Business Ethics Ethical Decision Making Cases 11th Edition Ebook PDF Version

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viContents
PART 2: ETHICAL ISSUES AND Core or Best Practices 114

THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION Voluntary Responsibilities, 114 • Cause-Related
Marketing, 115 • Strategic Philanthropy, 116 • Social
OF BUSINESS ETHICS 59 Entrepreneurship, 116
The Importance of Institutionalization in Business
Chapter 3: Emerging Business Ethics Issues 59 Ethics 117
Chapter Objectives, 59 | Chapter Outline, 59 | Summary 118
An Ethical Dilemma 60
Important Terms for Review, 120 | Resolving Ethical
Recognizing an Ethical Issue (Ethical Awareness) 61 Business Challenges, 121 | Check Your EQ,122
Foundational Values for Identifying Ethical Issues 63
Integrity, 63 • Honesty, 63 • Fairness, 64
Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in Business 65
PART 3: THE DECISION-
Misuse of Company Time and Resources, 66 •
MAKING PROCESS 127
Abusive or Intimidating Behavior, 66 • Lying, 69 •
Conflicts of Interest, 69 • Bribery, 70 • Corporate Chapter 5: Ethical Decision Making 127
Intelligence, 71 • Discrimination, 72 • Sexual
Chapter Objectives, 127 | Chapter Outline, 127
Harassment, 74 • Fraud, 75 • Consumer Fraud, 79 •
Financial Misconduct, 80 • Insider Trading, 81 • An Ethical Dilemma 128
Intellectual Property Rights, 81 • Privacy Issues, 82 A Framework for Ethical Decision Making in
The Challenge of Determining an Ethical Issue in Business 129
Business 83 Ethical Issue Intensity, 129 • Individual Factors, 131 •
Summary 84 Organizational Factors, 133 • Opportunity, 136 •
Business Ethics Intentions, Behavior, and
Evaluations, 138
Business Challenges, 87 | Check Your EQ, 88
Using the Ethical Decision-Making Model to Improve
Chapter 4: The Institutionalization Ethical Decisions 139
of Business Ethics 93 Normative Considerations in Ethical Decision
Chapter Objectives, 93 | Chapter Outline, 93 | Making 140
An Ethical Dilemma 94 Institutions as the Foundation for Normative Values, 141 •
Managing Ethical Risk through Mandated and Voluntary Implementing Principles and Core Values in Ethical
Programs 95 Decision Making, 143
Mandated Requirements for Legal Compliance 97 Understanding Ethical Decision Making 145
Laws Regulating Competition, 99 • Laws Protecting Summary 146
Consumers, 101 • Laws Promoting Equity and Important Terms for Review, 147 | Resolving Ethical
Safety, 104 Business Challenges, 148 | Check Your EQ, 149
The Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act 105
Chapter 6: Individual Factors: Moral
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, 107 •
Auditor and Analyst Independence, 107 • Whistle-Blower
Philosophies and Values 153
Protection, 107 • Cost of Compliance, 108 Chapter Objectives, 153 | Chapter Outline, 153
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection An Ethical Dilemma 154
Act 108 Moral Philosophy Defined 155
Financial Agencies Created by the Dodd–Frank Act, Moral Philosophies 157
108 • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 109 •
Instrumental and Intrinsic Goodness, 157 •
Whistle-Blower Bounty Program, 109
Teleology, 159 • Deontology, 161 • Relativist
Laws That Encourage Ethical Conduct 110 Perspective, 163 • Virtue Ethics, 164 • Justice, 166
Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations 111 Applying Moral Philosophy to Ethical Decision
Making 167
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Contents vii
Cognitive Moral Development and Its Problems 169 An Ethics Program can Help Avoid Legal Problems, 222 •
White-Collar Crime 171 Values versus Compliance Programs, 224
Individual Factors in Business Ethics 174 Codes of Conduct 225
Summary 175 Ethics Officers 228
Important Terms for Review, 177 | Resolving Ethical Ethics Training and Communication 228
Business Challenges, 178 | Check Your EQ, 179 Systems to Monitor and Enforce Ethical Standards 231
Continuous Improvement of an Ethics Program, 232 •
Chapter 7: Organizational Factors: The Role
Common Mistakes in Designing and Implementing an
of Ethical Culture and Relationships 183 Ethics Program, 233
Chapter Objectives, 183 | Chapter Outline, 183
Summary 235
An Ethical Dilemma 184
Defining Corporate Culture 185 Business Challenges, 237 | Check Your EQ, 238
The Role of Corporate Culture in Ethical Decision
Making 187 Chapter 9: Managing and Controlling
Ethics Programs 241
Ethical Frameworks and Evaluations of Corporate
Culture, 189 • Ethics as a Component of Corporate Chapter Objectives, 241 | Chapter Outline, 241
Culture, 190 • Compliance versus Values-Based Ethical An Ethical Dilemma 242
Cultures, 191 • Differential Association, 193 • Whistle- Implementing an Ethics Program 243
Blowing, 194
The Ethics Audit 245
Leaders Influence Corporate Culture 197
Benefits of Ethics Auditing 246
Power Shapes Corporate Culture, 198 • Motivating
Ethical Behavior, 200 • Organizational Structure, 201 Ethical Crisis Management and Recovery, 249 •
Measuring Nonfinancial Ethical Performance, 250 • Risks
Group Dimensions of Corporate Structure and and Requirements in Ethics Auditing, 253
Culture 203
The Auditing Process 254
Types of Groups, 204 • Group Norms, 205
Secure Commitment of Top Managers and Board of
Variation in Employee Conduct 206 Directors, 256 • Establish a Committee to Oversee the
Can People Control Their Actions within a Corporate Ethics Audit, 256 • Define the Scope of the Audit Process,
Culture? 208 257 • Review Organizational Mission, Values, Goals, and
Summary 209 Policies and Define Ethical Priorities, 257 • Collect and
Analyze Relevant Information, 259 • Verify the Results,
Important Terms for Review, 210 | Resolving Ethical 262 • Report the Findings, 263
The Strategic Importance of Ethics Auditing 264
Summary 267
PART 4: IMPLEMENTING Important Terms for Review, 268 | Resolving Ethical
BUSINESS ETHICS IN A
GLOBAL ECONOMY 215 Chapter 10: Globalization of Ethical
Decision Making 274
Chapter 8: Developing an Effective Chapter Objectives, 274 | Chapter Outline, 274
Ethics Program 215 An Ethical Dilemma 275
Chapter Objectives, 215 | Chapter Outline, 215 Global Culture, Values, and Practices 276
An Ethical Dilemma 216 Economic Foundations of Business Ethics 279
The Responsibility of the Corporation to Stakeholders 217 Economic Systems, 281
The Need for Organizational Ethics Programs 219 Multinational Corporations 285
An Effective Ethics Program 221 Global Cooperation to Support Responsible Business 287
viiiContents
International Monetary Fund, 287 • United Nations Chapter 12: Sustainability: Ethical and
Global Compact, 288 • World Trade Organization, 289 Social Responsibility Dimensions 345
Global Ethics Issues 290 Chapter Objectives, 345 | Chapter Outline, 345
Global Ethical Risks, 290 • Bribery, 291 • Antitrust An Ethical Dilemma 346
Activity, 293 • Internet Security and Privacy, 294 • Defining Sustainability 347
Human Rights, 295 • Health Care, 296 • Labor
and Right to Work, 298 • Compensation, 298 • How Sustainability Relates to Ethical Decision Making and
Consumerism, 299 Social Responsibility 348
The Importance of Ethical Decision Making in Global Global Environmental Issues 350
Business 301 Atmospheric, 350 • Water, 352 • Land, 354
Summary 303 Environmental Legislation 357
Important Terms For Review, 304 | Resolving Ethical Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 358 •
Business Challenges, 305 | Check Your EQ, 306 Environmental Regulations, 358
Alternative Energy Sources 363
Chapter 11: Ethical leadership 310
Chapter Objectives, 310 | Chapter Outline, 310 Wind Power, 363 • Geothermal Power, 364 •
Solar Power, 364 • Nuclear Power, 364 • Biofuels, 365 •
An Ethical Dilemma 311 Hydropower, 365
Defining Ethical Leadership 312 Business Response to Sustainability Issues 366
Requirements for Ethical Leadership 315 Green Marketing, 367 • Greenwashing, 368
Benefits of Ethical Leadership 317 Strategic Implementation of Environmental
Ethical Leadership and Organizational Culture 318 Responsibility 369
Managing Ethical Business Conflicts 320 Recycling Initiatives, 369 • Stakeholder Assessment, 370 •
Conflict Management Styles, 321 Risk Analysis, 371 • The Strategic Environmental
Audit, 372
Ethical Leaders Empower Employees 323
Summary 373
Ethical Leadership Communication 324
Ethical Leadership Communication Skills, 325 Business Challenges, 375 | Check Your EQ, 376
Leader–Follower Relationships 328
Ethics Programs and Communication, 329 • Power
Differences and Workplace Politics, 330 • Feedback, 330
Leadership Styles and Ethical Decisions 331
The RADAR Model 334
Summary 336
Important Terms for Review , 338 | Resolving Ethical
Contents ix
PART 5: CASES 380 Case 11: Frauds of the Century 517

