Ethics for the Real World

"Are you almost ethical? Do you tell your boss you have the flu when you really just need a day to relax? Or keep that extra twenty dollars the bank teller mistakenly hands you? Or tell little white lies for simple convenience? Hardly a day goes by when we aren't tempted to compromise. In the real world, busy schedules and conflicts of interest cause us to act in ways that clash with our true beliefs. We are almost ethical, but not quite. And what harm is done? Plenty, as Ron Howard and Clint Korver demonstrate. Ethical compromise, big or small, dulls our sense of where to draw the line. It instills a habit of distorted thinking and puts us at risk of losing control of our decisions. Worst of all, it creates barriers in our personal and professional relationships. Often we don't even realize the damage we've done. [This book] can restore clear thinking to prevent that damage. Surprising and engaging, it offers practical advice on how to make more effective decisions every day. Most important, Howard and Korver show how to create a personal ethical code--not one that looks good to others, but a code that you can genuinely commit to. You'll learn to: identify ethically sensitive actions; make decisions by applying ethical distinctions; commit in advance to ethical principles; generate creative alternatives to resolve dilemmas. By showing us how to develop habits of highly ethical actions, Howard and Korver help us learn to go beyond the 'right' decision to the best one in every situation."--Jacket