Tag: business ethics

Ethics Continuously Created by Everyday Activities

On By southwerkIn ethics4 Comments

Ethics Continuously Created by Everyday Activities

Anna Peterson when asked what the most important message is contained within her new book: Everyday Ethics and Social Change: The Education of Desire

That ethics is not disconnected from ordinary activities. This means a couple of things. First, almost nothing we do is “value neutral.” We can’t separate out the times we are acting “morally,” and the rest of our lives. Second, it means that ethics are not something constructed or articulated in the abstract and then applied, in a top-down fashion, to concrete circumstances. Rather, ethics are created in and through ordinary practices. This means we ought to think more carefully, perhaps, about the ethics we enact (or don’t) on a daily basis. In the end, I think, movements for social change seek to transform everyday life so it becomes safer, less oppressive, and more joyful for more people (and other creatures). So it makes sense that the roots of a radical ethic for social change can be found in the best parts of our everyday lives.

I have strongly professed such beliefs in my teachings on ethics. I strongly believe that the moral stance we have in place is the main factor in what we decided when the ethical dilemma arrives. It is obvious to me, that we create our ethics continuously, and the destruction of our ethical framework takes place in small daily increments. This is why traditional business ethics teaching has little effect. What the more foolish call the “real world” eats it up. The real world is the kind of person you are as opposed to the crawling maggot the world would prefer you become.

James Pilant

Too Many Business Ethical Failures

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

!!@@#dddddd444hmlbr35Too Many Business Ethical Failures

When I was eighteen I remember watching an interview with Art Buchwald, the great political humorist. He was asked if he had difficulty finding material to write about each week. He laughed and said that during the Watergate scandal his columns wrote themselves. He said writing under the Ford administration was much tougher. There wasn’t a scandal a day.

When I want to write about a business failing what I believe are its duties, it takes about a minute of internet searching. A particularly juicy one takes about five minutes. There is far more than I can write about. This ought to please me in some small way but it doesnt. This is a tidal wave of misconduct.

I teach Business Ethics. Have I got a chance against a tidal wave of misconduct? When confronted by a stubborn business culture that refuses to follow the dictates of conscience, religion or the public interest, do I just drown? What’s my answer?

You fight. What’s right is right and that you may very well not prevail is not the first consideration. The first consideration is whether or not you are doing what is right in the eyes of God and man. So, I fight.

James Pilant

Islam’s Business Teachings

On By southwerkIn Capitalism1 Comment

hmlbr09Islam’s Business Teachings

There are many negative stereotypes about Islam in the United States. Many foolishly belief that Islam is the same everywhere. Like Christianity, Islam has many branches.

I want to call your attention, gentle reader, to the ethical teachings of Islam in regard to business practices. Islam has particular teachings about the ethics of business. It provides guidance to its members in the business community.

Quoting from a Washington Post article:

But Islam has its own detailed system of business ethics, including a ban on interest-bearing loans and stocks and aversions to debt, hording and overvaluing. And it is becoming more of an issue as Muslims’ affluence and interest in business grows — something visible in classes such as the Fairfax Institute’s and in the appearance of Islam-friendly mutual funds and establishment of Islamic finance programs at universities such as Rice in Houston and James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050600747.html

Consumers Losing Faith in Business

On By southwerkIn Uncategorized

The article itself from BNET is a little self paroding talking about Business as the engine of recovery that people ought to look up to and respect but worries that it will take time to regain that respect. You think! This is what happens when business ethics disappear in the search for greater profits. This is what happens when the next quarter’s profits are the only measure of success and not what kind of people we are.

For many people talking about business ethics is just a brief joke, something whose existence is as likely as the Easter bunny. We can do better. No longer can business ethics be taught as a search for ways to avoid public relations problems but a search for what is good and right in all men in all ages.

From the article: Pay is part of the problem but the discontent goes wider. Four out of five people don’t trust business leaders to put the needs of staff or shareholders above their personal interests, according to Edelman’s Trust Barometer. A similar proportion think business ethics have deteriorated.

For years the workers and middle class have been the targets of bad legislation and exploitation by increased costs from banks, internet providers, and health insurance. A vulture culture devoted to worshiping the predator is not conducive to business ethics. It is conducive to lip service and a superficial appearance of compliance with the values of society. This is a great country with an amazing history of accomplishment. We can do better.

http://blogs.bnet.co.uk/sterling-performance/2009/10/29/why-nobody-trusts-business-anymore/