Book Description

This practical workbook provides current and future helping professionals with step-by-step guidelines for examining and resolving professional ethical dilemmas. It's the authors' belief that most serious ethical problems can be avoided by practitioners who have a strong sense of ethical self-awareness and an ability to stay out of "ethical traps" that result from their own experiences and preconceptions. Forty-nine "ethical dilemmas" are included for classroom discussion and resolution, along with the authors' suggestions for resolving them based on a process of analysis unique to this book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great pactical overview of professional ethics!
I have found this bookto be a great teaching tool for ourses and workshops. also a good basic reference guide for all helping professionals. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The Best Roadmap I Have Seen
Trust is a precious commodity.Like reputation, it is easily broken and never well mended.This book is is the best roadmap I have seen on how to create, enhance and, should it become necessary, regain trust.Itis short, lively and spiced with stories from Hyler Bracey's colorful past.My personal favorite is the one about his employees giving him the nickname "Highly Abrasive".I can report that I have actually incorporated some of the strategies into my repertoire with positive results.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve the quality of his or her relationships.

Trust ME-- Read this Book!
That's what's written on the back cover of this book with a list of prestigious business people recommending it.I had just finished reading, and appreciating, Dr. Bracey's other management book, and found this one even better. Perhaps it is because trust is such a predominant issue in our lives today. While the book provides a program with specific steps for building and keeping trust in business, sidebar stories help show these steps can also be used in our personal lives.The book is a quick read, and you will certainly feel a lot smarter when you have finished it.Dr. Bracey ought to send copies of this book to the clergy, politicians and chairmen of some of the corporations that are in crisis today as a result of misusing trust!

TRUST Building has never been so clear!
TRUST building has never been made so clear. This book just doesn't talk the talk it walks the walk. Several books identify trust issues but never help you resolve trust issues, this book makes it crystal clear. It is very easy to read and understand what you need to build trust and keep it in your life in all aspects from personal to business. The stories that are told put the final touch on the process by giving real life examples of ways that the formula is used. If anyone wants to learn the best ways to build and keep trust, this is the bible on trust. The only way to sum it up is everyone MUST! read this book. If everyone practiced these principles the world would be a better place to live. I can only imagine what that would be like. Hyler is truely the TRUST EXPERT!!

Finally, a REAL "How To" book on Trust
I have looked at lots of books on building trust.This is the first practical book that gives concrete steps for building trust.I found it applicable to both my business and personal life.I think it is a "Must Read".Now if we could just get these principals instilled in our government leaders, priests, accountants,CEOs,........and the list goes on and on! ... Read more

Book Description

Spiritual Capital presents a new vision of capitalist society that transcends the greed, materialism, and meaninglessness so rampant today. It offers an idea of wealth, profit, and capital that's about more than simply money. "Profit," under this system, would be not merely for private gain but would be used in part for public good. "Wealth" would be that which enriches the deeper aspects of our lives, gained by drawing upon our most fundamental purposes and highest motivations and finding a way to embed these in our work. "Capital" is amassed by serving - in corporate philosophy and practice - the pressing concerns of our world. The author's dream of getting a critical mass of people and organizations to act for what's right rather than for self-serving reasons. Ideally, spiritual capital would reflect a values-based business culture. Instead of emphasizing shareholder value, it would promote "stakeholder value," where stakeholders include the whole human race and the planet itself. ... Read more

Book Description

For nearly two decades this anthology has provided the most complete and accessible treatment of the deviance of big business and government. Now in its Fifth edition, it has been enhanced with an expanded introductory essay and new selections that draw attention to moral and ethical questions facing corporations and politicians, from cover-ups of the Ford Pinto fire hazards and the health risks associated with Rely tampons to rationalizing Nazi genocide and a police brutality probe of the Los Angeles Police Department. An essay on media coverage and public reaction to white-collar crimes has been added to the already exhaustive list of contributions by prominent authorities on the subject. ... Read more

Book Description

"An extraordinarily impressive achievement and must reading for all serious students of law, economics, and organization".--Paul L. Joskow, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts of Technology. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A classic of new institutional economics
EIoC is a classic work of new institutional economics. In it, Williamson works out his theories of transaction cost economics across an array of interesting economic questions. Most of the covered topics will be of interest not only to economists, but also to lawyers and policymakers. Among other examples, Williamson tackles such subjects as vertical integration, corporate governance, and industrial organizations.

Williamson's core idea is the theory of transaction cost economics. We can analogize transaction costs to friction: they are dead weight losses that reduce efficiency. They make transactions more costly and less likely to occur. Among the most important sources of transaction costs is the limited cognitive power of human decisionmakers. Unlike the Chicago School of law and economics, which posits the traditional concept of rational choice, Williamson asserts that rationality is bounded. Put another way, he assumes that economic actors seek to maximize their expected utility, but also that the limitations of human cognition often result in decisions that fail to maximize utility. Decisionmakers inherently have limited memories, computational skills, and other mental tools, which in turn limit their ability to gather and process information. As he demonstrates, this phenomenon, known as bounded rationality, has pervasive implications for understanding how institutions work.

At the policy level, transaction cost analysis is highly relevant to setting legal rules. Suppose a steam locomotive drives by a field of wheat. Sparks from the engine set crops on fire. Should the railroad company be liable? In a world of zero transaction costs, the initial assignment of rights is irrelevant. If the legal rule we choose is inefficient, the parties can bargain around it. In a world of transaction costs, however, the parties may not be able to bargain. This is likely to be true in our example. The railroad travels past the property of many landowners, who put their property to differing uses and put differing values on those uses. Negotiating an optimal solution will all of those owners would be, at best, time consuming and onerous. Hence, choosing the right rule-which is typically the rule the parties would have chosen if they were able to bargain (the so-called hypothetical bargain)-becomes quite important.

