The need for business ethics is often seen as
starting in the 1960’s and the corporate scandals that resulted. However,
business ethics started much earlier as the complexities of business raise
important concepts of public good. When ethics are not understood or enforced
business decisions can have a large impact on the overall functioning of
society and the very nature of people’s lives.
Her work offers a three-way understanding of ethics:
- 1.) The history of ethics and business practices.
- 2.) History of ideas about business practices.
- 3.) History of public/private institutions and projects that influence ethical understandings.
By viewing the history of ethics, how the concepts
were formed, and how organizations influence ethics, one can better get a
rounded picture of the meaning of ethics. People may look into the actions of
leaders, legal precedence, legislators, journalists, preachers, educators, and
group statements to have a more clear understanding. Each contributes to what
is the modern applied definition of appropriate business ethics.
At its very earliest roots ethics comes from religious
and philosophical thinkers. Some sources might include religious text (Bible,
Quran, Torah, etc…) as well as famous philosophers and scientists such as
Aristotle, Adam Smith, Spinoza, Plato, and Aquinas. The very nature of
sophistication of intellectuals from different eras added to the overall
concept of ethical standards.
Business ethics can be seen as encouraging the
highest truth and ideals. It is these truths and ideals that set the standard
and allow for accurate assessment of problems. Furthermore, with a level of
truth it is possible to use these assessments to further develop stronger
methods thwarting damaging unethical decisions. It allows for the honest man
to succeed in the business world and the dishonest man to be punished by the
market.
From a lecture in 1902 Harris
Weinstock proposed at the University of California in a lecture, "to the belief that success in business is
more probable and more lasting if conducted upon a high ethical plane, and that
true success lies in developing character rather than in heaping up gold"
(University of Califomia 1904: 103-04). It is a wider range of responsibility
beyond money and status that leads to higher attainment of such things. Through character one achieves other goals.
The paper did not indicate this
concept but one must wonder what ethics and economics have to do with each
other? Ultimately, all business and economic systems are based in the concept of
trust. Such trust is impossible if people are not working on the same
fundamental system of values. As the world globalizes and people begin to
communicate and conduct commercial activities at an increased place the ethics of
a nation will begin to adjust to a global ethics approach. The individual
arguments of particular sects will fade away to the need of cross border commercial
understandings. As a question we can ask ourselves, "Which nation and economic system will influence those underlying global ethics?"
Abend, G. (2013). The
origins of business ethics in American universities, 1902-1936. Business Ethics
Quarterly, 23 (2).
University of California. 1898. The Establishment of
the College of Commerce. The University
Chronicle. An Official Record 1(6) (December): 552-68.