Case 12: Insider Trading at the Galleon Group 528
Case 1: Monsanto Attempts to Balance Stakeholder
Case 13: Whole Foods Strives to Be an Ethical Corporate
Interests 382
Citizen 537
Case 2: Starbucks Mission: Social Responsibility and
Case 14: Apple Inc.’s Ethical Success and Challenges 551
Brand Strength 396
Case 15: PepsiCo’s Journey Toward an Ethical and Socially
Case 3: Walmart Manages Ethics and Compliance
Responsible Culture 566
Challenges 407
Case 16: Ethical Leadership at Cardinal IG: The
Case 4: Sustainability Challenges in the Gas and Oil
Foundation of a Culture of Diversity 581
Industry 427
Case 17: Belle Meade Plantation: The First Nonprofit
Case 5: New Belgium Brewing: Engaging in Sustainable
Winery Engages in Social Entrepreneurship 590
Social Responsibility 437
Case 18: Managing the Risks of Global Bribery in
Case 6: National Collegiate Athletic Association Ethics
Business 599
and Compliance Program 447
Case 19: Multilevel Marketing under Fire: Herbalife
Case 7: Google: The Quest to Balance Privacy with
Defends Its Business Model 611
Profit 461
Case 20: The Mission of CVS: Corporate Social
Case 8: Zappos: Stepping Forward in Stakeholder
Responsibility and Pharmacy Innovation 631
Satisfaction 483
Index I-643
Case 9: Enron: Questionable Accounting Leads to
Collapse 496
Case 10: Lululemon: Encouraging a Healthier
Lifestyle 508
PREFACE
This is the Eleventh Edition of Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases. Our
text has become the most widely used business ethics book, with approximately one out of
three business ethics courses in schools of business using our text. We were the first major
business ethics textbook to use a managerial framework that integrates ethics into stra-
tegic decisions. Today in corporate America, ethics and compliance has become a major
functional area that structures responsible managerial decision making. Now that ethics
has been linked to financial performance, there is growing recognition that business ethics
courses are as important as other functional areas such as marketing, accounting, finance,
and management.
Our approach is to help students understand and participate in effective ethical deci-
sion making in organizations. We approach business ethics from an applied perspective,
focusing on conceptual frameworks, risks, issues, and dilemmas that will be faced in the
real world of business. We prepare students for the challenges they will face in understand-
ing how organizational ethical decision making works. We describe how ethical decisions
in an organization involve collaboration in groups, teams, and discussions with peers.
Many decisions fall into gray areas where the right decision may not be clear and requires
the use of organizational resources and the advice of others. Students will face many ethical
challenges in their careers, and our approach helps them to understand risks and be pre-
pared to address ethical dilemmas. One approach to business ethics education is to include
only a theoretical foundation related to ethical reasoning. Our method is to provide a bal-
anced approach that includes the concepts of ethical reasoning as well as the organizational
environment that influences ethical decision making.
The Eleventh Edition includes the most comprehensive changes we have made in any
revision. Each chapter has been revised based on the latest research and knowledge avail-
able. Throughout the book, up-to-date examples are used to make foundational concepts
come to life. There are 4 new cases, and the other 16 cases have been revised with all major
changes occurring through the middle of 2015. The most significant change is the inclu-
sion of social entrepreneurship in Chapter 4. Social entrepreneurship is a growing trend as
organizations and individuals realize they can use entrepreneurial principles to effect social
change. One of our cases, Belle Meade, strongly demonstrates how a nonprofit is able to use
the same type of entrepreneurial activities found in business. It develops and sells wine to
create sustainability for its organization, making it the nation’s first nonprofit winery.
Using a managerial framework, we explain how ethics can be integrated into stra-
tegic business decisions. This framework provides an overview of the concepts, processes,
Preface xi
mandatory, core, and voluntary business practices associated with successful business eth-
ics programs. Some approaches to business ethics are excellent as exercises in intellectual
reasoning, but they cannot deal with the many actual issues and considerations that people
in business organizations face. Our approach supports ethical reasoning and the value of
individuals being able to face ethical challenges and voice their concerns about appropriate
behavior. Employees in organizations are ultimately in charge of their own behavior and
need to be skillful in making decisions in gray areas where the appropriate conduct is not
always obvious.
We have been diligent in this revision to provide the most relevant examples of how
the lack of business ethics has challenged our economic viability and entangled countries
and companies around the world. This book remains the market leader because it addresses
the complex environment of ethical decision making in organizations and pragmatic, actual
business concerns. Every individual has unique personal principles and values, and every
organization has its own set of values, rules, and organizational ethical culture. Business
ethics must consider the organizational culture and interdependent relationships between
the individual and other significant persons involved in organizational decision making.
Without effective guidance, a businessperson cannot make ethical decisions while facing a
short-term orientation, feeling organizational pressure to perform well and seeing rewards
based on outcomes in a challenging competitive environment.
By focusing on individual issues and organizational environments, this book gives
students the opportunity to see roles and responsibilities they will face in business. The
past decade has reinforced the value of understanding the role of business ethics in the
effective management of an organization. Widespread misconduct reported in the mass
media every day demonstrates that businesses, governments, nonprofits, and institutions
of higher learning need to address business ethics.
Our primary goal has always been to enhance the awareness and the ethical decision-
making skills that students will need to make business ethics decisions that contribute to
responsible business conduct. By focusing on these concerns and issues of today’s challeng-
ing business environment, we demonstrate that the study of business ethics is imperative to
the long-term well-being of not only businesses, but also our economic system.
PHILOSOPHY OF THIS TEXT

The purpose of this book is to help students improve their ability to make ethical decisions
in business by providing them with a framework that they can use to identify, analyze, and
resolve ethical issues in business decision making. Individual values and ethics are impor-
tant in this process. By studying business ethics, students begin to understand how to cope
with conflicts between their personal values and those of the organization.
Many ethical decisions in business are close calls. It often takes years of experience
in a particular industry to know what is acceptable. We do not, in this book, provide ethi-
cal answers but instead attempt to prepare students to make informed ethical decisions.
First, we do not moralize by indicating what to do in a specific situation. Second, although
we provide an overview of moral philosophies and decision-making processes, we do not
prescribe any one philosophy or process as best or most ethical. Third, by itself, this book
will not make students more ethical nor will it tell them how to judge the ethical behavior
of others. Rather, its goal is to help students understand and use their current values and
xiiPreface
convictions in making business decisions and to encourage everyone to think about the
effects of their decisions on business and society.
Many people believe that business ethics cannot be taught. Although we do not claim
to teach ethics, we suggest that by studying business ethics a person can improve ethical
decision making by identifying ethical issues and recognizing the approaches available to
resolve them. An organization’s reward system can reinforce appropriate behavior and help
shape attitudes and beliefs about important issues. For example, the success of some cam-
paigns to end racial or gender discrimination in the workplace provides evidence that atti-
tudes and behavior can be changed with new information, awareness, and shared values.
CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION

In writing Business Ethics, Eleventh Edition, we strived to be as informative, complete,
accessible, and up-to-date as possible. Instead of focusing on one area of ethics, such as
moral philosophy or social responsibility, we provide balanced coverage of all areas rele-
vant to the current development and practice of ethical decision making. In short, we have
tried to keep pace with new developments and current thinking in teaching and practices.
The first half of the text consists of 12 chapters, which provide a framework to identify,
analyze, and understand how businesspeople make ethical decisions and deal with ethical
issues. Several enhancements have been made to chapter content for this edition. Some of
the most important are listed in the next paragraphs.
Part 1, “An Overview of Business Ethics,” includes two chapters that help provide
a broader context for the study of business ethics. Chapter 1, “The Importance of Busi-
ness Ethics,” has been revised with many new examples and survey results to describe
issues and concerns important to business ethics. Chapter 2, “Stakeholder Relationships,
Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance,” has been significantly reorganized and
updated with new examples and issues.
Part 2, “Ethical Issues and the Institutionalization of Business Ethics,” consists of two
chapters that provide the background that students need to identify ethical issues and
understand how society, through the legal system, has attempted to hold organizations
responsible for managing these issues. Chapter 3, “Emerging Business Ethics Issues,” has
been reorganized and updated and provides expanded coverage of business ethics issues.
Chapter 4, “The Institutionalization of Business Ethics” examines key elements of core or
best practices in corporate America today along with legislation and regulation require-
ments that support business ethics initiatives. The chapter is divided into three main areas:
voluntary, mandated, and core boundaries.
Part 3, “The Decision-Making Process” consists of three chapters, which provide a
framework to identify, analyze, and understand how businesspeople make ethical deci-
sions and deal with ethical issues. Chapter 5, “Ethical Decision Making,” has been revised
and updated to reflect current research and understanding of ethical decision making
and contains a section on normative considerations in ethical decision making. Chapter
6, “Individual Factors: Moral Philosophies and Values,” has been updated and revised to
explore the role of moral philosophies and moral development as individual factors in the
ethical decision-making process. Chapter 7, “Organizational Factors: The Role of Ethical
Culture and Relationships,” considers organizational influences on business decisions, such
as role relationships, differential association, and other organizational pressures, as well as
whistle-blowing.
Preface xiii
Part 4, “Implementing Business Ethics in a Global Economy,” looks at specific mea-

