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Book Review of American Business Values: A Global Perspective, 6th Edition by Gerald Cavanagh
Gerald Cavanagh has been an important contributor to the Business and Society field for years. Through his teaching, his academic leadership, and his research, he has accomplished much through his career in expanding the field's knowledge on values and ethics. Since 1976, Dr. Cavanagh has been writing and significantly updating his text, American Business Values: A Global Perspective. Just this year, the 6th edition is in print from Prentice-Hall. While the basic messages remain largely unfettered from previous editions, Dr. Cavanagh has taken great strides to make this latest edition the most topical and current, based on recent tumultuous changes in the business environment. The real-life, applied aspect of this book makes it an excellent option for undergraduate and graduate business students in the United States and abroad.
At times, Cavanagh's work reads less like a textbook, and more like a scholarly piece. This is a unique feature of this book. Instead of having separate and distinct chapters which cover different (but, related) topics, this book flows very nicely from chapter to chapter, with each new section building on the lessons and assumptions from the previous one. It is a highly entertaining and compelling book to read. For the student reader, it is an approach that is likely to hold their interest, and aid in the comprehension of complex topics since the logic and rationale for the concepts is built solidly.
The book's approach to business ethics is also unique. The author's purpose is twofold: 1) he wishes to show how American business values were formed and shaped through time and, 2) how those same values affect people within business organizations. This latter goal is accomplished both at the reasoning and cognition level, and also at the behavioral level. Thus, it should be noted that the book is very well researched and that nearly every concept and theory is linked with real life, applied examples. A clever mix of ethics concepts and organizational behavior theories is linked to company cases, statistics, and history.
Each chapter's content is followed by a brief summary of the main points and conclusions. Study material for students includes detailed discussion questions and recommended additional readings...