In sum, highly recommended. If so, you might ask, of course, why did I subtract one star? Mainly because of Williamson's unfortunate writing style. Although EIoC is largely free of the recreational mathematics that plagues modern economic writing, which is useful for those of us who flunked Differential Equations, it is very jargon-intensive. Worse yet, much of the jargon is self-created. All of which makes reading Williamson an effort-intensive project. Usually the cost-benefit analysis nevertheless comes out in his favor, but sometimes one puzzles out the jargon to find a rather obvious point that could have been conveyed far more simply. (The business about contracting nodes, pp. 32ff, is a classic example.)

Great for expanded understanding of vertical integration
I came across this book as part of my MBA studies at the Cox School of Business. A professor recommended it for expanded understanding of vertical integration theories. In fact, my professor is cited in the book! I found it to be very valuable and plan to keep it as a reference for years to come! ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (40)

Ever Since the Boston Tea Party...
As I was composing this review of Unequal Protection, I got another whiff of the smelly state of corporate dominance in political affairs. The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, today upheld the constitutionality of the Copyright Term Extension Act (1998) in the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft. The CTEA is a de facto CPIA: a corporate profits insurance act. How did corporations, who lobbied for the CTEA and won out over the rights of the public domain, get to have more rights than people? That is one key question that author Thom Hartmann addresses in his book, subtitled "The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights."

In a democracy, writes Hartmann, the government protected the Commons - that which we all must share so that we all may enjoy it in perpetuity. The Commons used to include the air, the water, the forests and its wildlife, the land and its minerals, and even the electromagnetic spectrum (the airwaves). Government also authorized, through a charter, and regulated, through laws enacted with the public weal in mind, that legal agreement called the corporation. At the core of corporate power, writes Hartmann, lies the concept of the corporation as a person, with similar rights to those of natural persons (human beings), for whom the Constitution was presumably written, since nowhere in the document are corporations mentioned.

Indeed, for the first century of American history, no court has applied Constitutional rights to corporations. It wasn't until an 1886 case, Santa Clara County (CA) v. Southern Pacific Railroad (118 U.S. 394, 396, brought against a corporation for non-payment of a $25 fee!), that corporations were then assumed to be persons. Assumed, that is, not because the Court said they were, but because the headnote in the book recording the decision said they were. And although headnotes carry no legal weight, it was because of that erroneous assumption that courts ever since have been citing Santa Clara as establishing the "personhood" of corporations.

This was no small mistake, however. As Hartmann points out, corporations were quick to claim Constitution protection for free speech (First Amendment), privacy protection (Fourth Amendment), freedom from searches and seizures, double jeopardy, and self-incrimination for criminal wrongdoing (Fifth Amendment), and claims of anti-discrimination protections under the Fourteenth Amendment - the amendment that was presumably passed to free slaves. Not bad for a precedent that was "never voted by the public; never enacted by law; never stated by decision after arguments before the Supreme Court"! Indeed, in 1938, Justice Hugo Black noted, "Of the cases in this court in which the Fourteenth Amendment was applied during its first fifty years after its adoption, less than one half of one percent invoked it in protection of the Negro race, and more than fifty percent asked that its benefits be extended to corporations."

Hartmann takes pains to assure his readers that he is not anti-corporation, but he also thinks that the protections in law afforded to corporations since 1886 have been unequal, vis à vis those afforded to persons of the human kind. It took until 1920 for women to get voting rights, that is, the ability to affect the political process that every adult person enjoys. It took more than 100 years for human beings with African ancestry to be recognized as persons with the Civil Rights Act of 1965. The rights of workers to organize are only sporadically recognized even today.

Part of the unequal protection of which Hartmann writes is a function of corporate wealth which, in effect, buys favorable legislation. And part is the absurdity of legally equating corporate persons with natural persons:

<> natural persons have the strength of one; corporate persons can have the strength of millions;
<> natural persons are expected to operate under moral constraints; corporations are expected to make money;
<> natural persons eventually die; corporations are expected to outlive their founders, theoretically forever;
<> natural persons can be convicted of murder and executed; it is rare that a corporation convicted of causing death has its charter revoked;
<> natural persons pay taxes; most major corporations are net tax receivers;
<> natural persons reside in a country; corporations can reside in any country, or no country, and can change residence (usually to evade taxes) overnight;
<> natural persons can give money to politicians; corporations can give millions to politicians;
<> natural persons can't own other persons; corporations can own other corporations;
<> natural persons can vote; corporations can't vote - yet.

So what would happen if corporations were deprived of the "personhood" they were erroneously granted in the first place? Corporations might start acting like good citizens, looking out for the community in which they do business, obeying laws, paying taxes, keeping the environment clean, paying a living wage... Any number of good things can happen: corporations would have no rights, only privileges designated by the state in which they are chartered. And because they would exist at the pleasure of a government created by human beings, they would be held accountable to the public or lose their "life" (their charter). Right now, only unions, churches, unincorporated businesses, partnerships and even governments have privileges rather than corporate rights. Yet all seem to be thriving without being defined as "persons" under the law.

Unequal Protection includes a chapter (3) on the first anti-corporate protest: the Boston Tea Party, which was actually a protest against the (British) East India Company. The book concludes with a hopeful section on "Restoring Democracy as the Founders Imagined It." What Hartmann may be saying is that perhaps it's time that we get back a little power for the people.

PRO-DEMOCRACY, HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE TYRANNY
Thom Hartmann's Unequal Protection: The rise of corporate dominance and theft of human rights could have served as a model for Thomas Jefferson on how America's corporations should have been controlled by the U.S. Constitution. Jefferson sent recommendations, such as including a bill of rights, in letters from Paris to James Madison who was at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1789. If Jefferson could have anticipated that America's corporate genie would some day take over the whole country, he might have passed Hartmann's suggestions on to Madison for putting the genie back into its bottle. At the turn of almost every page of Unequal Protection, there is an undercurrent of restoring Jefferson's dream of an egalitarian democracy, now being usurped by giant corporations in America.

The Introduction to Hartmann's book tells us, " ... [it] is about the difference between humans and the corporations we humans have created. The story goes back to the birth of the United States ... this book is about values and beliefs ... I'm visiting stories of democracy and corporate personhood ... (It's amazing what we don't learn about in school) ... I'm suggesting we should put corporations into their rightful context and place ..." The Prologue concludes, "In Pennsylvania's Thompson Township, the Chairman of the elected township supervisors, Bruce Bevins said, 'A person is a living thing and a corporation is not." These are the first shots in a new American Revolution, one that will be fought with petitions and votes instead of guns and troops. It's a revolution to win back democracy."