sures that companies can take to build an effective ethics program as well as how these
programs may be affected by global issues, leadership, and sustainability issues. Chapter
8, “Developing an Effective Ethics Program,” has been refined and updated with corporate
best practices for developing effective ethics programs. Chapter 9, “Managing and Con-
trolling Ethics Programs,” offers a framework for auditing ethics initiatives as well as the
importance of doing so. Such audits can help companies pinpoint problem areas, measure
their progress in improving conduct, and even provide a “debriefing” opportunity after a
crisis. Chapter 10, “Globalization of Ethical Decision Making” has been updated to reflect
the complex and dynamic events that occur in global business. This chapter will help stu-
dents understand the major issues involved in making decisions in a global environment.
Chapter 11 focuses on ethical leadership. Reviewers indicated that they wanted more infor-
mation provided on the importance of leadership to an ethical culture, and this chapter
answers these requests. Finally, Chapter 12 is a chapter on sustainability. It examines the
ethical and social responsibility dimensions of sustainability.
Part 5 consists of 20 cases in the texts that bring reality into the learning process. Four
of these cases are new to the eleventh edition, and the remaining 14 have been revised
and updated. In addition, four shorter cases are available on the Instructor’s Companion
website:
• Toyota: Challenges in Maintaining Integrity
• The Container Store: An Employee-centric Retailer
• The Ethics Program at Eaton Corporation
• Barrett-Jackson Auction Company: Family, Fairness, and Philanthropy
The companies and situations portrayed in these cases are real; names and other facts
are not disguised; and all cases include developments up to the middle of 2015. By reading
and analyzing these cases, students can gain insight into ethical decisions and the realities
of making decisions in complex situations.
TEXT FEATURES
Many tools are available in this text to help both students and instructors in the quest to
improve students’ ability to make ethical business decisions.
• Each chapter opens with an outline and a list of learning objectives.
• Immediately following is “An Ethical Dilemma” that should provoke discussion about
ethical issues related to the chapter. The short vignette describes a hypothetical inci-
dent involving an ethical conflict. Questions at the end of the “Ethical Dilemma” sec-
tion focus discussion on how the dilemma could be resolved. All new ethical dilem-
mas have been provided for this edition.
• Each chapter has a contemporary real-world debate issue. Many of these debate issues
have been updated to reflect current ethical issues in business. These debate issues have
been found to stimulate thoughtful discussion relating to content issues in the chap-
ter. Topics of the debate issues include the truthfulness of health claims, the universal
health care debate, the contribution of ethical conduct to financial performance, legis-
lation concerning whistle-blowing, and the impact of carbon emission restrictions.
xivPreface
• At the end of each chapter are a chapter summary and an important terms’ list, both of
which are handy tools for review. Also included at the end of each chapter is a “Resolv-
ing Ethical Business Challenges” section. The vignette describes a realistic drama that
helps students experience the process of ethical decision making. The “Resolving Ethi-
cal Business Challenges” minicases presented in this text are hypothetical; any resem-
blance to real persons, companies, or situations is coincidental. Keep in mind that
there are no right or wrong solutions to the minicases.
The ethical dilemmas and real-life situations provide an opportunity for students to use
concepts in the chapter to resolve ethical issues.
Each chapter concludes with a series of questions that allow students to test their EQ
(Ethics Quotient).
• Cases. In Part 5, following each real-world case are questions to guide students in rec-
ognizing and resolving ethical issues. For some cases, students can conduct additional
research to determine recent developments because many ethical issues in companies
take years to resolve.
EFFECTIVE TOOLS FOR TEACHING

AND LEARNING
Instructor’s Resource Website. You can find the following teaching tools on the password-
protected instructor site.
• Instructor’s Resource Manual. The Instructor’s Resource Manual contains a wealth of
information. Teaching notes for every chapter include a brief chapter summary, de-
tailed lecture outline, and notes for using the “Ethical Dilemma” and “Resolving Ethi-
cal Business Challenges” sections. Detailed case notes point out the key issues involved
and offer suggested answers to the questions. A separate section provides guidelines
for using case analysis in teaching business ethics. Detailed notes are provided to
guide the instructor in analyzing or grading the cases. Simulation role-play cases, as
well as implementation suggestions, are included.
• Role-Play Cases. The eleventh edition provides six behavioral simulation role-play
cases developed for use in the business ethics course. The role-play cases and imple-
mentation methods can be found in the Instructor’s Resource Manual and on the web-
site. Role-play cases may be used as a culminating experience to help students inte-
grate concepts covered in the text. Alternatively, the cases may be used as an ongoing
exercise to provide students with extensive opportunities for interacting and making
ethical decisions.
Role-play cases simulate a complex, realistic, and timely business ethics situation. Stu-
dents form teams and make decisions based on an assigned role. The role-play case com-
plements and enhances traditional approaches to business learning experiences because
it (1) gives students the opportunity to practice making decisions that have business eth-
ics consequences; (2) recreates the power, pressures, and information that affect decision
Preface xv
making at various levels of management; (3) provides students with a team-based experi-
ence that enriches their skills and understanding of group processes and dynamics; and (4)
uses a feedback period to allow for the exploration of complex and controversial issues in
business ethics decision making. The role-play cases can be used with classes of any size.
• Cengage Learning Testing Powered by Cognero. This is a flexible, online system
that allows you to author, edit, and manage test bank content from multiple Cengage
Learning solutions; create multiple test versions in an instant; and deliver tests from
your LMS, your classroom or wherever you want.
B-Reality Simulation: This online simulation helps to reinforce basic business ethics
concepts, increases textbook comprehension, and helps the user better understand that
business decisions usually have an ethics, moral, and/or legal component. The simulation
makes no judgments; rather, it takes what is imputed by the user, and at the end of each
year it explains whether the user acted ethically, unethically, legally/illegally, and why. At
the end of four decades of decisions, a report is generated giving a list of the user’s mor-
als, income, promotions, and how the company defined which decisions were ethical or
unethical and which were legal or illegal. Users better understand all angles of the reality of
their business decisions before they confront them in the workplace.
Additional Teaching Resources. The University of New Mexico (UNM) Daniels Fund
Ethics Initiative is part of a four-state initiative to develop teaching resources to support
principle-based ethics education. Their publicly accessible website contains original cases,
debate issues, videos, interviews, and PowerPoint modules on select business ethics top-
ics, as well as other resources such as articles on business ethics education. It is possible to
access this website at http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu.
Students also have the ability to receive ethical leadership certification from the
National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) Center for Public Trust.
This program is comprised of six modules of online content (delivered through Brain-
shark, containing videos, graphics, and a voice over). At the end of each of the six modules,
students will take an online examination through NASBA. When students complete all six
modules successfully, they will receive NASBA Center for the Public Trust Ethical Leader-
ship Certification. As business ethics increases in importance, such certification can give
your students an edge in the workplace. For more information, visit https://www.thecpt.
org/ethical-leadership-certification-program/.
xviPreface
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A number of individuals provided reviews and suggestions that helped to improve this
text. We sincerely appreciate their time and effort.
Donald Acker A. Charles Drubel
Brown Mackie College Muskingum College
Donna Allen Philip F. Esler
Northwest Nazarene University University of Gloucestershire
Suzanne Allen Joseph M. Foster
Philanthropy Ohio Indiana Vocational Technical
Carolyn Ashe College—Evansville
University of Houston—Downtown Lynda Fuller
Laura Barelman Wilmington University
Wayne State College Terry Gable
Truman State University
Russell Bedard
Eastern Nazarene College Robert Giacalone
University of Richmond
B. Barbara Boerner
Brevard College Suresh Gopalan
Winston-Salem University
Serena Breneman
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Karen Gore
Ivy Technical College
Lance Brown
Miami Dade College Mark Hammer
Northwest Nazarene University
Judie Bucholz
Guilford College Charles E. Harris, Jr.
Texas A&M University
Greg Buntz
Conflict Resolution Center of Iowa, LLC Kenneth A. Heischmidt
Southeast Missouri State University
Hoa Burrows
Neil Herndon
Miami Dade College
South China University of Technology
Robert Chandler
Walter Hill
University of Central Florida
Green River Community College
April Chatham-Carpenter
Jack Hires
University of Northern Iowa
Valparaiso University
Leslie Connell David Jacobs
University of Central Florida Morgan State University
Peggy Cunningham R. J. Johansen
Dalhousie University Montana State University—Bozeman
Carla Dando Jeff Johnson
Idaho State University Athens State University
James E. Donovan Eduard Kimman
Detroit College of Business Vrije Universiteit
Douglas Dow Janet Knight
University of Texas at Dallas Purdue North Central
Preface xvii
Anita Leffel Sharon Palmitier

