The last city on my recent trip to Ireland and Scotland was Glasgow; a city whose early wealth depended on the labor of African slaves in the British colonies. If there were one city in Europe that should be obligated to pay reparations for African slavery, it would be Glasgow.
It may seem that the uprising of peoples in the Middle East and Northern Africa represents a desire of millions to have what we in the United States already have. To assume so would be a giant mistake.
One can slice business ethics into various types, but one of the most significant differences in the field is the starting point. Some want to start in the midst of current business conversations, and then try to move students or mangers toward a more “ethical” view of their work. Others want to start with a vision of where business students and managers should be and then try to move them in that direction.
At one time or another, most of us would like to avoid the ethical. By ethical I mean the moral dimension of our relationship with others. As I have detailed in Civilizing the Economy, one of the best illustrations of this is Adam Smith’s use of the “invisible hand” in his The Wealth of Nations.
Marvin T. Brown, Ph.D teaches business and organizational ethics at the University of San Francisco and Saybrook University in San Francisco.
This book is the culmination of 30 years of teaching and writing on business and society from a communicative perspective. Visit workingethics.com for more information.
Adam Smith American Dream Atlantic trade banks biosphere citizen Citizens United civic civic conversations civic economy Civicism civic membership civilizing the economy civil war Commons corporate citizen corporations democracy disagreement economics of property economics of provision Egypt health care reform human dignity invisible hand John Locke libertarianism Libya living wage membership money moral equality ownership property property rights protection Scotland slavery Smith and slavery Smithian economics sports sustainability system of provision taxes tobacco trade