The 15 Best Business Ethics Books

Clocking in at just 81 pages, Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know is a short but powerful ethics primer written by leadership expert, John C. Maxwell. In Ethics 101, Maxwell argues that although virtually everyone claims they want businesses to behave more ethically, most of us take ethical shortcuts in our own lives, failing to display the same integrity we request from others.

Fortunately, Maxwell suggests that ethics don’t need to be complicated. Instead, he encourages executives to follow the Golden Rule, meaning you should treat others in business the way you want them to treat you. Although the tenet is a simple one, Maxwell argues that it acts as a compass for any type of business.

Although The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything was first published in 2006, it remains on Amazon’s bestseller list even to this day. People are clearly taken with its premise that trust–and how quickly you establish it–is the single most critical component of successful leadership.

Perhaps more importantly, Covey maintains that trust yields better business results, and he offers plenty of relevant examples to make his case. In the book, he also identifies 13 behaviors of high-trust leaders, while explaining how the concept of trust relates to a variety of different scenarios.

With over 2,000 5-star reviews, The Speed of Trust is a must-read if you want to learn how you can promote greater trust in your personal and professional relationships.

Although The Transparency Sale: How Unexpected Honesty and Understanding the Buying Brain Can Transform Your Results only focuses on the selling aspect of business ethics, it has a powerful (albeit counterintuitive) message: by being upfront about your product’s flaws, you can close bigger and better deals faster.

As Caponi points out, customers are naturally skeptical of 5-star reviews and the notion of product perfection … plus, with the advent of the Internet, they have tons of information at their disposal and can easily find out your product’s shortcomings anyways.

That’s why “unexpected honesty” is such a successful sales strategy for those in sales and marketing. In the book, Caponi explains how to use a transparent approach throughout the entire buying lifecycle, illustrating his points with several real-life examples.

Nice guys don’t always finish last–at least, not according to John Mackey. In his book, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, the Whole Foods co-founder suggests that businesses don’t solely prioritize profitability but instead, follow a conscious capitalism paradigm in which the focus is on creating value for all stakeholders, such as customers, employees, shareholders, vendors, society, and the environment.

In Conscious Capitalism, you’ll learn practical advice for operating more ethically, following the four principles of Conscious Capitalism, a visionary philosophy that’s already practiced by a number of highly successful companies, including Trader Joe’s, Harley-Davidson, Google, Panera Bread, Starbucks, Costco, and Southwest Airlines.

In Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution, former Airbnb Chief Ethics Officer Robert Chesnut argues that although we’re all capable of dishonesty, most companies spend little time talking about it–which is a problem because companies that don’t take integrity seriously are doomed to fail.

Chesnut then provides a 6-step process for leaders, so they can foster a culture of integrity in the workplace, before identifying the 10 most common integrity issues. With lots of real-world examples, Intentional Integrity–which made Inc. Magazine’s “Top 10 Business Books of 2020” list— is a compelling read for anyone interested in business ethics.

There’s a common belief in business that to succeed, you have to cut corners. After all, everybody’s doing it–right? Although Huntsman maintains that “ethical corner-cutting has risen faster than the price of a gallon of gas,” he makes a strong case against the practice in Winners Never Cheat: Even in Difficult Times.

Huntsman should know. He built a $12 billion-dollar company from scratch, and along the way, he faced many difficult decisions, unforeseen obstacles, and tough times–yet he still managed to succeed without compromising his values. In this inspiring book, he provides real-world examples that illustrate how he did it, and more importantly, he offers practical advice on how you can too.

In Business Ethics: An Ethical Decision-Making Approach, business ethics professor Mark S. Schwartz takes an in-depth look at the elements that determine someone’s moral character. Along the way, he keeps things entertaining by offering relevant, real-world examples to illustrate various concepts.

Schwartz also examines what prevents ethical behavior, before providing a “3P” framework for making ethical decisions: the public test (would you want your decision to be made public?), the parent test (what would you tell your child to do?), and the pillow test (can you sleep peacefully at night having made your decision?).

Gilbert kicks off The Noble Edge: Reclaiming an Ethical World One Choice at a Time in a compelling way, as he recounts how his hot meal delivery company was destroyed by an unethical competitor. Fortunately for his readers, that experience prompted Gilbert to earn a Ph.D. specializing in leadership ethics before becoming an author and international ethics consultant.

In this award-winning book, Gilbert uses humorous anecdotes, personal stories, and real-world examples to illustrate how you can bring ethics into your home, boardroom, community, and beyond. The book covers a lot of ground, providing three research-proven steps and nine principles for leading an ethically-driven life.

