BUSINESS ETHICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
BUSINESS ETHICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
Introduction
Recently, business ethics has become the prior task for the organizations, as in the business realities of the 21st century, ethics is neither an option for business development nor luxury. At the same time, there is a common social trend – increasing rates of impatience, which are represented by the irresponsible and selfish actions, leading to the crafty enrichment of some parties of the business process and impoverishing of others.
There is a direct interrelation between the business ethics and social responsibility. For supporting this statement, it is essential to refer to the phrase of James Carville, political strategist “It’s the economy, stupid”. This statement was successfully used in the scope of Bill Clinton’s president’s election campaign (1992) against George H. W. Bush. While the nation has experienced recession in this timeframe, such catchy slogan has assisted Clinton in terms of establishment connections with US citizens in this critical aspect of social and economic life of the nation.
While referring to the current realities, which are characterized by the crisis of ethical relations, the same message may be sent to the business leaders of the 21st century “It’s about responsibility, stupid”. The core argumentation for such statement is that the basis for understanding the organizational ethics is represented by such issue as responsibility. Those leaders, who are motivated by the selfish ambition and are greedy, may rationalize unethical behaviors and lose the perspective of social responsibility in the strategic course of their enterprise or entity of any other form (Brimmer 2007).
In the same manner as the set of major aspects, related to the new economy, which was perceived by majority of people as a revolutionary one, the Built to Flip was around for the durable timeframe. In the timeframe of last 30 years, the paradigm of the Silicon Valley was followed by the entrepreneurs – in terms of their assumptions, regarding the most effective approach towards startup’ handling. Such model was not perceived as a complicated one - as it has integrated the set of clearly-defied steps: development of good and innovative idea, raising the venture capital, rapid growth and selling out or going public. The core success factor in this case was to manage all these steps in a prompt and effective way. Less than 20 years ago, there still was an ethic of impatience – the organization, which has not reached the rapid expansion within the timeframe of 7-10 years, was considered as a business failure. More than that, there was such aspect as an ethic of impermanence. It meant that the expectation regarding the company’s building to last was almost absent in the business culture of Silicon Valley.
Currently, the situation has dramatically changed - the new level of flippability has been achieved. People are tending to proselytize the strange notion that it is better not to have profits – the upside potential is referred as the major success factor now. It means that gaining the huge amounts of cash is not the major purpose of the business of the 21stcentury- as current Internet economy is mainly oriented on focusing the lion share of the monetary funds on the business plans’ selling for their own sake instead of viable businesses planning.
The core concern in this case, which is usually not addressed to the full extent, is the intention of business structures to manage their work with the unadulterated excellence, being socially responsible and make the contribution to the society. (Collins 2000)
Business ethics the 21st century
The business ethics may be defined in the following manner: it is an integrated set of the principles, which are used as the guidelines for the business practices for perceiving the society as an integrated organism in terms of profits’ pursuing (Kilcullen & Kooistra 1999). In this regard, the society should be referred as the whole, as it is critically important to indicate the increasing rates irresponsibility and selfish behavior of significant number of business entities and organizations of other form in the business world of the 21st century and address these negative social phenomena.
Ethics as a Priority
It is essential to note that ethics in business should not be limited to the moral or legal responsibility only; it should become the organizational priority. It means that the leaders of the organizations should maintain the wide set of the theological advancements, be aware of the services and products, offered by the competitors, address treats and use the opportunities of the industry, while referring to the ethical standards of the business behavior.
In addition, the business leaders should keep a constant eye on the major values of their business, its culture, vision, mission and strategy as well as act in compliance with the major strategic purpose of their entities, within the complexity of the above stated factors. It is a complicated task to find the place for one essential organizational priority, which is critical for successful business in the realities of the 21st century - the ethics.