University of Texas at San Antonio Grand Rapids Community College
Barbara Limbach Lee Richardson
Chadron State College University of Baltimore
Victor Lipe James Salvucci
Trident Tech Curry College
Nick Lockard William M. Sannwald
Texas Lutheran College San Diego State University
Terry Loe Ruth Schaa
Kennesaw State University Black River Technical College
Nick Maddox Zachary Shank
Stetson University Central New Mexico Community College
Isabelle Maignan Cynthia A. M. Simerly
Dutchwaters B.V. Lakeland Community College
Phylis Mansfield Karen Smith
Pennsylvania State University—Erie Columbia Southern University
Robert Markus Filiz Tabak
Babson College Towson University
Therese Maskulka Debbie Thorne
Kutztown University Texas State University—San Marcos
Randy McLeod Wanda V. Turner
Harding University Ferris State College
Francy Milner Gina Vega
University of Colorado Salem State College
Ali Mir William C. Ward
William Paterson University Mid-Continent University
Debi P. Mishra David Wasieleski
Binghamton University, State University Duquesne University
of New York Jim Weber
Patrick E. Murphy Duquesne University
University of Notre Dame Ed Weiss
Lester Myers National-Louis University
Georgetown University Joseph W. Weiss
Catherine Neal Bentley University
Northern Kentucky University Jan Zahrly
Cynthia Nicola University of North Dakota
Carlow College
Carol Nielsen
Bemidji State University
xviiiPreface
We wish to acknowledge the many people who assisted us in writing this book. We are
deeply grateful to Jennifer Sawayda for her work in organizing and managing the revi-
sion process. Finally, we express appreciation to the administration and to colleagues at the
University of New Mexico, Belmont University, and Southern Illinois University at Car-
bondale for their support.
We invite your comments, questions, or criticisms. We want to do our best to provide
teaching materials that enhance the study of business ethics. Your suggestions will be sin-
cerely appreciated.
– O. C. Ferrell
– John Fraedrich
– Linda Ferrell
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
•• Explore conceptualizations of business
ethics from an organizational perspective
•• Examine the historical foundations and
CHAPTER 1 ••
evolution of business ethics
Provide evidence that ethical value
systems support business performance
•• Gain insight into the extent of ethical
misconduct in the workplace and the
pressures for unethical behavior
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Business Ethics Defined

Why Study Business Ethics?
A Crisis in Business Ethics
Specific Issues
The Reasons for Studying
Business Ethics
The Development of Business Ethics
Before 1960: Ethics in Business
The 1960s: The Rise of Social
Issues in Business
The 1970s: Business Ethics
as an Emerging Field
THE IMPORTANCE OF The 1980s: Consolidation
The 1990s: Institutionalization
BUSINESS ETHICS of Business Ethics
The Twenty-First Century
of Business Ethics
Developing an Organizational and Global
Ethical Culture
The Benefits of Business Ethics
Ethics Contributes to
Employee Commitment
Ethics Contributes to Investor Loyalty
Ethics Contributes to
Customer Satisfaction
Ethics Contributes to Profits
Our Framework for Studying Business
Ethics
© ZoranKrstic/Shutterstock.com
AN ETHICAL DILEMMA*
Sophie just completed a sales training course with one of “It’s easy. Every cab driver will give you blank receipts
the firm’s most productive sales representatives, Emma. At for cab fares. I usually put the added expenses there. We
the end of the first week, Sophie and Emma sat in a motel all do it,” said Emma. “As long as everyone cooperates,
room filling out their expense vouchers for the week. Sophie the Vice President of Sales doesn’t question the expense
casually remarked to Emma that the training course stressed vouchers. I imagine she even did it when she was a lowly
the importance of accurately filling out expense vouchers. salesperson.”
Emma replied, “I’m glad you brought that up, Sophie. “What if people don’t go along with this arrangement?”
The company expense vouchers don’t list the categories asked Sophie.
we need. I tried many times to explain to the accountants “In the past, we have had some who reported it like
that there are more expenses than they have boxes for. The corporate wants us to. I remember there was a person who
biggest complaint we, the salespeople, have is that there is didn’t report the same amounts as the co-worker traveling
no place to enter expenses for tipping waitresses, waiters, with her. Several months went by and the accountants
cab drivers, bell hops, airport baggage handlers, and the came in, and she and all the salespeople that traveled
like. Even the government assumes tipping and taxes them together were investigated. After several months the
as if they were getting an 18 percent tip. That’s how service one who ratted out the others was fired or quit, I can’t
people actually survive on the lousy pay they get from their remember. I do know she never worked in our industry
bosses. I tell you, it is embarrassing not to tip. One time I again. Things like that get around. It’s a small world for
was at the airport and the skycap took my bags from me good salespeople, and everyone knows everyone.”
so I didn’t have the hassle of checking them. He did all the “What happened to the other salespeople who were
paper work and after he was through, I said thank you. He investigated?” Sophie asked.
looked at me in disbelief because he knew I was in sales. It “There were a lot of memos and even a 30-minute video
took me a week to get that bag back.” as to the proper way to record expenses. All of them had
“After that incident I went to the accounting conversations with the vice president, but no one was fired.”
department, and every week for five months I told them “No one was fired even though it went against policy?”
they needed to change the forms. I showed them the Sophie asked Emma.
approximate amount the average salesperson pays in tips “At the time, my conversation with the VP went
per week. Some of them were shocked at the amount. But basically this way. She told me that corporate was not going
would they change it or at least talk to the supervisor? No! So to change the forms, and she acknowledged it was not
I went directly to him, and do you know what he said to me?” fair or equitable to the salespeople. She hated the head
“No, what?” asked Sophie. accountant because he didn’t want to accept the reality of
“He told me that this is the way it has always been a salesperson’s life in the field. That was it. I left the office
done, and it would stay that way. He also told me if I tried to and as I walked past the Troll’s office—that’s what we call
go above him on this, I’d be looking for another job. I can’t the head accountant—he just smiled at me.”
chance that now, especially in this economy. Then he had This was Sophie’s first real job out of school and Emma
the nerve to tell me that salespeople are paid too much, was her mentor. What should Sophie report on her expense
and that’s why we could eat the added expenses. We’re the report?
only ones who actually generate revenue and he tells me
that I’m overpaid!” QUESTIONS | EXERCISES
“So what did you do?” inquired Sophie. 1. Identify the issues Sophie has to resolve.
“I do what my supervisor told me years ago. I pad my 2. Discuss the alternatives for Sophie.
account each week. For me, I tip 20 percent, so I make 3. What should Sophie do if company policy appears to
sure I write down when I tip and add that to my overall conflict with the firm’s corporate culture?
expense report.”
“But that goes against company policy. Besides, how *This
case is strictly hypothetical; any resemblance to real persons,
do you do it?” asked Sophie. companies, or situations is coincidental.
Chapter 1: The Importance of Business Ethics 3
T
he ability to anticipate and deal with business ethics issues and dilemmas has become
a significant priority in the twenty-first century. In recent years, a number of well-
publicized scandals resulted in public outrage about deception, fraud, and distrust in
business and a subsequent demand for improved business ethics, greater corporate respon-
sibility, and laws to protect the financially innocent. The publicity and debate surrounding
highly publicized legal and ethical lapses at well-known firms highlight the need for busi-
nesses to integrate ethics and responsibility into all business decisions. On the other hand,
the majority of ethical businesses with no or few ethical lapses are rarely recognized in the
mass media for their conduct, mainly because good companies doing business the right
way do not generate media interest.
Highly visible business ethics issues influence the public’s attitudes toward business
and destroy trust. Ethically charged decisions are a part of everyday life for those who
work in organizations at all levels. Business ethics is not just an isolated personal issue;
codes, rules, and informal communications for responsible conduct are embedded in
an organization’s operations. This means ethical or unethical conduct is the province of
everyone who works in an organizational environment, from the lowest level employee to
the CEO.
Making good ethical decisions are just as important to business success as master-
ing management, marketing, finance, and accounting. While education and training
emphasize functional areas of business, business ethics is often viewed as easy to master,
something that happens with little effort. The exact opposite is the case. Decisions with
an ethical component are an everyday occurrence requiring people to identify issues and
make quick decisions. Ethical behavior requires understanding and identifying issues, areas
of risk, and approaches to making choices in an organizational environment. On the other
hand, people can act unethically simply by failing to identify a situation that has an ethical
issue. Ethical blindness results from individuals who fail to sense the nature and complex-
ity of their decisions.1 Some approaches to business ethics look only at the philosophical
backgrounds of individuals and the social consequences of decisions. This approach fails
to address the complex organizational environment of businesses and pragmatic business
concerns. By contrast, our approach is managerial and incorporates real-world decisions
that impact the organization and stakeholders. Our book will help you better understand
how business ethics is practiced in the business world.
It is important to learn how to make decisions in the internal environment of an
organization to achieve personal and organizational goals. But business does not exist in
a vacuum. As stated, decisions in business have implications for investors, employees, cus-
tomers, suppliers, and society. Ethical decisions must take these stakeholders into account,
for unethical conduct can negatively affect people, companies, industries, and society as
a whole. Our approach focuses on the practical consequences of decisions and on posi-
tive outcomes that have the potential to contribute to individuals, business, and society
at large. The field of business ethics deals with questions about whether specific conduct
and business practices are acceptable. For example, should a salesperson omit facts about a
product’s poor safety record in a sales presentation to a client? Should accountants report
inaccuracies they discover in an audit of a client, knowing the auditing company will prob-
ably be fired by the client for doing so? Should an automobile tire manufacturer intention-
ally conceal safety concerns to avoid a massive and costly tire recall? Regardless of their
legality, others will certainly judge the actions in such situations as right or wrong, ethical
or unethical. By its very nature, the field of business ethics is controversial, and there is no
universally accepted approach for resolving its dilemmas.
4 Part 1: An Overview of Business Ethics
All organizations have to deal with misconduct. Even prestigious colleges such as Har-
vard and Dartmouth are not exempt. Students at Dartmouth were disciplined for cheat-
ing on their attendance and participation in an undergraduate ethics course. Because the
course used hand clickers registered to each student as a sign of attendance and participa-
tion, students who wanted to cut class would give their hand clickers to other classmates.2
Two administrators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill oversaw courses
where the students—often athletes—did not have to show up. The courses included lec-
tures that never met spanning back to the 1990s. 3
Before we get started, it is important to state our approach to business ethics.
First, we do not moralize by stating what is right or wrong in a specific situation, although
we offer background on normative guidelines for appropriate conduct. Second, although
we provide an overview of group and individual decision-making processes, we do not
prescribe one approach or process as the best or most ethical. However, we provide many
examples of successful ethical decision making. Third, by itself, this book will not make
you more ethical, nor will it give you equations on how to judge the ethical behavior of
others. Rather, its goal is to help you understand, use, and improve your current values
and convictions when making business decisions so you think about the effects of those
decisions on business and society. Our approach will help you understand what busi-
nesses are doing to improve their ethical conduct. To this end, we aim to help you learn
to recognize and resolve ethical issues within business organizations. As a manager, you
will be responsible for your decisions and the conduct of the employees you supervise.
For this reason, we provide a chapter on ethical leadership. The framework we developed
focuses on how organizational decisions are made and on ways companies can improve
their ethical conduct. This process is more complex than many think. People who believe
they know how to make the “right” decision usually come away with more uncertainty
about their own decision skills after learning about the complexity of ethical decision
making. This is a normal occurrence, and our approach will help you evaluate your own
values as well as those of others. It also helps you to understand the nature of business
ethics and incentives found in the workplace that change the way you make decisions in
business versus at home.
In this chapter, we first develop a definition of business ethics and discuss why it has
become an important topic in business education. We also discuss why studying business
ethics can be beneficial. Next, we examine the evolution of business ethics in North Amer-
ica. Then we explore the performance benefits of ethical decision making for businesses.
Finally, we provide a brief overview of the framework we use for examining business ethics
in this text.
BUSINESS ETHICS DEFINED

