Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 1, 1990

Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting

Smoking in the Workplace
The Great Battle in the Air

Much of the work appearing in the management and legal literature in regards to the issue of smoking in the workplace seeks to frame the issues involved in terms of cost-benefit and cause and effect analyses. This article seeks to present a unique approach to the multifaceted and often complex issues involved in determining the proper policies to balance both the rights of nonsmokers and smokers in the workplace and the interests (legal, ethical, and economic) of management. First, a review of the law in regards to smoking in the workplace is presented, examining the legal issues in terms of constitutional, common law, and statutory perspectives. With this understanding, it is hoped that the discussion framing the delicate legal and ethical tightrope which management must take in setting smoking policies will present new insights for management practitioners and legal and business academicians.