What’s in the Book?

Back Cover_webFront Cover_web Our book is on track for a late August release on Amazon, so please stay tuned!

In the mean time, I want to share the chapter headings (with notes) so people can get a better sense of the content.

As you can see, we’ve tried to cover a wide spectrum of business and work life decisions.

1. “Our Business Lives in Perspective” – the purpose of our work
2. “Being the Boss” – burdens of leadership
3. “The Laborer is Worth His or Her Wage but Doesn’t get It” – fair compensation and inequality
4. “The Big Time Crunch” – work hours, rest and productivity
5. “The Many Sacrifices of the Ideal Worker” – family and relationship costs
6. “Temptations of a Salesperson” – unethical sales techniques
7. “Slaves to the Revenue God” – harmful products and consumption patterns
8. “A Costly Choice: Whom Will You Serve?” – societal costs and layoffs
9. “Between Automation and Globalization” – helping workers adjust
10. “Shackles of the Shareholder-Primacy Demon” – refuting shareholder-primacy ideology
11. “Playing on the Ethic Line” – typical ethical temptations
12. “A Principled Life in an Imperfect World” – personal coping strategies

Posted by Peet van Biljon

Wrong Choices Are Always Easy

A new and exciting book on business ethics will be available to you in August.  Look for it on Amazon and elsewhere: Business Ethics for Executives – A Christian Decision Guide.

Making ethical business decisions is never easy. Sometimes, the more difficult the choice the more you become aware it’s the right choice. Wrong choices are always easy.  Every chapter of our book explores its topic from two perspectives: business and religion. We believe the insights provided will challenge Christian business leaders and executives to set the bar higher.
Peet and I intentionally wrote this book to engage our readers in an on-going conversation about business ethics. Up for discussion are employee compensation, management and employee expectations, product and worker globalization, and seeing a new way through the variety of decisions executives and employees face in the twenty-first century.
As a pastor, I’ve watched and guided churches through agonizing struggles over employee job expectations, equitable and fair compensations, retirement accounts, insurance, etc. I’ve seen well-meaning people adjust their values when finances was the main driver and the institution’s needs were guarded more and valued more than the employees’needs. We all get it; it’s the world we live in. Even in the church we can make the use of money and church finances a sacred cow.
One of our hopes for this book is that it will change the default of how most of us do business on a daily basis by giving our readers grist for the ethical decision making mill. We don’t assume that business executives will make the same decisions as Peet or I would. Business Ethics for Executives will change and elevate the conversations about how and what decisions are made. Sometimes, that’s as good as it gets.
I like what co-author Peet van Biljon said about this book: “it’s a contemporary business book shaped by Christian values, not a Christian book for business people.” For most people, a large portion of the meaning derived from life comes from and is defined be the work we do. Business Ethics for Executives is concerned with not simply what we do for a living, but how we live with what we do. Business executives, upper and mid-level management, and all other workers search for meaning and purpose in life, often through our work and those with whom we work. Passion for our work product, and loyalty toward co-workers and management, are all entangled in our desires and expectations for what is fair and equitable. When these concerns are mutually shared there is great potential for all making a difference with their lives and their work.
Our book engages everyone in the conversations that occur daily in the work place. Guidance and help are on the way in Business Ethics for Executives: A Christian Decision Guide.
Bookmark this website. Use the sign-up page to subscribe to our updates. Feel free to ask questions and challenge our thinking at the blog site. We’d love to hear from you and work with you in all that you do. We’re expecting an August launch of our book. Stay tuned.

Posted by James C Sprouse