Possibly the best part of this book is saved for last: Part 4: Restoring Democracy As The Founders Imagined It. This is not a Pollyanna collection of feel good, social action proposals but rather hard nosed, practical remedies for using the political and legal American institutions that exist. The recommendations, collected in the appendix, are backed up by well organized, factual information aimed at legally removing personhood from corporations. Filling over fifty pages with interesting and useful information, the appendix appropriately begins with a Postscript that is a verbatim quote of the 1936 acceptance speech in Philadelphia by Franklin Delano Roosevelt upon his nomination for President by the Democratic party. Back then, Roosevelt tried raising the alarm about the "New kingdoms" built upon concentration of control over material things. "Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities - all undreamed of by the [Founding] Fathers - the whole structure of modern life has been impressed into this 'royal' service," he warned.

With Unequal Protection, Hartmann has written an important book that deserves to be taken seriously. Even those who consider themselves well read will learn a great deal about the hitherto not well described, but fascinating history of the rise of American corporations. Also, those who value democracy and detest corporate tyranny have to read this book for learning how to reestablish the government for and by the people within our society as was originally intended by the Founders.

Should Corporations be able to Vote?
Prior to the first century no court applied constitutional rights for corporations. In 1886, Santa Clara County verses Pacific Railroad, in a head note explain the case the author implied that "corporations were persons" as a reason for the court administering a 25 dollar fine to the corporation. The foundation for "personhood" gave rise too a constitutional claim of equal protection of the law for corporations. Using this precedence, Corporations were quick to fight for constitutional protections for 1. Free speech (1st amendment) 2. privacy protection (10th amendment) 3. Freedom from search and seizure (fourth amendment) 4. double jeopardy (5th amendment) 5. Self-incrimination (5th amendment) 6. and anti-discriminations (14th amendment). It seem corporations had done the impossible, they had received the same scrutiny or equal protection as race. Over the century, the vast number of 14th amendment cases has been equal protection claims against anti-discrimination policies for corporations. Corporations have established civil liberties and constitutional rights protected by law.

So why not let the corporation vote? One could argue, in a republican form of government a small governing body holds representation of power and decision-making; so, why not let corporations vote? Corporations represent the wealth, resources, and jobs of America. Further one may observe that the vested interests of the corporation could be represented, if they were given a vote. So why have corporation not been given the power to vote?

If corporations received the same protection as a person the democratic process would be destroyed. Apparently the founding fathers did not want to give corporations this level of power over the people, so no constitutional provision or implication was made to give corporations an elective vote for selection of a candidate or local law. Do corporation remain powerless or silent on this issue of voting constraint?

Corporations vote with money. In an election year politicians receive tens of millions of dollars to their party, which in my opinion is a loophole. Political campaigns were designed too be limited in the contribution amounts to safeguard against buying an election.

The magnitude of financial difference between corporate donations and people donations is staggering. Persons give hundreds or thousands of dollars too politicians, whereas, corporations give millions to politicians. This allows corporations too buy favorable legislation manipulation. However, the people still have the power too elect their government officials and this fundamental power gives the people the ability too prevent government representatives from being completely controlled by the corporations. If the elected official performs contrary to the people opinion they have the right the next election to select a different representative. The people have the power to select their representatives. The representatives have the obligation to listen to the interest for the people. The representatives are too account for good and moral decisions, while in office. It is the job of the people are too voice their concern, as poor legislation becomes law.
However, once in office, special interest lobbying applies pressure too government representatives for support to their viewpoints. These viewpoints may not be confined to America. Since, corporations are global entities and represent global interests, corporations can own more than one corporation; corporations often campaign for inter-continental interests in their campaign for rights, interests, and support with the government representatives. These corporations can span multiple countries, whereas, a citizen must reside in one country. The fact that corporations can represent viewpoints for various countries and receive legal and political recognition, as a person in this country seems grants foreigners a new level of leverage with the American political process.

If corporations have constitutional rights, do they have responsibilities to other citizens? Corporations have migrated from state privileges to constitutional rights. Corporations are expected to act like good citizens: pay taxes, obey the laws, keep the environment clean, and pay a living. Citizens are expected to operate under moral constraints, whereas, corporations are expected to make money. A corporation is not expected to operate on moral constraints. What that means is the corporation may apply force since no moral guardian stands in the way from them achieving their goal of profits. If no legal constraint exists, the corporation plows forward to make money without consideration of any moral constraint. For example, the liberal media corporations claim the right to freedom of expression. This means the corporation is free to sell media with high levels of sexual content, violence, and degrading morality. The impact can span generations. The selling of produce can span many decades because a corporation exists in perpetuity.

The produce is subject to taxation, protection under copyright law, and free commerce between states and other nations. Laws and regulations force the media companies too have movie content rated. Since companies have similar protections as persons, the first amendment rights extend too the corporation.
The first amendment includes prohibitions against the government from censoring speech and freedom of expression and this gives the corporation a tremendous liberty to sponsor lascivious and immoral content in movies.

