Workplace Ethics

The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904) is a political economy book by Thorstein Veblen which examines the growing corporate domination of culture and the economy. At its core, The Theory of Business Enterprise is an analysis of two intertwined but clashing motivations: that of business and that of industry. Business is the making of profits. Industry is the making of goods.

Eager to change the world? Learn how you can have a greater social impact through your everyday purchases. Covering topics that range from why not all factories are evil, to how our morning coffee can be the easiest way for us to use our purchasing power for good, Buy the Change You Want to See makes us better-informed consumers.

If things had gone Jignesh Shah's way, he would have been the Czar of Exchanges, a sterling exponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' programme. Shah pioneered creation of 10 new-generation regulated multi-asset (equity, commodity, currency, bond and electricity) financial markets just in 10 years across India, Singapore, Dubai, and Africa. No innovator has been credited with such accomplishments across the world.

Is your money safe? Charles Ponzi lent the Ponzi scheme its name, but he is not the first or the last to dupe investors with this age-old con. Bernard Madoff, Tom Petters, and others amassed billions before their arrests, but it is not all about the money. Find out what makes fraudsters tick, and how they swindle their victims. The biggest Ponzi scheme of all time is operating under the radar right now, unknown and undetected by regulators and unsuspecting investors.

A noted economist and human capital expert, together with a multidisciplinary team, show that we've entered a new era in which good corporate behavior is no longer optional, it's the new imperative for success-and they have the data to prove it. Their Good Company Index ranking of the Fortune 100 takes the belief in the bottom-line benefits of good behavior out of the realm of faith and into the realm of facts.

In this groundbreaking guide to building an ethical economy, Peter Brown and his colleagues at the Quaker Institute for the Future show readers how a system that embodies the core Quaker principle of "right relationship" can deliver a more equitable and sustainable future.

The book is broken up into various chapters of stupidity: Stupid Democrats, Stupid Republicans, Stupid Atheists, Stupid Christians, Stupid Criminals, Stupid Policies, Stupid People and so on.

In this Pulitzer entry, the author describes how we can find balance between our competitive drives and our cooperative drives so that we can operate at highest possible level, and shows us how nature relates to these traits and how they both tie into order and chaos, even to the universe. It gives us a dynamic equation for synthesizing cooperative order with competitive chaos, and teaches the universal law of co-opetition - which means to synthesize cooperation with competition.

Thirty years ago, the best-selling "letter to the government", Work in America, was published to national acclaim, including front-page coverage in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. It sounded an alarm about worker dissatisfaction and the effects on the nation as a whole.

What used to be shocking has somehow become the new normal. Sexual predators stalk interns at work. Parents try to buy a place for their kids in college. Leaders compromise morals for political advantage. It happens so frequently that we can no longer dismiss these cases as a few bad apples. Something in the system is rotten. How can someone get ahead and be successful in our modern culture without compromising their morality? What makes a good man or woman in this era of scandal? Respected cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken has the answer: a return to the ancient idea of honor.

In today's cut-throat, get-ahead-at-all-costs world, the idea of showing basic decency toward one another has sadly been pushed to the side. Yet, the power of respectful, positive leadership can be more impactful now than ever before. Gracious leaders stand apart because they have a better way. Leaders who listen with purpose, recognize they don't have all the answers, and demonstrate uncompromising respect to all can - and will - lead their teams to peak performance.

When we can live our lives first guided by what we believe and by who in our essence we are, it is much easier to know how to live and what to do. Riveted explores the importance of understanding your unique core values, and through 44 stories about real-life individuals who have embodied timeless values in exceptional ways, it helps you deepen your understanding of these essential values. In this way, you can solidify your own core values and lead a riveted life - one that is held together by purpose, passion, and principle.

Typically people react emotionally more severely to an exploited conflict of interest when a person gains a personal benefit such as through a bribe. If company, or even an office or department, stands to benefit inordinately, American society typically looks the other way on the institutional conflict of interest rather than taking it apart. This may just be human nature. However, the troubling institutional arrangements within an organization or between them may be tolerated because of the erroneous assumption that conflicts of interest are unethical only when they are exploited.

Meet the economic gangster. He's the United Nations diplomat who double-parks his Mercedes on New York City streets at rush hour because the cops can't touch him--he has diplomatic immunity. He's the Chinese smuggler who dodges tariffs by magically transforming frozen chickens into frozen turkeys. The dictator, the warlord, the unscrupulous bureaucrat who bilks the developing world of billions in aid

There is an invisible army of people deep inside the world’s biggest and best-known companies, pushing for safer and more responsible practices. They are trying to prevent the next Rana Plaza factory collapse, the next Deepwater Horizon explosion, the next Foxconn labor abuses. Obviously, they don’t always succeed. Christine Bader was one of those people. Using her story as its skeleton, Bader weaves in the stories of other “Corporate Idealists” working inside some of the world's biggest and best-known companies.

Provocative political commentator Arianna Huffington yanks back the curtain on the unholy alliance of CEOs, politicians, lobbyists, and Wall Street bankers who have shown a brutal disregard for those in office cubicles and on factory floors.

Investing with Impact: Why Finance Is a Force for Good outlines the roadmap to reinvigorate a skeptical public and demoralized financial services industry by making the case that contrary to popular misconception, finance is not the cause of the world's problems, in fact, it can provide the solution. Author Jeremy Balkin presents the case that the finance industry can improve the state of the world by positively influencing the allocation of capital.

"There are two birds, two sweet friends, who dwell in theselfsame tree," says the Upanishads. The first bird, dwelling on the lower part of the tree, lives "in sorrow and anxiety." Unable to see beyond the branches, it hops around compulsively indulging its appetites, eating every fruit, sweet and sour.

The other bird, higher up, can see the whole tree and the wider world - this perspective puts it in touch with its innate sense of being, the quality of existence that it shares in common with all other living beings.

In The Leap, bestselling author Ulrich Boser shows how the emerging research on trust can improve our lives, rebuild our economy, and strengthen society. As part of this engaging and deeply reported narrative, Boser visits a radio soap opera in Rwanda that aims to restore the country’s broken trust, profiles the man who brought honesty to one of the most corrupt cities in Latin America, and explains how a college dropout managed to con his way into American high society.

To be successful in the 21st century global marketplace you need many things--determination, well-articulated goals, and a bit of luck. But more than anything else, you need kindness. Kindness becomes the key business asset when you couple a caring attitude toward others with a focus on achieving your goals. Often people see business as a choice between being kind and being successful. This is a fictitious trade-off. Nice people are more successful.