In this regard, it is possible to define the priorities as the set of things, which are the most important in the current state of business. Thus, the major task in the business world of the 21st century is to achieve the recognition of the ethical values among the elite. In such case, the impact of the ethical values won’t be limited to the decision-making process only, but it would also encompass the institutional culture. In order to achieve such purpose, there is a need of alignment process which, in turn, would integrate the ethical values in business with its vision, mission, company values, goals and strategies.
It was indicated by the scholars that the ethical values have the social nature. It means that such process of alignment should be mainly focused on the interrelations of the employees within the organization as well as it should properly define the relational expectations. The core purpose of the ethical organizational culture is generation of the greater good of all stakeholders. In such case, the following areas of organizational relations would benefit: internal relationships between followers and leaders and relations with the customers, clients, vendors and the whole community. Only in such case, all people are treated in a consistently proper manner and this trend forces the emergence of the ethical culture in the whole society.
Organizational culture, based on the values
As it has been already stated, in the business world, of the 21st century, ethics should neither be perceived as the option or luxury, as all employees of the organization, regardless their levels in the organizational system of management, need ethical values alongside with the intelligence, professional experience and competence. It was stated by Kidder (2001) that one of the prior tasks of current business relations is establishment and maintenance of the values-based culture. While taking into account the extensive amount of time, which is spent by people on the working place, the major part of such maintenance should take its place within the business environment. The four major success factors for development and maintenance of the values-based culture have been defined by founder and president of the Institute for Global Ethics - Rushworth M. Kidder (2001). They are the following: shared core values; common language; commitment at the top; moral courage.
It was claimed that there are five major values, which are inherent to all cultures in the global scales: respect, honesty, responsibility, compassion and fairness. In the case of development and wide popularization of the values-based culture, the core contributing factor in the process of decision making would be represented by general commitment to these values.
The common language in this case implies the language of ethics, which should be used for communicating with the employees. In such case, they would be provided with the option of comfortable communication regarding the set of the issues, which are difficult in terms of being discussed and resolved. In the case of using the training programs, based on effective ethics, there is a possibility of getting the needed common language.
Commitment at the top implies following of the ethical standards by the leaders - in the case if the top-level executives do not follow the ethical standards of behavior, the low rate of efficiency may be achieved by the ethics training. If those individuals, who have chosen the ethical behavior, are constantly rewarded by their leaders, there is a possibility of prompt and effective creation of the ethical culture.
Moral courage refers to the quality of individuals’ spirit and mind, which enable them to address the ethical and moral dilemmas in a confident and firm manner, without retreating or flinching. There is a need of integrating the culture, lifestyle and ethics, as in such case they would constitute the human relations both in the office and in personal environment (Brimmer 2007).
Conclusion
As it has been already stated, the current business world of the 21st century has faced with the low rate of morality in human relations and the lack of ethics in business activities. There is a set of the objective reasons for such trend. In order to address it in a prompt and effective manner, it is critically important to consider the ethics by the leaders of organizations as their social responsibility. In addition, the proper place in organizational culture may be attributed to the ethics only in the case when ethical behavior is put at priority through development of the corresponding relational expectations. Finally, the core success factor for further functioning of business in the realities of the 21st century is the ethical values’ institutionalization. In the case of establishment of the values-based culture in the business entities or organizations of any other form, there is an option of improving the society by the positive impacts, perpetuating outside the entity.
References
Brimmer S 2007, The Role of Ethics in 21st Century Organizations <http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/lao/issue_11/brimmer.htm>
Collins J 2000, Build to Flip (New Economy) <http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/built-to-flip.html>
Kidder RM 2001, Ethics is not optional. Association Management. Washington: Dec. 2001. 53(13), 30-in Brimmer S 2007, The Role of Ethics in 21st Century Organizations <http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/lao/issue_11/brimmer.htm>
Kilcullen M & Kooistra JO 1999, At least do no harm: Sources on the changing role of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Reference Services Review, 27(2), 158-178 in Brimmer S 2007, The Role of Ethics in 21st Century Organizations <http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/lao/issue_11/brimmer.htm>