How Corporations Came to Rule
How is it that corporations have come to exert so much power and influence over our everyday lives, to have rights and privileges unavailable to individuals, to take so much from, and return so little to, the general wealth both of this country and the rest of the world?
Thom Hartmann traces the history of corporations from their Elizabethian inception in the East India Company to the present; he describes in some detail the changes in the relationship among corporations, their governmental patrons and their societal prey. Historically corporations were granted charters by governments subject to their being monitored, controlled and mandated to provide for the general good in exchange for specific commissions and concessions. In America's early history, this principle was understood and effectively implemented to control the excesses of corporate behavior. Then in 1886, the US Supreme Court ruled on arguments in the case of Santa Clara County[CA] v Southern Pacific Railway. A clerical misstatement in the court reporter's notes, separate and distinct from the formal decision, led to the interpretation that the Bill of Rights was intended to apply to corporations, not just individual human beings. Although Jefferson had cautioned specifically against the power of corporations unrestrained, thenceforth their lawyers have succeeded in prizing successively greater concessions from and precedences over the rights of individuals.
Acceptance of corporations as 'persons', entitled to the same rights and restrictions as human beings, has come to be capriciously applied. Corporations buy, sell, trade, dismember, even kill other corporations - the corporate equivalent of slavery - without being held accountable as they would if corporations were human beings. There are other glaring inconsistencies in the logic of corporate 'personhood' but our law is governed more by precedent, than by logic, or common sense. Once entrenched and established, no matter how egregiously erroneous, the tradition of corporate personhood would take an act of Congress, or an amendment to the Constitution, to rectify the mistake.
There are a number of fallacies in the assignment of 'person' status to fictitious, fictional entities such as corporations. A principal function of good government is to level the playing field between the weak and powerful, to protect the weak from the predatory ravages of the strong. Although all 'men' are presumed equal, in rights if not in innate abilities, corporations are clearly, intrinsically, manifestly vastly more powerful than any one man or small group of men. As Hartmann shows, this difference in power is important yet our present governance fails utterly to protect the populace from the ravages of corporate rapacity and indifference to the plights of its victims.
Although the purpose of government is to provide for the general good, while minimizing harm to the weak and minority interests, the purpose of corporations is to accumulate wealth for its management and stockholders without regard to the source of that wealth. The wealth of a few individuals is not coincident with the general good. Nor are the managers and stockholders of a concern, a tiny subset of the general populace, coincident with the general population. Thus the purposes of good government in general do not coincide, indeed are often at odds, with the purposes of any given corporation.
Further, the activities of corporations in the aggregate - concentrating and focussing wealth for their individual stockholders by taking it from the general population - does not result in general good for the population. The myth that entities acting in unrestrained pursuit of their self-interests somehow produce the greater general good is amply disproven by the history of the American experiment. Rather the general wealth and good is redistributed, concentrated and focused to the benefit of the most powerful and the detriment of the least. Left to themselves, corporations parasitize the general population, suck the wealth out of it for corporate gain while often degrading the environment and denuding the resources employed to accumulate that gain. Corporatism results not in shared wellbeing for the general population but concentrated and focussed wellbeing for a few in a sea of general deprivation.
In other chapters, Hartmann describes the effect of Free Trade and the supranational World Trade Organization: to ravage national economies for the benefit of Corporations, to degrade the wellbeing of the middle class and workers in developed countries, only minimally to improve that of those in developing countries, while enriching the beneficiaries of corporations. Wealth and wellbeing are transferred from those who need it, to those who have it already.
Mussolini defined fascism as the merger of state and corporate power. It appears that America, indeed the entire planet, is well on its way to becoming a fascist state. Ruled by corporations, our 'elected' leaders and representatives are beholden and accountable principally to the interests of their various corporate contributors, only secondarily to the public. It is perhaps ironic that Hartmann, a self-confessed 'founder and former CEO of seven corporations that have generated over a quarter billion dollars in revenue', concludes this fascinating book with proposed grass-roots intiatives to unravel the tangled skein of corporate dominance. He offers no alternatives to the corporate model for the management of production and the distribution of wealth and wellbeing. Rather he advocates the return of effective control and regulation of corporations to the people, making them less the victims of corporations and more their overseers and regulators; and he and offers model actions to be pursued at the local level. But the present processes of government from legislatures to the courts are seemingly similarly enthralled to business interests intent on maximizing profit, not the general welfare. Whether or to what extent anything can be done to reverse this state of affairs is unclear. Readers will be provoked to wonder whether there are other means of advancing the general good and wellbeing than increasing the disparity in both for the general populations. Rather than a definitive solution to the problem of corporatism, this book provides a clear, readable and provocative depiction of the extent of that overwhelming problem.
...

The Ascent of the Artificial Person
The story that Hartmann tells is one that everyone should know, but nobody does: how the corporation came to have the power it now has as an institution in the United States. Normally, when activists or the general public confront the sheer, imposing bulk of the corporatocracy, we get diagnoses of greed and corruption, with antidotes of regulation or resignation. But what Hartmann uncovers is the very specific LEGAL history of how corporations came into being in their modern incarnation. There are a handful of pivotal Supreme Court decisions that laid the tracks for the freight trains of abuse and audacity that then rolled on through, and all over regular citizens.

This is a very important insight. Since the corporation's power is fairly narrowly and legally based, it can be undone as well. The notion that we can regulate big companies into being good "corporate citizens" is nonsense if we don't withdraw the legal basis of their recognized rights. Constitutional protections should be for natural citizens only, period. We should be able to hold corporations to whatever standards we want, since they are simply artificial profit-machines with no inherent legal standing vis-a-vis the rights of natural citizens.

As always, Hartmann's writing is engaging, precise, and exciting. Buy this book!! ... Read more

Book Description

Rapid advances in computing and information science often outpace society's ability to adapt its moral and legal codes.Different computing paradigms applied to the same ethical issues can often lead to conflicting confusions. This second edition examines ethical, social, and policy challenges stemming from the emergence of cyberspace, the convergence of telecommunications, and other information handling products.The book broadly surveys thought-provoking questions about the impact of these new technologies, with particular emphasis on the growth of the Internet, artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and virtual reality. Topics and features: * Describes how changes in information technology influence morality and the law. * Surveys the history of computing and the recent evolution of computer crimes * Incorporates recent requirements for computer science curricula * Assess workplace concerns related to privacy, surveillance, and virtual offices * Contains numerous discussion and research projects on all presented material * Considers what should be covered in a professional code of conduct of IT professionals * Offers a pertinent discussion on civil liberties, harassment, and discrimination.. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A myriad of topics each discussed briefly
Excellent chapters covering morality, law, ethics, professional codes, and intellectual property rights. Provides a basic introduction to many topics that stimulate further study, research, and discussion. Discussion ofsocial issues is limited. The weaker chapters are the modern areas of theinformation age such as cyberspace, the internet, email, privacy, security,artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Must Read For Helpers...
Peterson's book is a treatise on the issue of boundaries and ethics in the helper/client relationship. She gives excellent examples of the ways clients have been hurt by professionals who don't have clear boundaries. The range of professions include medicine, education, law, religion, and counselling. I too found her discussion of boundary violations highly enlightening. She is extremely clear in describing what a boundary violation is, and how to deal with them when they occur. Clients who have been on the receiving end of boundary violations and abuses of professional power are likely to find her empathetic and insightful. The book is highly readable and thought provoking. I believe this book should be required reading for teachers, doctors, counsellors, lawyers, and others in the helping professions.

