment of his ideas and views, many of which were a head of their time, others simply radical. (shrink)