Business ethics

I AM happy to note that an increasing number of businessmen are becoming more receptive to the idea that they have to raise their knowledge of business ethics.

This is evidenced by the fact that more businessmen are enrolling in business ethics, a subject now offered in more and more schools. This is a welcome development that should be monitored closely and improved further.

That businessmen behave like dogs, acting only at the smell of fast money,
is hopefully becoming history, a thing of the past. With how things are now, such mentality is certainly a painful anachronism fit to be buried quickly.

Yes, our technological advances, on the one hand, with their corresponding
improvement in quality of life and sensitiveness, and the still gaping problems of poverty and inequality, on the other hand, practically require every businessman to master business ethics.

Business is a very complicated human activity that involves not only an exchange of goods and money but also the very dignity of human person. It just cannot be resorted to simply because one has money or the opportunity. A lot more is needed.

Business by nature touches us to the core, as well as covers our farthest social dimension. Always a moral act, it is crucial to attain not only our temporal common good but also our eternal common good.

In short, business cannot detach its economic dimension from the concern
for social justice, ecological balance, the principles of common good, solidarity and subsidiarity, and a lot more.

The gains of globalization, for example, would just be Pyrrhic victory if it fails to achieve greater justice and equality worldwide, and if it takes undue advantage of the weaknesses of poor countries. Globalization should have a heart and a soul.

Business should always uphold the basic “gospel of work,” where human labor is seen as a blessing not a curse, where the proper priority of labor over capital, spiritual life and family over work, etc., is kept.

It should foster proper values, arming itself against anomalies to which it is most vulnerable: commercialism, materialism, forms of cheating and corruption, false belief that human development is only a matter of economic progress.

The proper value of sacrifice should also be inculcated, since any ethical business activity would always involve self-denials and sacrifices. We have to understand that business always entails some amount of ascetical struggle and development of virtues.

Business cannot be separated from religion. It has to be seamlessly integrated to our relation with God and others, ultimately marked by charity. It just cannot be the arena for self-interest or even greed to play out their games.

This is an ongoing challenge because our present mindset is still barbarian, stuck only with the economic aspect. A continuing formation is needed and must put in place the necessary mechanisms to help businessmen

Clear guidelines and benchmarks should be made to warn us of what may already be laxity or complacency if not outright violation to business ethics.

More than that, these should help us to develop a sense of duty and responsibility in business. There’s a need to broaden businessmen’s mentality to be specially sensitive to ethical considerations.

Our present fascination for breeding entrepreneurs among ourselves should
not forget this need to develop a certain sensitivity to business ethics. Our entrepreneurial skills would be hollow without the leaven of ethics.

Though entrepreneurial activities thrive best in a fast-moving business environment, it does not mean that they are exempted from ethical questions. The more immersed people are in entrepreneurial activities, the more grounded in ethics they should be.

I pray that we can immediately explode fallacies that blame business ethics
for unnecessary difficulties and failures in business.

It is strongly hoped that the schools and churches, the families, government agencies and other institutions work together to effect a revolution, a thorough overhaul, a paradigm shift in the way we do business.

We have to build an authentic culture of business ethics, to both reflect and reinforce who we really are, that is, that we are children of God