Excellent discussion of fiduciary relationships and abuses
Marilyn Peterson's book "At Personal Risk Boundary Violations in Professional-Client Relationships" offers a concise report on the professional-client relationship highlighting the "ethos of care" involved in the relationship professionals have with the clients they help.

Ms. Peterson gives many examples of harm caused to clients when the boundary of this trust based relationship is breached. She has a particularly good discussion of the power differential involved in the professional-client relationship and how denial of the power and influence which reside with the professional can lead to boundary violations. She discusses four often hidden aspects involved in boundary violations: role reversals; secrets; double binds and indulgence of personal priviledge.

Her discussion of the tensions that professionals must hold and work within show a keen understanding and insight into the responsibilities and risks of professional fiduciary work.

She summarizes the psychological wounds to victims and offers suggestions for healing.

Having read many books on the topic of professional boundaries and their abuses, I have found this book to be one of the best. Ms. Peterson writes in a clear, straight-forward manner and provides valuable discussion and thought provoking insight without psychobable jargon. ... Read more

Book Description

The world of event planning can be alluring and dangerous at once-exotic locales, wining and dining, and people traveling without their spouses. In such situations the line between business and pleasure blurs and the nature of relationships gets cloudy. With a thoughtless act or a less-than-tactful word, long-lasting business relationships can be ruined forever.

Beyond that, budgets are on the chopping block and competition for business is tight. In that environment, people often cut not just financial corners, but the ethical ones, too. There's a fine line between innocent perks and inappropriate gifts or kickbacks. Event planners today must navigate a minefield of potentially sticky situations that can easily blow up in their face. Without a professional code, lines of acceptable behavior are easily crossed. And what you do personally can hurt you professionally.

Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette provides event planners with the companion they need to stay out of trouble, keep professional relationships healthy and profitable, avoid the riskier temptations of the lifestyle, and win business in a highly competitive market using ethical business practices.

· Explains how to establish policies and codes of behavior, in the office and onsite at events.
· Offers guidelines on when it is acceptable to accept a gift, what is acceptable, and what is inappropriate.
· Shows how to prepare yourself, as well as your staff, for what to expect, and how to handle the unexpected with business finesse.
· Covers business etiquette in event planning crisis management situations.
· Helps you to avoid putting yourself and your company at personal and professional risk.
· Features real-life examples and situations, and advice on how to handle them with poise and professionalism.
· Includes a list of "Event Planning Do's and Don'ts."

Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette will be of value to the professional event planner; to event planning suppliers and clients working with industry professionals; as well as to those in related fields, such as public relations, administrative professionals, communications; and anyone in the hospitality, culinary, and travel industry. ... Read more

Amazon.com

David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford--consultants on professional-service management and customer-relation issues--believe nobody can become successful as a business guru until they first gain the confidence of their clients. In The Trusted Advisor, the authors effectively build their case through anecdote and illustration, then relay a solid series of relevant suggestions applicable to both would-be consultants and those already active in the field. Among their most potent suggestions is a practical, five-step development process that encourages outsiders to engage clients by focusing attention on the issues and individuals at hand; listening both to what they say and what they leave unsaid; framing the immediate problem from their perspective; envisioning with them how a solution might appear; and committing jointly to the actions and resources that will bring it about. Also particularly useful is the examination of trust-building during four phases of a client-advisor alliance: at the time the relationship is consummated; during the assignment; after the assignment; and when "cross-selling," or establishing affiliations with the customer's associates. Boosting its utility, the book is filled with concise, easily adopted tips like "return phone calls unbelievably fast" and "always tell the truth and not what the client wants to hear." --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Don't waiste your money
I found this book too broad, although it gives some examples, and tries to use some formulas to figure out how much your client trust you, nothing scientificly proven. As a matter of fact this book is useless if you studied or read a lot about organizational behavior and HR management. This book talks about the relationship between consultant and his customer, how important it is to listen, talk and respect your customer, but a lot of it is common sense. Also talks about team work. However if someone is not familiar with Org Behavior and HR, it is a good book for a start.

More than an Advisor
An experienced colleague recommended this book to me at a conference. The title simply does not do this book justice but I bought it anyway. If you ever wondered how some consultants and professionals do such a good job obtaining and keeping clients, then READ THIS BOOK.

I have recommended this book to all my clients and they agree. More importantly, very few so-called "advisors" do what this book explains clearly. Tremendous resource for any professional but many very powerful techniques to help you close contracts without sounding like a used car salesman. The case studies and examples hit home and force you to stop and think about your own style.

For Your Arsenal
Whether you are in sales, are an attorney, or providing any kind service or intangible, this is a great book. If you think you've read all the client oriented, consulting oriented "sales and success" books - but haven't read this ... then you are never going to be at the top of your field. This book is about bringing real authenticity to the relationships with your clients. Client executives can smell a sneak or a fraud a mile away. Today, business is more competitive than ever, making losing a client relationship a crime. Knowing how to keep a client, build a relationship and continue nuturing it, is an art. Maister points to great examples and gets you to thinking ... "if only I'd done that ..." or "next time I'll ...". This is a thinking persons book, one to be reviewed over again through the course of your career, but only if you want to be among the "trusted few" with seasoned, senior executives. Other great books along this line I recommend are: any of Maisters books, Patrick McKenna's material (see their web pages too), and Clients for Life by Andrew Sobel.

