Rob Hughes @robhughes@scholar.social

Hello! I teach normative business #ethics at the #Wharton School. My main research questions:

1) Ethical limits on law enforcement. Should all good laws be enforced? Should all important criminal laws be enforced with prison?

2) Economic civil disobedience and the ethics of obeying the law. When, if ever, is it OK to treat fines as a cost of doing business?

3) Transactional justice. Consent is not always enough to make an economic transaction ethical. What else is needed?

#introductions

Podcast and transcript on the ethics of workplace safety:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/dangerous-jobs-ethics/

"Paying People to Risk Life or Limb," forthcoming in Business Ethics Quarterly.

Drawing on Kantian ethical theory, this paper defends two claims. First, the content of a hazardous job affects the moral permissibility of offering it. Second, employers typically cannot justify omitting expensive safety measures by paying employees more, even if employees prefer higher pay to greater safety.

Accepted manuscript: https://robertchughes.com/hazard-pay-accepted-manuscript-prepub.pdf

#businessethics

My 2010 dissertation "Governing the Good" in 17 syllables:

Immanuel Kant
thought law must be coercive.
He was incorrect.

#dissertationhaiku

Several colleagues and I discuss the Red Hen controversy here:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/should-businesses-turn-away-customers-over-political-differences/

James Angel: "The SEC is sending a very strong signal: Don’t lie to investors."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/lessons-from-theranos/

@pzmyers wrote, "It would also be so sweet if they [business schools] actually forced their graduates to learn some ethics."

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2018/02/26/with-all-due-respect-why-dont-we-get-rid-of-business-schools/

Wharton has a responsibility and social values requirement for all of its undergraduate and MBA students.

For incoming and future undergrads, the requirement is either Ethics and Social Responsibility or Law and Social Values. MBAs take either Responsibility in Global Management or Responsibility in Business.

A conversation on Wharton Business Radio about businesses' response to the Parkland shootings. With my colleagues Eric Orts and Brian Berkey.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ethical-debate-guns/

Hello! I teach normative business #ethics at the #Wharton School. My main research questions:

1) Ethical limits on law enforcement. Should all good laws be enforced? Should all important criminal laws be enforced with prison?

2) Economic civil disobedience and the ethics of obeying the law. When, if ever, is it OK to treat fines as a cost of doing business?

3) Transactional justice. Consent is not always enough to make an economic transaction ethical. What else is needed?

#introductions