How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living » (Revised & Updated)

Rushworth M. Kidder was a professor of English at Wichita State University for ten years before becoming an award-winning columnist and editor at the Christian Science Monitor. The author of ten books on subjects ranging from international ethics to the global future, he won the 1980 Explicator Literary Foundation Award for his book on the poetry of E.E. cummings. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Lincolnville, Maine.

Should you take a much-needed vacation or save money for the kids' education? Protect the endangered owl or maintain jobs for loggers? Have a heart-to-heart with a lying employee or fire him on the spot?

All of us face ethical choices. Sometimes they're easy: One side is wrong and the other is right. But how do we handle the really tough "right vs. right" dilemmas, where each side has strong moral arguments and we can't do both? This book helps us build Ethical Fitness^®—a values-based decision-making process so definitive that it's now a registered trade mark.

Rushworth M. Kidder, founder of the Institute for Global Ethics, teaches us how to think for ourselves in order to resolve ethical dilemmas ranging from the intimately personal to the broadly philosophical. Unique in its approach and rich with illustrative anecdotes—updated with examples of real-world conflicts from today's political realm and from Dr. Kidder's own observations—How Good People Make Tough Choices is an indispensable resource for spotting, understanding, and resolving our toughest decisions.

Publishers Weekly

Founder of the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, Maine, Kidder, a former columnist for the Christian Science Monitor, has conducted seminars on how to make ethical choices for corporate, academic, professional and governmental clients. This pragmatic, enlightening handbook on resolving moral dilemmas is filled with real-life examples from his work. For instance, should Executive A give a letter of recommendation to former Co-worker B, who was fired after being implicated in financial irregularities (when A believes B may have been unfairly dismissed)? Should a teacher pressured by worried parents divulge something their son has told her in confidence? In some of the situations discussed, immediate short-term needs or desires run counter to long-term goals; in others, individual rights clash with community well-being, or integrity and honesty vie with commitments and promises. This clearsighted manual will help readers cut through a welter of contextual detail to focus on core values. (Jan.)