Maister is the Master
My introduction to David Maister came from the former managing director of Burson-Marteller's Tokyo office, who recommended True Professionalism. That book became one of the "required readings" for my training company's staff. Since True Professionalism, I've read Managing the Professional Service Firm and found it heavy, over-detail-oriented and difficult to apply. Now comes The Trusted Advisor (with other authors) and I can say without a doubt this best book on trust development I've read--putting real meat in those abstract concepts like "credibility." His chapter where he introduces the equation where Trust = Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy, all divided by Self-orientation, would be worth the price of the book. No, there probably is nothing new under the sun, but Maister in this book (and in Practice What You Preach, another gem) provides the keys to create better results for clients, and shows us how to turn those keys to start the engine. If there were 10 stars to give, I'd rate this a 10.

An easy to understand look at difficult topic.
Here is a good book, that clearly and accurately describes how to master a difficult skill. As an IT consultant I found this book to be immediately helpful in furthering my consulting skills.

This book takes the reader through the entire process of moving from "Subject Matter Expert" to Trusted Advisor. It accurately describes the benefits of this role for any professional rendering services. This might help one to justify training in this area to one's superiors.

I was continually impressed with the how the book dealt with the topic of honesty. Clearly we all strive to be trustworthy, however when that alone is the goal one might be prone to dishonesty to create an illusion for the client to trust. I felt this book gave real guidance on how to proceed, without having to walk a fine line.

I find this book to be of most value to an experienced professional/consultant, looking to hone an skill. It is of less value (but certainly some value) to new-comer to these types of skills. A better book for a new-comer would be "Managing the Professional Services Firm" by David Maister. That said, this book is worth much more than ~[price], buy it. ... Read more

Book Description

Recent corporate scandals have brought attention to business ethics, yet there are few books available that cover an important aspect of this topic. In this timely study of organizational ethics and stakeholder theory — which holds that business is beholden not only to shareholders but also to customers, employees, suppliers, management, and the community — Robert Phillips challenges the idea that the theory has no "moral underpinnings" and suggests useful ways to define which groups are or are not legitimate stakeholders. This study is based on the work of John Rawls, the most widely cited moral and political philosopher of the 20th century. ... Read more

Book Description

For thousands of years, those who controlled and monitored society’s finances–accountants–were often the most powerful, respected, and influential members of the community. From the collectors at communal granaries in the ancient Middle East to the scribes who monitored Queen Victoria’s Exchequer, the accountant’s role has been to preserve the integrity of financial systems.

In the United States, twentieth-century accountants played a vital role in shaping the transparency of U.S. capital markets, counseling the Allies on financial matters in both world wars, advising Congress on the creation of the federal income tax, and inventing the concept of the gross national product.

Yet by 2003, the reputation of the public accountant was in tatters. How did the accounting profession in America squander its legacy of public service? What happened to the accountants that presidents, senators, and captains of industry turned to for advice? Why did auditors stop looking for fraud? How did this once revered profession find itself in this unlikely and humiliating state? ... Read more

Reviews (6)

HBS recommendation
I saw this fairly obscure book recommended by Harvard Business Review Online. I'm an MBS student and this is a great introduction to the dual nature of auditors: in the business of making money but supposedly beholden ot the public. The author does a great job of showing how the big firms got caught up in the quest for business and forgot about their second duty. Not sure why I haven't seen more of this book; probably not sensationalistic enough.

the way of all business
I found this book very interesting, despite some minor errors. After all, it is a big subject. The book is the best explanation I've yet seen of the transformation of the professions into businesses like any other, and the absolute dichotomy between what the public thinks auditors do and what the auditors actually do. Unfortunately, I think what one takes away from this is: don't buy stocks, you can't know what's going on with them. Although "Unaccountable" makes the accounting profession look bad, absent a complete restructuring fo the financial markets accountants will continue to work to please the management rather than the investors, because that is the only way the accountants can survive. The same is true for lawyers, bankers, and rating agencies.

Factual Errors and Unsupported Generalizations
Unfortunately, this book was not carefully fact-checked. For example, on page 115, Brewster names Hain Hurdman as one of the Big-8 firms in the mid-60s, but omits Arthur Young & Company. On page 293, Brewster identifies Ernst & Young as IBM's auditor. That is certainly untrue in the US (PwC are the auditors), and one cannot discern from the text whether the reference id to E&Y's French affiliate. Throughout the book, Brewster consistently gets Laskawy's name wrong. Early in the book, the author cites Florie Munroe, an internal auditor at Greenwich Hospital and who "rose to senior manager [at PwC], as a reliable source for partners' work habits. Give me a break!

Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited
This book doesn't just tell you what has been going on with the accounting profession during the last twenty years. It details the great history of accounting. Based on the historical backdrop, the current behavior of the former "big eight" takes on tragic proportions. As an indivdiual that studied much to receive a Masters degree in accounting, I am much encouraged that this sad era is closer to ending then beginning. The arrogance of these mega firms are causing them to self destruct on their own. The economy will be much better served when the country has twenty plus larger firms again instead of the current four. Mike Brewster does a great job of giving the reader an inside look at a mega firm and a great job of going back in time to explain the profession from an historical viewpoint.

a balanced assessment
As a longtime consultant, now retired, I was pleasantly surprised to read Unaccountable. The book offers a balanced view of an area that is too often seen in blacks and whites, especially today when facile solutions to complex problems seem more the rule than the exception.

The book presented a world of individuals and groups subject to human pressures to succeed and compete, and along the way bend the rules to gain advantage. But it also took pains to show the good parts of a professional culture once built on integrity that has, unfortunately, made some unwise compromises of late.