Although The Noble Edge’s focus isn’t solely on business ethics, it’s still an inspirational book that’s well worth a read. Business executives, in particular, will appreciate the chapter covering Enron and corporate ethics.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Bloomberg, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take asserts that to thrive today and tomorrow, companies must become net positive–in other words, they must give more than they take.

Written by former Unilever CEO Paul Polman and corporate sustainability expert Andrew Winston, Net Positive argues that government can’t tackle the world’s most urgent problems alone. Subsequently, businesses must step up. Fortunately, the book offers plenty of tangible advice on how to do that–while still meeting shareholders’ demands.

Unlike the other books on this list, The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup doesn’t teach leaders how they can behave more ethically. What it does instead is examine the consequences of behaving unethically, by taking an in-depth look at the Insys corporation’s sales tactics.

For those unfamiliar with the Insys saga, the pharmaceutical company developed Subsys, an oral fentanyl spray so powerful that it was only approved by the FDA for breakthrough pain in cancer patients. Despite that, Insys founder John Kapoor aggressively drove sales representatives to do whatever it took to make a sale–even if it meant bribing unscrupulous doctors to prescribe Subsys to patients who were cancer-free.

A powerful morality tale and riveting read, The Hard Sell takes an in-depth look at what businesses are capable of when ethics go out the window.

Former Baxter International CEO Harry M. Kraemer asserts in From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership that value-driven leadership is characterized by self-reflection; balance and perspective; true self-confidence, and genuine humility. Furthermore, Kraemer argues that by doing the right thing, value-driven leaders can achieve exceptional results.

Broken into three parts, From Values to Action identifies the four principles of value-based leadership, before explaining the characteristics of value-based organizations. Finally, the book closes with advice on how companies can deal with the 3 C’s: change, controversy, and crisis. Straightforward and insightful, From Values to Action provides immediately applicable lessons and real-world examples from Kraemer’s own career.

Although this tome weighs in at 540 pages, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit is well worth the time spent reading. In Grow the Pie, finance professor Alex Edmans explains the principles of what he calls pieconomics, an approach to business that seeks to create profits only through creating value for society.

Edmans argues that typically, companies have had a pie-splitting mentality–if I give you a piece of pie, there’s less for me. However, with a pie-growing mindset, businesses can remain true to their purpose, benefit society, and generate healthy, sustainable profits. Edmans uses an evidence-based approach to back up this assertion before explaining what companies can do to grow the pie.

Updated and expanded since the pandemic, Grow the Pie successfully counters the notion that companies need to choose between purpose and profit. Instead, businesses can be a force for good by growing the pie for all stakeholders.

In Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values, executive coach Fred Kofman maintains that consciousness is the source of organizational greatness. According to Kofman, a conscious business aims to make all stakeholders happy, while aligning work with core values.

While this is an ongoing process that demands constant attention and commitment, Kofman believes it’s a necessity … that businesses must become conscious if they want to survive.

Fortunately, Conscious Business provides simple tools you can use to develop greater consciousness. The book offers valuable insights on qualities like unconditional responsibility, unflinching integrity, and authentic communication to provide readers with a “consciousness roadmap.”

One thing the books on this list have in common is their emphasis on the notion that companies can turn a healthy profit–while still remaining ethical. Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is no different, and in his book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, he explains Zappos’ phenomenal growth, even as the company adhered to its ethics and core values.

Divided into three sections, Delivering Happiness begins by detailing Hsieh’s background, including how he made his way to Zappos. From there, the book covers the important philosophies Zappos follows, before outlining Zappos’ vision for taking things to the next level.

An inspirational read, Delivering Happiness maintains that corporate culture should be a company’s #1 priority … and by creating a unique corporate culture, businesses don’t have to sacrifice profits for purpose. Instead, they can deliver happiness to all their diverse stakeholders, while still remaining true to their core values.

While there are hundreds of books explaining how leaders can manage better and communicate more effectively, few of them tackle the thorny topic of business ethics. In The Business Ethics Field Guide: The Essential Companion to Leading Your Career and Your Company to Greatness, the authors suggest that clarifying values–and finding a way forward when those values conflict–is an essential, yet oft-neglected third skill.

Fortunately, The Business Ethics Field Guide provides the answer to that conundrum by offering 13 types of ethical dilemmas, as well as guidance on how to handle them. The book also explains the various factors that make it difficult for us to do the right thing. All in all, The Business Ethics Field Guide is a must-read if you want to develop the ability to proceed ethically when faced with challenging business dilemmas.