To understand business ethics, you must first recognize that most people do not have spe-
cific definitions they use to define ethics-related issues. The terms morals, principles, val-
ues, and ethics are often used interchangeably, and you will find this is true in companies
as well. Consequently, there is much confusion regarding this topic. To help you under-
stand these differences, we discuss these terms.
For our purposes, morals refer to a person’s personal philosophies about what is right
or wrong. The important point is that when one speaks of morals, it is personal or s ingular.
Morals, your philosophies or sets of values of right and wrong, relate to you and you alone.
You may use your personal moral convictions in making ethical decisions in any context.
Business ethics comprises organizational principles, values, and norms that may originate
from individuals, organizational statements, or from the legal system that primarily guide
individual and group behavior in business. Principles are specific and pervasive boundar-
ies for behavior that should not be violated. Principles often become the basis for rules.
Some examples of principles could include human rights, freedom of speech, and the
fundamentals of justice. Values are enduring beliefs and ideals that are socially enforced.
Several desirable or ethical values for business today are teamwork, trust, and integrity. Such
values are often based on organizational or industry best practices. Investors, employees,
customers, interest groups, the legal system, and the community often determine whether
a specific action or standard is ethical or unethical. Although these groups influence the
determination of what is ethical or unethical for business, they also can be at odds with one
another. Even though this is the reality of business and such groups may not necessarily be
right, their judgments influence society’s acceptance or rejection of business practices.
Ethics is defined as behavior or decisions made within a group’s values. In our case we
are discussing decisions made in business by groups of people that represent the business
organization. Because the Supreme Court defined companies as having limited individual
rights,4 it is logical such groups have an identity that includes core values. This is known as
being part of a corporate culture. Within this culture there are rules and regulations both
written and unwritten that determine what decisions employees consider right or wrong as
it relates to the firm. Such evaluations are judgments by the organization and are defined as
its ethics (or in this case their business ethics). One difference between an ordinary deci-
sion and an ethical one lies in “the point where the accepted rules no longer serve, and the
decision maker is faced with the responsibility for weighing values and reaching a judg-
ment in a situation which is not quite the same as any he or she has faced before.”5 Another
difference relates to the amount of emphasis decision makers place on their own values
and accepted practices within their company. Consequently, values and judgments play a
critical role when we make ethical decisions.
Building on these definitions, we begin to develop a concept of business ethics. Most
people agree that businesses should hire individuals with sound moral principles. How-
ever, some special aspects must be considered when applying ethics to business. First, to
survive and contribute to society, businesses must earn a profit. There is no conflict or
trade-offs between profits and business ethics. For instance, Google, Texas Instruments,
and Starbucks are highly profitable companies that have earned a reputation for ethi-
cal conduct.6 Second, to be successful businesses must address the needs and desires of
stakeholders. The good news is the world’s most ethical companies often have superior
stock performance.7 To address these unique aspects of the business world, society has
developed rules—both legal and implicit—to guide businesses in their efforts to earn
profits in ways that help individuals or society and contribute to social and economic
well-being.
WHY STUDY BUSINESS ETHICS?
A Crisis in Business Ethics

Business ethics has become a major concern in business today. The Ethics Resource Center
conducts the National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) of more than 6,000 U.S. employees
FIGURE 1–1 Global Trust in Industry Sectors
Technology 78%
Automotive 71%
Food and Beverage 67%
Consumer Packaged Goods 66%
Telecommunications 63%
Pharmaceuticals 61%
Energy 60%
Financial Services 54%
Banks 53%
Media 51%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Source: Edelman, 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2015-edelman-trust-barometer/trust-and-