The book's broad historical and personal perspective also adds interest to the discussion. In many ways, Unaccountable rings true to me, and for those with the time and patience to stop and consider what is really going on beyond the vogue for seeking quick fixes and scapegoats, it also points out a path toward sensible reform. ... Read more

Book Description

Intended for science and technology students, philosophy students interested in applied ethics, and others who must deal with computers and the impact they have on our society. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Comprehensive and fun.
Dr. Edgar's text provides a thurough and engaging look into contemporary issues involving computers and ethical decision making. Designed for a course in Computer Ethics, this text not only provides applied ethics but also gives the non-Philosophy student a good introduction to ethics itself. As a past student in the course, I felt as though the book worked well and provided professors and students alike with much to work from. ... Read more

Book Description

This book deals with ethics and value systems as they relate to technical and scientific discourse. While it covers several traditional ethical theories from classical to contemporary times, it also emphasizes that ethics is a personal matter of judgment. The book shows how to become involved with thinking about and applying these theories to one's own discourse. The fact that there are no easy answers to ethical questions is emphasized. Issues include how and why information is obtained and how it will be used; how the meaning of technical terms shift with the value perspectives behind them; and how science and technology can be used to put forth questionable values or to serve values not apparent in the discourse. For anyone interested in the history of ethics. ... Read more

Book Description

A dazzling blend of business vision, history, social psychology, and economics, The Support Economy starts with a compelling premise: People have changed more than the corporations upon which their well-being depends. In the chasm that now separates the new individuals from the old organizations is the opportunity to forge a capitalism suited to our times and so unleash a vast new potential for wealth creation.

In recent years, many books have offered fixes for this crisis, but they have dealt only with its symptoms. The Support Economy is the first book to critically examine its cause: Managerial capitalism has outlived the society it was once designed to serve. It successfully achieved the efficient production of goods and services, but today's individuals want more. They want to take their lives into their own hands and are ready to pay for the support and advocacy necessary to fulfill that yearning. The next leap forward in wealth creation depends upon developing a new capitalism that speaks to the needs of people today.The Support Economy will be the next "must read" big think book. It speaks to every business and technology leader, as well as every reader interested in the future of the economy and society. ... Read more

Reviews (23)

The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff
The overall thrust of the book admits to the success of the
managerial economy in maximizing efficiency. The human dimension
has lagged behind the maximization formulas. Many corporations
can no longer guarantee a life time employment scenario.
Therefore; it is important to develop a strong entrepreneurial
class/capability to take up the slack. The authors discuss
"distributed capitalism" to empower individuals to exploit the
new technologies . The authors discuss an important concept
which involves merging infrastructure activities to exploit
strengths in the bureaucratic systems and distribute these
advantages across a wide spectrum of users. The book makes
a point in explaining that half of what people buy today
was not available a century ago. The authors envision a solution
in home employment to empower the babyboomers well into the
future. This is an important work. It could be developed
further in some of the aforementioned areas. For instance,
there is a wide array of government assistance available to
small business owners and aspirants. This aspect could have
been developed more fully. Matthew Lesko has a number of
government self-help books on the subject of government
grants, giveaways and low cost loans for small business.

A New Framework for Business
This is a book of two parts. The first is a detailed examination of why managerial capitalism has reached the end of its useful life. Zuboff and Maxmin say that because the system is out of date it cannot serve the needs of todays consumers. They also say that its inward focus results in scandals like Enron because managers think the comany is there to serve their needs, Managers are at the center of the system and value is inside the company. All of this was ok for making things but failed to deliver good service because it was not designed to do this. It used technology to reduce cost and depressed the impact of the internet. The net result is that we as consumers have changed, management has not and we suffer. WE seek help and only get a bloody nose.. The second part of the book follows the logic of the demise the managemet system Here value goes outside the company and rests with individuals ( it is distributed) To achieve alignment everything else ( control systems, ownership etc ) becomes distribed and wealth is realised by allowing people to live life on their own terms- by providing them with ' deep support" Here the techological and organisational vision is revolutionary. You need to forget all you have learned and think about capitalism from the ground up. The authors envision using digital platforms to provide common data and service. They suggest this will take 30% plus out of todays cost. These platforms will be base for new services and levels of support ranging from the fully automated to the personal. Here are advocates who navigate the world on your behalf. This is a whole new function ... they provide the ultimate range of support . They represent federations whose sole purpose is to provide different levels of support leveraging off the digital platforms. Federations obtain products and servcie from enterprises which come together and break apart .The whole concept is unique and extremely challenging. The idea is to create debate not to be perscriptive. The story of the family used to illustrate the metaprinciples of distributed capitalism is great. It makes you understand how different things can be and need to be. Zuboof and Maxmin have convinced me not only that change is necessary and inevitable but there is a new future to write. Some people may dismiss their ideas as too radical but look at their track records- they know what they are talking about. The world needs more creative and visionary thinkers like this-people who are not affraid to embrace the future and challenge the status quo-- we should all applaud them

An Outstanding Diagnosis
I strongly recommend The Support Economy.

I'll start with the negatives -- it took me about 100 pages to really get into it; like most business books the authors repeat themselves; the future state they outline is sketchy; and they don't even really attempt to describe how we get from here to there.

The reason I'm recommending it is that Zuboff and Maxmin absolutely nail the diagnosis of what's wrong with the interaction between producers and consumers today -- the way that individuals (at home and at work) are the shock absorbers between what enterprises know how to do and what people today need; the reason that managerial capitalism has to give way to, well, something new that they call "distributed capitalism;" the need to move beyond the relentless optimization of transactions and towards the maximization of value in the context of people's lives. And, thinking about my own situation and those of many of my peers, it just rings true. My personal trainer (who is also an event planner) is a kind of poster child for this new capitalism.

While "support" is in the title, this isn't a book about technical support -- it's about a new value proposition of people helping people, not just better-products-cheaper. That being said, it is strongly influencing my thinking about technical support in general and my consulting company's value proposition in particular.

Stellar!!
This book has changed the way I think about the world and business. I never thought about the fact that when markets change the way we do business must change. The book calls us ' history's shock absorbers" as we live with the pain and opportunity that arises when one business model is dying and another is being born. The book is packed with insights, facts and theory that open the mind to a new way of doing business. It is ground breaking stuff. We never think about capitalism in our everyday business lives but maybe we should have done . We are part of history and we can make more money and build better corporations if we really understood this. I would recommend this book to everyone. It is a great read and a map to a new future.

