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Business ethics are always important. But, with all the brouhaha over the events leading up to the recession and news stories about the BP oil spill and the Mark Hurd firing, as well as dozens of stories about executive compensation, business ethics have moved up to the top of the discussion list for many people.

In April, Fox News reported that "Business Schools Renew Emphasis on Ethics." Blog posts such as "Are Ethics and Profits Mutually Exclusive?" from the Instigator and articles about the MBA Oath, including my own "Rethinking the MBA Oath" have kept the discussion moving, too.

This will always be an important discussion, even if it waxes and wanes in the public consciousness. So here are some resources I've found that, I hope, will help enrich your thinking, discussion, and actions.

There are several sites on the web that provide resources on business ethics. The one I've used frequently and really like is The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. The Center benefits from being part of a Jesuit university and located in Silicon Valley.

There are two other sites I've gone back to several times over the years. They are The Ethics Resource Center and The Josephson Institute.

The book on business ethics that I've heard recommended most recently is Joseph Badaracco's Leading Quietly. Lots of people seem to like it and recommend it highly.

But others seem troubled by the "bend so you don't break" approach and still others question the research that underlies the book. Before you buy a copy, use the "Look Inside the Book" feature on Amazon to check it out and be sure to read all the reviews.

A book I like a lot is Profit with Honor by Daniel Yankelovich. Here's an excerpt from my 2007 review.

"Yankelovich, to use his term, is a "privileged witness," who sees business from the outside, but has seen its inner workings up close. Even more important in some ways is the fact that he and his company have been among the firms tracking changes in society over several decades.

Here is why he wrote this book: 'The purpose of this short book is to suggest that the business community can turn the scandals of recent years to good use, both for business itself and for the larger society.'"

Those are my suggestions for resources. What do you suggest?

In the end, though, it's less about resources and thinking and discussing than it is about acting. Marcus Aurelius, emperor and Stoic, offers this advice: "Stop philosophizing about what a good man is and be one."

The truth is that most of us, most of the time, know what the right thing is. The hard part is doing it. It's even harder when there are plenty of incentives and pressures to do something else.