innovation-edelman-trust-barometer/global-results/ (accessed January 30, 2015).
to gather reliable data on key ethics and compliance outcomes and to help identify and bet-
ter understand the ethics issues that are important to employees. The NBES found that 41
percent of employees reported observing at least one type of misconduct. Approximately
63 percent reported the misconduct to management, an increase from previous years.8
Business ethics decisions and activities have come under greater scrutiny by many different
stakeholders, including consumers, employees, investors, government regulators, and spe-
cial interest groups. For instance, regulators carefully examined risk controls at JP Morgan
Chase to investigate whether there were weaknesses in its system that allowed the firm to
incur billions of dollars in losses through high-risk trading activities. Regulators are plac-
ing financial institutions under greater scrutiny and holding them increasingly account-
able. There has been a long conflict between U.S. regulators and Swiss banks regarding
whether these banks were being used to evade U.S. taxes. Credit Suisse pled guilty to help-
ing Americans evade their taxes and was forced to pay a $2.6 billion fine.9 Figure 1–1
shows the percentage of global respondents who say they trust a variety of businesses in
various industries. Financial institutions and banks have some of the lowest ratings, indi-
cating that the financial sector has not been able to restore its reputation since the most
recent recession. There is no doubt negative publicity associated with major misconduct
lowered the public’s trust in certain business sectors.10 Decreased trust leads to a reduction
in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, which in turn can negatively impact the firm
or industry.11
Specific Issues
There are a number of ethical issues that must be addressed to prevent misconduct. Mis-
use of company resources, abusive behavior, harassment, accounting fraud, conflicts of
interest, defective products, bribery, product knockoffs, and employee theft are all prob-
lems cited as potential risk areas. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which trades on the
New York Stock Exchange, was reprimanded by Chinese government authorities for ignor-
ing the sales of knockoff products through Taobao, its biggest e-commerce platform. They
also accused Alibaba employees of engaging in anticompetitive behavior such as bullying
merchants to stay away from rival sites. As China attempts to secure a more solid repu-
tation in the business world, its government recognizes that it must take steps to elimi-
nate organizational misconduct.12 Other ethical issues relate to recognizing the interests
of various stakeholders. For instance, residents of Swansboro, North Carolina attempted
to adopt an ordinance to prevent Walmart from opening a superstore in the area. The fear
is that smaller independent stores cannot compete when big-box retailers come to town.13
Although large companies like Walmart have significant power, pressures from the com-
munity still limit what they can do.
General ethics plays an important role in the public sector as well. In government,
several politicians and high-ranking officials have experienced significant negative public-
ity, and some resigned in disgrace over ethical indiscretions. Former New Orleans mayor
Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for misconduct during his tenure as mayor,
including bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy.14 Such political scandals demon-
strate that political ethical behavior must be proactively practiced at all levels of public
service.
Every organization has the potential for unethical behavior. For instance, the U.S.
Defense Secretary ordered a renewed focus on military ethics after cheating scandals
occurred in different branches of the military. Air force officers at the Malmstrom Air
Force Base in Montana were suspended after it was discovered that there had been wide-
spread cheating on monthly proficiency tests on operating warheads. Similarly, the U.S.
Navy was criticized when sailors were found to have cheated on qualification exams for
becoming nuclear reactor instructors. The Defense Secretary is concerned that the issue
might be systemic, requiring an ethics overhaul in the military.15
Even sports ethics can be subject to lapses. The National Football League was heav-
ily criticized for initially giving Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice a two-game suspension
after videos surfaced of him abusing his girlfriend. The scandal caused outrage among
consumers who felt the NFL did not take domestic abuse incidents seriously. The NFL
apologized and changed its policies on domestic abuse.16 This incident along with other
sports scandals has led to calls for greater accountability among sports players and coaches.
Whether they are made in the realm of business, politics, science, or sports, most deci-
sions are judged either right or wrong, ethical or unethical. Regardless of what an indi-
vidual believes about a particular action, if society judges it to be unethical or wrong, new
legislation usually follows. Whether correct or not, that judgment directly affects a com-
pany’s ability to achieve its business goals. You should be aware that the public is more
tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices. Double
standards are at least partly due to differences in wealth and the success between businesses
and consumers. The more successful a company, the more the public is critical when mis-
conduct occurs.17 For this reason alone, it is important to understand business ethics and
recognize ethical issues.
The Reasons for Studying Business Ethics

Studying business ethics is valuable for several reasons. Business ethics is more than an
extension of an individual’s own personal ethics. Many people believe if a company hires
good people with strong ethical values, then it will be a “good citizen” organization. But as
we show throughout this text, an individual’s personal moral values are only one factor
in the ethical decision-making process. True, moral values can be applied to a variety of
situations in life, and some people do not distinguish everyday ethical issues from busi-
ness ones. Our concern, however, is with the application of principles, values, and stan-
dards in the business context. Many important issues are not related to a business context,
although they remain complex moral dilemmas in a person’s own life. For example,
although abortion and human cloning are moral issues, they are not an issue in most busi-
ness organizations.
Professionals in any field, including business, must deal with individuals’ personal
moral dilemmas because such dilemmas affect everyone’s ability to function on the job.
Normally, a business does not dictate a person’s morals. Such policies would be illegal.
Only when a person’s morals influence his or her performance on the job does it involve a
dimension within business ethics.
Just being a good person and having sound personal values may not be sufficient
to handle the ethical issues that arise in a business organization. Although truthfulness,
honesty, fairness, and openness are often assumed to be self-evident and accepted, busi-
ness-strategy decisions involve complex and detailed discussions. For example, there is
considerable debate over what constitutes antitrust, deceptive advertising, and violations
of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. A high level of personal moral development may
not prevent an individual from violating the law in a complicated organizational context
where even experienced lawyers debate the exact meaning of the law. For instance, the
National Labor Relations Board ruled that employees have the right to use company email
systems to discuss working conditions and unionization as long as it is not on company
time. Employer groups claim that employees have plenty of options for discussing these
topics and maintain that it will be hard to ensure employees are not using company com-
puter servers for these purposes during work hours. The right of employees versus employ-
ers is a controversial topic that will continue to need clarification from the courts.18
Some approaches to business ethics assume ethics training is for people whose per-
sonal moral development is unacceptable, but that is not the case. Because organizations
are culturally diverse and personal morals must be respected, ensuring collective agree-
ment on organizational ethics (that is, codes reasonably capable of preventing misconduct)
is as vital as any other effort an organization’s management may undertake.
Many people with limited business experience suddenly find themselves making deci-
sions about product quality, advertising, pricing, sales techniques, hiring practices, and
pollution control. The morals they learned from family, religion, and school may not pro-
vide specific guidelines for these complex business decisions. In other words, a person’s
experiences and decisions at home, in school, and in the community may be quite different
from his or her experiences and decisions at work. Many business ethics decisions are close
calls. In addition, managerial responsibility and ethical leadership for the conduct of others
requires knowledge of ethics and compliance processes and systems. Years of experience in
a particular industry may be required to know what is acceptable. For example, when are
advertising claims more exaggeration than truth? When does such exaggeration become
unethical? Pet food manufacturer Blue Buffalo’s claims that its food contains no byproducts
and is superior to competitors’ did not set well with Purina. Purina filed a lawsuit against
Blue Buffalo claiming that an independent test detected byproducts in Blue Buffalo’s pet
food. Blue Buffalo denied the allegations. While misleading advertising violates the law,
puffery—or an exaggerated claim that customers should not take seriously—is considered
acceptable. In this case, Blue Buffalo’s claims are clearly not puffery, which is why Purina
challenged the company through a lawsuit.19
Studying business ethics will help you begin to identify ethical issues when they arise
and recognize the approaches available for resolving them. You will learn more about
the ethical decision-making process and about ways to promote ethical behavior within
your organization. By studying business ethics, you may also begin to understand how to
cope with conflicts between your own personal values and those of the organization in
which you work. As stated earlier, if after reading this book you feel a little more unsettled
about potential decisions in business, your decisions will be more ethical and you will have
knowledge within this area.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
BUSINESS ETHICS
The study of business ethics in North America has evolved through five distinct stages—(1)
before 1960, (2) the 1960s, (3) the 1970s, (4) the 1980s, and (5) the 1990s—and continues
to evolve in the twenty-first century (see Table 1–1).
Before 1960: Ethics in Business

Prior to 1960, the United States endured several agonizing phases of questioning the
concept of capitalism. In the 1920s, the progressive movement attempted to provide citi-
zens with a “living wage,” defined as income sufficient for education, recreation, health,
and retirement. Businesses were asked to check unwarranted price increases and any
other practices that would hurt a family’s living wage. In the 1930s came the New Deal
that specifically blamed business for the country’s economic woes. Business was asked to
work more closely with the government to raise family income. By the 1950s, the New
Deal evolved into President Harry S. Truman’s Fair Deal, a program that defined such mat-
ters as civil rights and environmental responsibility as ethical issues that businesses had to
address.
Until 1960, ethical issues related to business were often discussed within the domain
of theology or philosophy or in the realm of legal and competitive relationships. Religious
leaders raised questions about fair wages, labor practices, and the morality of capitalism.
For example, Catholic social ethics, expressed in a series of papal encyclicals, included
concern for morality in business, workers’ rights, and living wages; for humanistic values
rather than materialistic ones; and for improving the conditions of the poor. The Protes-
tant work ethic encouraged individuals to be frugal, work hard, and attain success in the
capitalistic system. Such religious traditions provided a foundation for the future field of
business ethics.
The first book on business ethics was published in 1937 by Frank Chapman Sharp
and Philip G. Fox. The authors separated their book into four sections: fair service, fair
treatment of competitors, fair price, and moral progress in the business world. This early
textbook discusses ethical ideas based largely upon economic theories and moral philoso-
phies. However, the section’s titles indicate the authors also take different stakeholders into
account. Most notably, competitors and customers are the main stakeholders emphasized,
but the text also identifies stockholders, employees, business partners such as suppliers,
and government agencies.20 Although the theory of stakeholder orientation would not
evolve for many more years, this earliest business ethics textbook demonstrates the neces-
sity of the ethical treatment of different stakeholders.
TABLE 1–1 Timeline of Ethical and Socially Responsible Concerns
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Environmental issues Employee Bribes and illegal Sweatshops and unsafe Cybercrime
militancy contracting working conditions in
practices third-world countries
Civil rights issues Human rights Influence peddling Rising corporate Financial
issues liability for personal misconduct
damages (for example,
cigarette companies)
Increased employee- Covering up Deceptive Financial Global issues,

employer tension rather than advertising mismanagement Chinese
correcting issues and fraud product safety
Changing work ethic Disadvantaged Financial fraud (for Organizational ethical Sustainability
consumers example, savings misconduct
and loan scandal)
Rising drug use Transparency Intellectual

issues property theft
Source: Adapted from “Business Ethics Timeline,” Ethics Resource Center, http://www.ethics.org/resource/business-ethics-timeline (accessed June 13, 2013).
The 1960s: The Rise of Social Issues in Business

