{"id":4582,"date":"2010-06-16T09:10:36","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T08:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethicalquote.com\/?p=4582"},"modified":"2010-06-16T09:11:15","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T08:11:15","slug":"business-ethics-is-a-crisis-necessary-to-implement-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/2010\/06\/16\/business-ethics-is-a-crisis-necessary-to-implement-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Business ethics: is a crisis necessary to implement change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It is rare for two global crises to occur in such quick succession.\u00c2\u00a0 The banking and financial services industry, once heralded for its social responsibility and support of community issues, is under fire for seriously mishandling their financial responsibilities of late.\u00c2\u00a0 On the oil industry front, BP, once the darling of progressives for their \u201cBeyond Petroleum\u201d re-branding based on green considerations, has suddenly fallen from grace due to their bungling of the oil disaster in the Gulf.\u00c2\u00a0 Has the era of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reached another tipping point in its development?<\/p>\n

The practice of CSR principles<\/a> gained a substantial foothold in major multinational corporations over the 1980\u2019s and 90\u2019s.\u00c2\u00a0 International standards embodying \u201ctriple bottom line\u201d thinking, i.e., People, Planet and Profit, have encouraged managements of high profile companies to promote the public interest in their decision-making.\u00c2\u00a0 Many companies have now adopted new corporate governance standards while using them to advantage in the press.\u00c2\u00a0 The information revolution has brought about a more conscience-focused mindset, demanding transparency and more ethical business processes that foster a commitment to non-economic social values.\u00c2\u00a0 International executives have put aside their forex charts<\/a> and focused their efforts on community growth and development.<\/p>\n

However, it also appears that a crisis is the only mechanism for precipitating new action plans when it comes to CSR issues.\u00c2\u00a0 The last crisis of conscience was eight years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 The Enron scandal shocked and rewarded us with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in 2002, a full employment act for auditors and CSR professionals alike for many years to come.\u00c2\u00a0 One high profile firm, Arthur Andersen & Co., departed the stage, as did Lehman Brothers in 2008, as the current banking crisis unfolded on the scene.\u00c2\u00a0 Discouragingly enough, when senior management of Goldman Sachs were asked how our system of corporate governance could be fixed to prevent a recurrence of the current banking debacle, the Senate Hearing room was filled with stunning sounds of silence, suggesting the executives\u2019 complete lack of regret or acceptance that their behavior was in any way questionable.\u00c2\u00a0 Where were the CSR executives when we needed them?<\/p>\n

The present BP scandal exacerbates the debate once more.\u00c2\u00a0 The company\u2019s image is in shambles.\u00c2\u00a0 Over $100 billion in wealth has disappeared from its market capitalization.\u00c2\u00a0 The corporation is a take-over candidate at best.\u00c2\u00a0 The \u201cweight\u201d of construction shortcuts, taken by all industry participants, has now fallen upon BP\u2019s shoulders.\u00c2\u00a0 Hearings, reports and reform legislation will surely follow.\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, a new attempt will be made to legislate corporate integrity and morality.<\/p>\n

In a recent survey of 130,000 Facebook members in ten of the world\u2019s most developed economies, only 25% of those polled actually felt that the world\u2019s largest multinational corporations have a \u201cvalues-driven\u201d approach in their decision-making process.\u00c2\u00a0 Small to medium-sized firms faired better with a 40% rating.\u00c2\u00a0 Regardless of the progress made in the past few decades, the CSR movement<\/a> must still confront a wide gap between the public\u2019s and their own perception of their contribution to improved corporate conduct.<\/p>\n

Are we about to witness a new and improved wave of corporate consciousness?\u00c2\u00a0 Jeffrey Hollander<\/a>, a corporate leader and advocate for progressive values in business, recently wrote, \u201cWhen companies shift their value proposition from selling desirable products to solving difficult social and environmental problems, whole new opportunities arise.\u201d\u00c2\u00a0 Companies would receive welcomed praise if they independently embraced the positive aspects that their activities could have on people and the planet.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, it appears that international crises must occur to force accountability in the corporate sphere where profit still dictates the rules of conduct.<\/p>\n

Image: business-ethics.com<\/p>\n

Message received by Covalence | Country: Global | Company: BP<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0 Goldman Sachs<\/a> |\u00c2\u00a0 Source: Vincenzo Desroches<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is rare for two global crises to occur in such quick succession.\u00c2\u00a0 The banking and financial services industry, once heralded for its social responsibility and support of community issues, is under fire for seriously mishandling their financial responsibilities of late.\u00c2\u00a0 On the oil industry front, BP, once the darling of progressives for their \u201cBeyond…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_post_series":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,166],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-4582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-messages","tag-bp","tag-goldman-sachs","entry","no-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}