A Pedantic Mess of a Good Idea
These authors are on the right track but they are more interested in impressing readers with their vocabulary than following through with some do-able solutions. I firmly believe that corporations need to catch up to what the customer really wants but this book meanders through a maze of technical and non-related issues which distract from the great theme it is about. I trudged through the whole book waiting for an answer to the problem I could understand but there was absolutely no common sense I could grasp that would lead me to a satisfactory conclusion. Felt like I was back in school again. Ugh! ... Read more

Book Description

A corporate campaign is an organized assault on the reputation of a company that has offended some interest group. Although corporate campaigns often involve political, economic, and legal tactics, they are centered around the media, where protagonists attempt to redefine the image-and undermine the reputation-of the target company. It is a strategy most frequently employed by unions but is also employed by special interests such as environmental or human rights groups. Sometimes it is even employed by one corporation against another. It is a rapidly growing phenomenon that is still unknown to the general public, to most academics and journalists, and is rarely understood by the corporations that find themselves on the firing line.

The Death of a Thousand Cuts argues and demonstrates that corporate campaigns are a distinctive phenomenon whose manifestations are today ubiquitous in both the marketplace and the media. This volume examines, in considerable detail, the history, strategy, tactics, effects, consequences, and likely future directions of the corporate campaign and of its non?labor?based cousin, the anti?corporate campaign. The book is based on ample sources and methods, among them an extensive review and analysis of media coverage, news releases, previous scholarship, union publications, campaign materials, interviews and conversations with individuals who have experienced corporate campaign, public presentations by labor leaders and others, correspondence, Internet postings, case law summaries, documents, videotapes, and other materials. Through original data and interpretation, this book adds context and integration to these materials thus giving them meaning.

Key features of this outstanding new book include: * A thorough and clear explanation or what a corporate campaign is and how it differs from other more mundane "public relations" campaigns. * A detailed examination of strategies and tactics that includes their historical development. Some of the more high profile target companies in recent years include Coca?Cola, Microsoft, Catepillar, Campbell's Soup, Federal Express, General Dynamics, Home Depot, International Paper, K?Mart, Nike, Texaco, Walmart, Starbucks, and UPS. * Hundreds of examples that help explain such contemporary events as the anti?sweatshop movement on college campuses, the living wage movement, and the protests against the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. * A lengthy appendix contains abbreviated descriptions of nearly 200 corporate campaigns waged by labor unions and various advocacy groups since the idea of the corporate campaign was first developed in the 1960's. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A book that deserves to be read
I picked up Manheim's book by chance during a visit to the United States and it was indeed a revelation.

As a Ph.D student in communications, I have read my fair share of books but Manheim's volume is a standout.

It is an extradordinary piece of scholarship the way he has tied all the different threads of this growing phenomenon together to give us a fairly sophisticated, yet extremely readable analysis of what we are seeing today.

Though there have been the occasional article or monograph written on this area before, no one has traced the evolution of this concept so thoroughly or assembled such an impressive number of case studies about corporate campaigns.

Apart from this, Manheim's book has a number of other strengths that make it quite compelling.

As a communications scholar of some note,Manheim understably, devotes considerable time and attention to analysis of the communications strategies employed by the antagonists of a company. His discussion of the activist need to define "the moral high ground" is fascinating.

Another strength is his discussion of codes of conduct and how activists use them against companies. Codes of conduct based campaigning by activists is not a terribly well understood phenomena within the corporate sector which is surprising given the proliferation of these charters, codes or compacts.

The space that Manheim devotes to shareholder activism is also intriguing given the growing efforts of activists to target companies through key stakeholders such as institutional investors and the like.

All of this marks Manheim's book as a must-have for anyone working in a corporation who is in a corporate affairs, public affairs, human resources, investor relations, marketing and especially higher management function. ... Read more

Book Description

This text provides real-life examples of ethical dilemmas, poor ethical choices, and wise ethical decisions from newspapers, business journals and the author's experiences as a consultant and board member.This text not only assists in fulfilling the AACSB's curriculum requirement but exposes students to a critical issue---the strong sense of values that is essential to principled and successful leadership in the business world.The cases also apply theory to reality in order to nurture or reinforce a needed sense of values in future business leaders. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Even those who think the idea of a "corporate soul" is an oxymoron will be persuaded by journalist David Batstone’s whip-smart suggestions for how values can reinvent an organization’s bad behavior. Saving the Corporate Soul alternates examples of principled companies like Clif Bar and Timberland with those of innovative leaders such as Denny’s CEO Jim Adams, who recovered from a $54 million racial discrimination lawsuit to create a company hailed for its recruitment of minorities. Batstone demonstrates his core belief that "companies thrive once they align the ethics of the company with the values that drive its workers and customers."Readers worried about psychobabble can relax. The topics are nuanced and substantive; they include reputation as the guardian of a company’s brand, restoring sanity to CEO compensation, operating with transparency, moving the company into the community, viewing the environment as a silent stakeholder, and defining core values for a global economy. Everyone in your organization should read this provocative and practical guide to the post-Enron era. --Barbara Mackoff ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Excellent and Essential Advice
David Batstone's excellent book on corporate integrity is a must-read for executives and managers who want ideas on how to create profitable but soulful businesses that show heart as well as logic. This is not a text that preaches from the pulpit or revels in moral condemnation of Enron's misdeeds. For those of us who are sick to the teeth of reading Enron/Anderson post-mortems, Batstone's book will come as a refreshing change.

Reputation building has always been a profitable way to grow a business. 'Reputation is not the same thing as a brand' Batstone says. Instead he says, 'Reputation is the perceived character a company holds to public eye', which is probably the best definition this reviewer has read. Using the eight principles outlined in the book, managers are guided through examples that have helped or hindered individual companies. IKEA vs Home Depot for example is cited in the Community section of the book - the underlying principle being 'A company will think of itself as part of a community as well as a market'. Which one would you rather have open a store in your community, and why? For the record, the residents of Mountain View, CA (a pretty town near to Silicon Valley) said they'd prefer an IKEA, and not because they like modular Swedish furniture.

The eight principles outlined in the book are:

Principl