During the 1960s American society witnessed the development of an anti-business trend
because many critics attacked the vested interests that controlled the economic and politi-
cal aspects of society—the so-called military–industrial complex. The 1960s saw the decay
of inner cities and the growth of ecological problems such as pollution and the disposal of
toxic and nuclear wastes. This period also witnessed the rise of consumerism—activities
undertaken by independent individuals, groups, and organizations to protect their rights
as consumers. In 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered a “Special Message on Protect-
ing the Consumer Interest” that outlined four basic consumer rights: the right to safety,
the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. These came to be
known as the Consumers’ Bill of Rights.
The modern consumer movement is generally considered to have begun in 1965 with
the publication of Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed that criticized the auto industry as a
whole, and General Motors Corporation (GM) in particular, for putting profit and style
ahead of lives and safety. GM’s Corvair was the main target of Nader’s criticism. His con-
sumer protection organization, popularly known as Nader’s Raiders, fought successfully
for legislation requiring automobile makers to equip cars with safety belts, padded dash-
boards, stronger door latches, head restraints, shatterproof windshields, and collapsible
steering columns. Consumer activists also helped secure passage of consumer protection
laws such as the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967, the Radiation Control for Health and Safety
Act of 1968, the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Toxic Substance Act of 1976.21
After Kennedy came President Lyndon B. Johnson and the “Great Society,” a series of
programs that extended national capitalism and told the business community the U.S. gov-
ernment’s responsibility was to provide all citizens with some degree of economic stability,
equality, and social justice. Activities that could destabilize the economy or discriminate
against any class of citizens began to be viewed as politically unethical and unlawful.
The 1970s: Business Ethics as an Emerging Field

Business ethics began to develop as a field of study in the 1970s. Theologians and phi-
losophers laid the groundwork by suggesting certain moral principles could be applied
to business activities. Using this foundation, business professors began to teach and write
about corporate social responsibility, an organization’s obligation to maximize its positive
impact on stakeholders and minimize its negative impact. Philosophers increased their
involvement, applying ethical theory and philosophical analysis to structure the disci-
pline of business ethics. Companies became more concerned with their public image, and
as social demands grew, many businesses realized they needed to address ethical issues
more directly. The Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal focused public interest on the
importance of ethics in government. Conferences were held to discuss the social respon-
sibilities and ethical issues of business. Centers dealing with issues of business ethics were
established. Interdisciplinary meetings brought together business professors, theologians,
philosophers, and businesspeople. President Jimmy Carter attempted to focus on personal
and administrative efforts to uphold ethical principles in government. The Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act was passed during his administration, making it illegal for U.S. businesses to
bribe government officials of other countries. Today this law is the highest priority of the
U.S. Department of Justice.
By the end of the 1970s, a number of major ethical issues had emerged, including
bribery, deceptive advertising, price collusion, product safety, and ecology. Business ethics
became a common expression. Academic researchers sought to identify ethical issues and
describe how businesspeople might choose to act in particular situations. However, only
limited efforts were made to describe how the ethical decision-making process worked and
to identify the many variables that influence this process in organizations.
The 1980s: Consolidation

In the 1980s, business academics and practitioners acknowledged business ethics as a field
of study, and a growing and varied group of institutions with diverse interests promoted
it. Centers for business ethics provided publications, courses, conferences, and seminars.
R. Edward Freeman was among the first scholars to pioneer the concept of stakeholders as
a foundational theory for business ethics decisions. Freeman defined stakeholders as “any
group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s
objectives.”22 Freeman’s defense of stakeholder theory had a major impact on strategic
management and corporations’ views of their responsibilities. Business ethics were also a
prominent concern within leading companies such as General Electric, Hershey Foods,
General Motors, IBM, Caterpillar, and S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Many of these firms estab-
lished ethics and social policy committees to address ethical issues.
In the 1980s, the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII) was
developed to guide corporate support for ethical conduct. In 1986 eighteen defense con-
tractors drafted principles for guiding business ethics and conduct.23 The organization has
since grown to nearly fifty members. This effort established a method for discussing best
practices and working tactics to link organizational practice and policy to successful ethi-
cal compliance. The DII includes six principles. First, the DII supports codes of conduct
and their widespread distribution. These codes of conduct must be understandable and
cover their more substantive areas in detail. Second, member companies are expected to
provide ethics training for their employees as well as continuous support between training
periods. Third, defense contractors must create an open atmosphere in which employees
feel comfortable reporting violations without fear of retribution. Fourth, companies need
to perform extensive internal audits and develop effective internal reporting and voluntary
disclosure plans. Fifth, the DII insists that member companies preserve the integrity of
the defense industry. And sixth, member companies must adopt a philosophy of public
accountability.24
The 1980s ushered in the Reagan–Bush era, with the accompanying belief that self-
regulation, rather than regulation by government, was in the public’s interest. Many tariffs
and trade barriers were lifted and businesses merged and divested within an increasingly
global atmosphere. Thus, while business schools were offering courses in business eth-
ics, the rules of business were changing at a phenomenal rate because of less regulation.
Corporations that once were nationally based began operating internationally and found
themselves mired in value structures where accepted rules of business behavior no longer
applied.
The 1990s: Institutionalization of Business Ethics

The administration of President Bill Clinton continued to support self-regulation and
free trade. However, it also took unprecedented government action to deal with health-
related social issues such as teenage smoking. Its proposals included restricting cigarette
advertising, banning cigarette vending machine sales, and ending the use of cigarette logos
in connection with sports events.25 Clinton also appointed Arthur Levitt as chairman of
the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1993. Levitt unsuccessfully pushed for many
reforms that, if passed, could have prevented the accounting scandals exemplified by Enron
and WorldCom in the early twenty-first century.26
Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO), approved by Congress in
November 1991, set the tone for organizational ethical compliance programs in the 1990s.
The guidelines, which were based on the six principles of the DII,27 broke new ground by
codifying into law incentives to reward organizations for taking action to prevent miscon-
duct, such as developing effective internal legal and ethical compliance programs.28 Provi-
sions in the guidelines mitigate penalties for businesses striving to root out misconduct
and establish high ethical and legal standards.29 On the other hand, under FSGO, if a com-
pany lacks an effective ethical compliance program and its employees violate the law, it can
incur severe penalties. The guidelines focus on firms taking action to prevent and detect
business misconduct in cooperation with government regulation. At the heart of the FSGO
is the carrot-and-stick approach—that is, by taking preventive action against misconduct,
a company may avoid onerous penalties should a violation occur. A mechanical approach
using legalistic logic will not suffice to avert serious penalties. The company must develop
corporate values, enforce its own code of ethics, and strive to prevent misconduct. The law
develops new amendments almost every year. We will provide more detail on the FSGO’s
role in business ethics programs in Chapters 4 and 8.
The Twenty-First Century of Business Ethics

