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Adam Smith on business ethics

Article Abstract:

Most current discussions of business ethics confuse truly ethical issues with ones of policy, liability, or deterrence. The fundamental ethical question about capitalism is whether its capacity to create wealth and reduce poverty is offset by a reduction in the moral quality of its participants. Though the Wealth of Nations is often read as a book wholly devoted to exchange, in it Adam Smith identifies (and in some cases proposes remedies for) five moral problems created by capitalism: impoverishing the spirit of the workers, creating cities in which anonymity will facilitate price-fixing, expanding the ranks of the rich who lack virtue, inducing government to create monopolies and privileges, and separating ownership and management in ways that lead to what we now call agency problems. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Capitalism, Smith, Adam (Economist)

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The moral muteness of managers

Article Abstract:

This article examines the pervasive reluctance of managers to talk about moral issues of business in ethical terms. It examines several factors that give rise to this avoidance of moral talk, or "moral muteness." Moral talk is perceived by many business people as constituting threats to organizational harmony, to managerial effectiveness, and to their own images of power. Moral muteness, in turn, creates several long-term costs for managers, including moral amnesia about ethical dimensions of business practice, moral stress for individual managers, neglect of moral abuses, and decreased authority for ethical standards. This article concludes with a series of recommended interventions to reduce these problems. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Executives

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The ethics of hardball

Article Abstract:

Business executives must observe the cutthroat ethics of hardball and disregard the golden rule of Sunday school preachers. A successful business man must make decisions where people get hurt; that is part of being an effective decision maker. The best strategy is to be unflinchingly tough but fair.

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