Make an Ethical Difference

“An exceptional exploration of ethical challenges faced in business along with a set of effective tools for overcoming them. A must-read.” —Debra Burock, PhD, CCP, Regional Director of Program Evaluation and Practice Development, NHS Human Services

We are plagued today by a decline in ethical behavior and yet are called on to make ethical decisions, large and small, all the time. This can be particularly tricky in the workplace, where our decisions can affect not just ourselves but coworkers, clients, customers, and even the entire company. In this profoundly practical book, Mark Pastin insists every one of us is qualified to resolve even the thorniest dilemmas ourselves and gives us the tools to do just that.

Make an Ethical Difference shows how to apply these tools using actual ethical dilemmas drawn from Pastin’s decades of experience as an advisor to governments, corporations, and NGOs. The point is not to try to wedge your situation into one of the examples—it’s to show how a tool that can be applied to any situation is used in one particular instance. And once you’ve reached a decision, Pastin offers strategies for building consensus with those who might disagree with you.

People often feel hopeless and skeptical that there is anything they as individuals can do to raise society’s ethical level or resolve long-standing impasses. By using the unique tools in this book, we will gain confidence in our innate ethical sense and take actions that will elevate the ethical level of the groups and organizations we belong to and society as a whole.

“Mark Pastin has written the only book on ethics that is worth reading.” —Ian I. Mitroff, Professor Emeritus, Marshall School of Business, USC