here - Institute of Business Ethics

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The rapid development and proliferation of smart
phones, tablets, texting, tweeting, blogging, You Tube,
Facebook and LinkedIn are connecting the world
in ways we cannot imagine. It allows the intake and
distribution of information to take place from every
corner of the earth at the speed of light. It is, indeed,
an age of information where there are no secrets and
there’s no place to hide anymore. All of our business
decisions, from the executive suite to the boardroom,
are now subject to a new standard – the light of day.
What we are learning is that information is like
a virus that requires truth, and truth demands
freedom. When people become aware of alternatives
revolutions occur. This is an age of revolutions.
Witness the Arab Spring, the Indian Summer,
WikiLeaks and the scandal at News Corp as
examples. Increasingly conflicts of interest,
corruption and fraud will be exposed by integrityminded
people through new and expanding
technologies. This will result in an emerging
consciousness of capitalism and a greater sense of
corporate social responsibility.
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Keith Darcy
Executive Director, Ethics and
Compliance Officers’ Association
Of the many challenges facing business ethicists in
the next 25 years, we must get better at asking the
right questions. We have to expand our remits to
cover not only individual integrity questions but also
institutional integrity challenges.
What does this mean? We are good at applying
individual facts in complex situations to rules. Now
let’s engage on those broader, more intractable – yet
simpler to state – questions. How do resources
come to our organisations? What do we make and
sell? How do we make it? To whom do we sell it?
And what do they do with it once we have sold it?
Who are the business partners – up and down our
supply chains – in whose company our reputations
are judged? How do we know that we are making
a difference in the lives of our beneficiaries and
stakeholders? Have we sufficiently minimised the
harm of unintended consequences that flow from
even the best intentioned initiative?
Joan Dubinsky
Director of Ethics, United
Nations
As business ethicists, we cannot answer these
profound questions by ourselves. But we can frame
these questions in ways that make them more likely
to be answered. Questions that can be answered
can lead to tangible – and beneficial – action. The
ethical course of action for our organisations is to
help repair the world that we live in. Acting ethically
in an imperfect world isn’t a choice. It’s our moral
imperative. And isn’t it better to act ethically than to
preach to the wind.
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