Business Ethics Discussion Project on "Bluffing"

Each group will be assigned one of the cases described in Moral Mazes, Chapter 7. Try to agree on answers to the following questions as they apply to the case you have been given:

1. In what way did your case involve "bluffing" (i.e., deception)?

2. Is it reasonable to see those kinds of deception as being ethically on a par with bluffing in poker (or with haggling in a marketplace)?

3. Was there another, more honest, way to deal with the situation that the managers could have tried (without committting business suicide)?

The cases:

1.  Countering pressure to regulate CFC's  (pp.187-189)

2.  Countering public concern about formaldehyde  (pp.189-191)

3.  Countering public concern about acid rain  (pp.191-2)

4.  Defending weight-loss pill against charges of lethal side effects  (p.193)

5.  Interpreting data on public concerns about the environment to fit client expectations  (pp.195-7)