Capitalism is at risk of destroying itself unless bankers realise they have an obligation to create a fairer society, the Bank of England governor has warned.
Mark Carney said bankers had operated a "heads-I-win-tails-you-lose" system. He questioned whether traders met ethical standards and said that those who failed to meet high professional standards should face ostracism.
Speaking at a City conference, the Bank's governor warned that there was a growing sense that the basic social contract at the heart of capitalism was breaking down amid rising inequality. "We simply cannot take the capitalist system, which produces such plenty and so many solutions, for granted. Prosperity requires not just investment in economic capital, but investment in social capital.""Unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself. To counteract this tendency, individuals and their firms must have a sense of their responsibilities for the broader system."
"All ideologies are prone to extremes. Capitalism loses its sense of moderation when the belief in the power of the market enters the realm of faith. In the decades prior to the crisis such radicalism came to dominate economic ideas and became a pattern of social behaviour".
MBA Programme
California Lutheran University
Business Ethics
Given the importance of ethics in business, and indeed the relevance of ethics in all we do, I am pleased to share with you the details of the Business Ethics Course at the MBA Programme at California Lutheran University which I am engaged with.
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE:
Value-led sustainable business, social investment and spirituality in business movements are one of the hopeful signs that business, as the most powerful institution in world today, may be transforming from within. What is emerging is a new attitude towards the workplace as a place to fulfil one’s deeper purpose.
Business ethics is the moral analysis of business activity and practices. In business ethics, we consider business actions and decisions in the light of moral, philosophical and spiritual principles and values, and ask whether ethical motives in business activity would make business better and more successful.
This course introduces students to the relevance and importance of ethics and social responsibility in business. Important learning objectives are to increase students’ awareness and understanding of ethical issues in business, and to provide students with useful conceptual tools to guide analysis and decisions. The ultimate intent of the course is to leave students better equipped to identify, think critically about, and resolve ethical issues that are encountered in one’s working life at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.
Further, we will examine issues and conflicts that typically arise in business that have moral aspects to them, such as the way employers treat their employees, employees their employers, and the ways businesses treat their competitors, their customers, their society, and their environment. Finally, we will consider the practical question of whether a (morally) good life can be lived by those who wholeheartedly devote themselves to business success. These matters all centre on questions about human action and the good life.
Our principle focus in this course will be the understanding and appreciation of a way of life in which money and profits play an important but certainly not exclusive role. At times this course will engage in constructive criticism of business life and practices; however its predominant focus will not be business' failures or wrong-doings, but rather its purposes and roles in society, the activities these purposes and roles define, the relationship these have and should have to our social community and to each of our lives.
Important Note:
Throughout the course, the students will be encouraged to constantly reflect also on life’s bigger questions, as they reflect on how to do business, make, sell, buy, make profit, create monetary wealth, and so on. Questions such as:
Who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going to? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? What is nature? What is religion? What is philosophy? What is knowledge? What is joy? What is pain? What is happiness? What is service? What is friendship? What is competition? What is cooperation? What is scarcity? What is abundance? What is transparency? What is deception? What is money? What is wealth? What is spirituality? Am I a good person? How might I become a better person?
COURSE OUTLINE
1. Introduction to the course
2. Ethics and Business a. Why be ethical in business?
b. How might ethical decision-making work?
c. Corporate Culture and Ethical Leadership
3. Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role of Business in Society
4. Larger Issues: The Bigger Picture
a. What is the Common Good?
b. What is the Golden Rule?
c. What is Justice?
d. What is Charity?
e. What is Economic Justice?
f. What is Justice-based Management?
g. What is Social Entrepreneurship?
h. Who is Social Entrepreneur?
i. What is sustainability?
j. What are the Common Good-inspired Values, enabling the Social Entrepreneur to do well by doing good?
California Lutheran University: