| 50-5091 | BJ1725 | 2012-20812 CIP | | Social & Behavioral Sciences Business, Management & Labor | | Gunsalus, C. K. The young professional’s survival guide: from cab fares to moral snares. Harvard, 2012. 216p index afp ISBN 0-674-04944-6, $26.95; ISBN 9780674049444, $26.95. Reviewed in 2013may CHOICE. | | Gunsalus (National Center for Professional and Research Ethics, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) discusses how to make ethical choices when problems arise in the workplace. Ethical scenarios are threaded throughout the text to illustrate issues, e.g., giving unauthorized employee discounts and posing as a customer to discover competitors’ prices. Every chapter provides recommendations on how to handle various ethical problems. The most interesting chapter is on why things go wrong. The author describes various ways a worker can succumb to unethical temptations, such as rationalizing marginal behavior and yielding to the group, boss, or the system. This chapter also discusses how to avoid problems in the first place by changing one’s mind-set of excessive self-interest. Other key topics include whistle-blowing, negotiating in good faith, cultivating a reputation and career, and setting boundaries. An appendix provides various scripts of what to say when confronted with various scenarios. For a more academic approach to behavioral ethics, consult Behavioral Business Ethics, edited by David De Cremer and Ann Tenbrunsel (CH, May’12, 49-5158). Summing Up: Recommended. All collections on career development, workplace behavior, and business ethics. — G. E. Kaupins, Boise State University |
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