Although business ethics appeared to become more institutionalized in the 1990s, new
evidence emerged in the early 2000s that not all business executives and managers had
fully embraced the public’s desire for high ethical standards. After George W. Bush became
President in 2001, highly publicized corporate misconduct at Enron, WorldCom, Halli-
burton, and the accounting firm Arthur Andersen caused the government and the pub-
lic to look for new ways to encourage ethical behavior.30 Accounting scandals, especially
falsifying financial reports, became part of the culture of many companies. Firms outside
the United States, such as Royal Ahold in the Netherlands and Parmalat in Italy, became
major examples of global accounting fraud. Although the Bush administration tried to
minimize government regulation, there appeared to be no alternative to developing more
regulatory oversight of business.
Such abuses increased public and political demands to improve ethical standards in
business. To address the loss of confidence in financial reporting and corporate ethics, in
2002 Congress passed the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, the most far-reaching change in organiza-
tional control and accounting regulations since the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934.
The new law made securities fraud a criminal offense and stiffened penalties for corporate
fraud. It also created an accounting oversight board that requires corporations to estab-
lish codes of ethics for financial reporting and to develop greater transparency in financial
reports to investors and other interested parties. Additionally, the law requires top execu-
tives to sign off on their firms’ financial reports, and risk fines and long prison sentences
if they misrepresent their companies’ financial positions. The legislation further requires
company executives to disclose stock sales immediately and prohibits companies from giv-
ing loans to top managers.31
Amendments to the FSGO require that a business’s governing authority be well
informed about its ethics program with respect to content, implementation, and effec-
tiveness. This places the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the firm’s leadership,
usually the board of directors. The board is required to provide resources to oversee the
discovery of risks and to design, implement, and modify approaches to deal with those
risks.
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act and the FSGO institutionalized the need to discover and
address ethical and legal risk. Top management and the board of directors of a corporation
are accountable for discovering risk associated with ethical conduct. Such specific indus-
tries as the public sector, energy and chemicals, health care, insurance, and retail have to
discover the unique risks associated with their operations and develop ethics programs to
prevent ethical misconduct before it creates a crisis. Most firms are developing formal and
informal mechanisms that affect interactive communication and transparency about issues
associated with the risk of misconduct. Business leaders should consider the greatest dan-
ger to their organizations lies in not discovering any serious misconduct or illegal activities
that may be lurking. Unfortunately, most managers do not view the risk of an ethical disas-
ter as being as important as the risk associated with fires, natural disasters, or technology
failure. In fact, ethical disasters can be significantly more damaging to a company’s reputa-
tion than risks managed through insurance and other methods. The great investor Warren
Buffett stated it is impossible to eradicate all wrongdoing in a large organization and one
can only hope the misconduct is small and is caught in time. Buffett’s fears were realized
in 2008 when the financial system almost collapsed because of pervasive, systemic use of
instruments such as credit default swaps, risky debt such as subprime lending, and corrup-
tion in major corporations.
In 2009 Barack Obama became president in the middle of a great recession caused by
a meltdown in the global financial industry. Many firms, such as AIG, Lehman Brothers,
Merrill Lynch, and Countrywide Financial, engaged in ethical misconduct in developing
and selling high-risk financial products. President Obama led the passage of legislation
to provide a stimulus for recovery. His legislation to improve health care and provide
more protection for consumers focused on social concerns. Congress passed legislation
regarding credit card accountability, improper payments related to federal agencies, fraud
and waste, and food safety. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
addressed some of the issues related to the financial crisis and recession. The Dodd–Frank
Act was the most sweeping financial legislation since the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and possibly
since laws put into effect during the Great Depression. It was designed to make the finan-
cial services industry more ethical and responsible. This complex law required regulators
to create hundreds of rules to promote financial stability, improve accountability and trans-
parency, and protect consumers from abusive financial practices.
The basic assumptions of capitalism have been questioned as countries around the
world work to stabilize markets and question those who manage the finances of individual
corporations and nonprofits. The financial crisis caused many people to question govern-
ment institutions that provide oversight and regulation. As societies work to create change
for the better, they must address issues related to law, ethics, and the required level of com-
pliance necessary for government and business to serve the public interest. Not since the
Great Depression and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has the United States seen such
widespread government intervention and regulation—something most deem necessary,
but is nevertheless worrisome to free market capitalists.
Future ethical issues revolve around the acquisition and sales of information.
Cloud computing has begun a new paradigm. Businesses must no longer develop strategies
based on past practices; they begin with petabytes of information and look for relation-
ships and correlations to discover the new rules of business. Big data deal with massive
data files obtained from structured and unstructured databases.32 What once was thought
of as intrusive is now accepted and promoted. Only recently have people begun to ask
whether the information collected by business is acceptable. Companies are becoming
more sophisticated in understanding their customers by the use of predictive analytic
technologies. Such technologies as well as advances in consumer behavior research have
reduced the consumer’s probability to choose independently. Businesses now know how to
better manipulate at an elemental level.
Is it acceptable for a business to review your Facebook or other social networking ser-
vices? When shopping, does the fact that Q codes and microchips give your information
to businesses regarding where you are, what you are looking at, and what you have done in
the last day (via cell phone tower triangulation) bother you? Should your non-professional
life be subject to the ethics of the corporation when you are not at work? Finally, are you a
citizen first and then an employee or an employee first and then a citizen? These are some
of the business ethics issues in your future.
DEVELOPING AN ORGANIZATIONAL
AND GLOBAL ETHICAL CULTURE
Compliance and ethics initiatives in organizations are designed to establish appropriate
conduct and core values. A national survey of corporate legal officers found that 96 percent
said ethics and compliance are important in preventing illegal conduct. The ethical com-
ponent of a corporate culture relates to the values, beliefs, and established and enforced
patterns of conduct employees use to identify and respond to ethical issues. In our book
the term ethical culture is acceptable behavior as defined by the company and industry. Eth-
ical culture is the component of corporate culture that captures the values and norms an
organization defines and is compared to by its industry as appropriate conduct. The goal
of an ethical culture is to minimize the need for enforced compliance of rules and maxi-
mize the use of principles that contribute to ethical reasoning in difficult or new situations.
Ethical culture is positively related to workplace confrontation over ethics issues, reports
to management of observed misconduct, and the presence of ethics hotlines. 33 To develop
better ethical corporate cultures, many businesses communicate core values to their
employees by creating ethics programs and appointing ethics officers to oversee them. An
ethical culture creates shared values and support for ethical decisions and is driven by the
ethical leadership of top management.
On the other hand, corrupt organizational cultures support unethical behavior. These
cultures have been identified as creating negative values and norms such as “the ends jus-
tify the means.” In these cultures, ethical employees may be punished for failure to engage
in unethical activities.34 Regulators want firms to focus on their culture to avoid excessive
risk taking and unethical behavior. There is a fundamental belief that an ethical culture will
lead to good behavior.35
Globally, businesses are working closely together to establish standards of acceptable
behavior. We are already seeing collaborative efforts by a range of organizations to estab-
lish goals and mandate minimum levels of ethical behavior, from the European Union, the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Southern Common Market (MER-
COSUR), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to, more recently, the Council on
Economic Priorities’ Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000), the Ethical Trading Initiative,
the U.S. Apparel Industry Partnership, and ISO 19600. ISO 19600 is a global compliance
management standard that addresses risks, legal requirements, and stakeholder needs.
Companies that choose to abide by ISO 19600 can use these standards to improve their
approaches to compliance management, which can reassure stakeholders of their commit-
ment toward ethics and compliance.36 Some companies refuse to do business with organi-
zations that do not support and abide by these standards. Many companies demonstrate
their commitment toward acceptable conduct by adopting globally recognized principles
emphasizing human rights and social responsibility. For instance, in 2000 the United
Nations launched the Global Compact, a set of ten principles concerning human rights,
labor, the environment, and anti-corruption. The purpose of the Global Compact is to cre-
ate openness and alignment among business, government, society, labor, and the United
Nations. Companies that adopt this code agree to integrate the ten principles into their
business practices, publish their progress toward these objectives on an annual basis, and
partner with others to advance broader objectives of the UN. 37 These ten principles are
covered in more detail in Chapter 10.
THE BENEFITS OF BUSINESS

ETHICS
The field of business ethics continues to change rapidly as more firms recognize the ben-
efits of improving ethical conduct and the link between business ethics and financial per-
formance. Both research and examples from the business world demonstrate that building
an ethical reputation among employees, customers, and the general public pays off. Figure
1–2 provides an overview of the relationship between business ethics and organizational
performance. Although we believe there are many practical benefits to being ethical,
many businesspeople make decisions because they believe a particular course of action is
simply the right thing to do as responsible members of society. NiSource, a distributor of
natural gas, electricity, and water in the Midwest and Northeast United States, has earned
a place in Ethisphere’s “World’s Most Ethical Companies” for three consecutive years.
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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PART 2: ETHICAL ISSUES AND Core or Best Practices 114

PART 5: CASES 380 Case 11: Frauds of the Century 517

PHILOSOPHY OF THIS TEXT

CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION

Part 4, “Implementing Business Ethics in a Global Economy,” looks at specific mea-

EFFECTIVE TOOLS FOR TEACHING

Anita Leffel Sharon Palmitier

Business Ethics Defined

BUSINESS ETHICS DEFINED

WHY STUDY BUSINESS ETHICS?

A Crisis in Business Ethics

FIGURE 1–1 Global Trust in Industry Sectors

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Source: Edelman, 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2015-edelman-trust-barometer/trust-and-

The Reasons for Studying Business Ethics

Before 1960: Ethics in Business

TABLE 1–1 Timeline of Ethical and Socially Responsible Concerns

1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Increased employee- Covering up Deceptive Financial Global issues,

Rising drug use Transparency Intellectual

The 1960s: The Rise of Social Issues in Business

The 1970s: Business Ethics as an Emerging Field

The 1980s: Consolidation

The 1990s: Institutionalization of Business Ethics

The Twenty-First Century of Business Ethics

THE BENEFITS OF BUSINESS

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

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