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Dipak Basu · Victoria Miroshnik
Ethics, Morality
and Business: The
Development
of Modern Economic
Systems, Volume II
Modern Civilizations
Dipak Basu Victoria Miroshnik
Nagasaki University Reitaku University
Nagasaki, Japan Chiba, Japan
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to our uncle
Nishith Ranjan Mitra, the Managing Director of the famous publishing
house of India,
Deb Sahitya Kuthir,
who has stimulated us always.
Introduction
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
John Stuart Mill, justified colonialism, as they were all directors of the
East India Company who colonized India.
Socialism justified human goods in terms of developing and nourishing
essence of human nature. In that sense, Marx followed Kautilya, Aristotle,
Aquinas, and Spinoza in his avocations of workers freedom in terms of
achieving human essence. Inequality of distribution of resources impedes
the perfection of both rich and poor. In that sense, Pareto Optimality is
an impediment for the proper redistribution of resources in any society, as
redistribution can affect the rich adversely although it benefits the poor.
From the society’s point of view, moral values can be fully realized only in
a society in which each member is roughly equal in power and status with
the others. That was nearly achieved in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia,
but both were destroyed because of human greed. Now Japan and Scan-
dinavian countries are trying to achieve that goal of a moral society by
reducing inequality.
If economics has to be useful, it should promote Rousseau’s idea of
a moral economy, in which the will of the society would prevail upon
the will of the individual. The challenge of the government should be
to enhance public and private welfare by creating conditions of equi-
tability and justice. That would create individuals into moral and respon-
sible subjects who would not be interested to accumulate fortune at the
expense of the people, which is the principle of the stock market led
economics.
Modern economics is now a useless economics, full of unnecessary
mathematics and statistical theories. It has to be rescued to include useful
mathematics and statistics to plan the economy to enhance morality in
social and economic affairs. That is the ethical duty of the new generations
of economists for whom this book is directed.
Contents
1 Ethics of Management 1
2 Ethics of Capitalism? 29
3 Marxist Ethics 57
4 Business Ethics and Ethical Leadership 95
5 Japanese Management System 139
6 Socialism in Yugoslavia and Sweden 173
Conclusion 193
Index 197
ix
List of Tables
xi
CHAPTER 1
Ethics of Management
There are two different views of ethics, as the discipline that deals with
morals. Ethics tries to describe the role morality plays in our everyday
lives, this is descriptive ethics. It may try to tell us what is morally right
and wrong. That is called normative ethics.
Descriptive ethics raises the question about the role of “morality” actu-
ally plays in the actual economy. We may say that business has nothing to
do with morality. However, morality has important roles in the efficiency
of any economic system. In an exchange economy, if there is no trust in
transactions, there cannot be any transaction (Bowie 2017; Abend 2014).
The concept of “Moral Economy” has a long history. It was mentioned
by Kautilya, Aristotle, Cicero, and Jesus. In recent years, the concept was
elaborated by Polanyi (1957), Thompson (1963), Schumacher (1963),
Sayer (2000), and Bowles (2016). The idea is that a pure exchange
economy is immoral unless it would be accompanied by concerns for the
people, would create harmony in the society or Ji-Hi, as in the pre-Meiji
economy of Japan (Hiroike 1928; Horide 2009) or Maurya Dynasty and
Pala Dynasty in ancient and medieval India (Mazumdar 1917).
There are issues that can undermine ethical norms. There can be nepo-
tism, and favoritism, which discriminate against outsiders. There can be
bribery, which discriminates those who play by the rules and creates
an atmosphere of fraud. There can be cartels and price fixing in which
Values
Values drive organizational culture (Schein 1992). A value can be defined
as “an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end state of exis-
tence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode
of conduct or end-state of existence” (Rockeach 1973). Values guide an
individual’s behavior, actions, and judgments (Rockeach 1973; Abend
2014).
Ethical values in an organizational setting are strengthened through
values-based leadership, that can be defined as a relationship between
1 ETHICS OF MANAGEMENT 3
Characteristics of Values
1. Values represent an individual’s driving forces.
2. Values are forces affecting behavior.
3. Value depends on time.
4 D. BASU AND V. MIROSHNIK
Ethics
Ethics is the study of morality. It is the value that is worth pursuing
in life. It is honorable behavior. Ethics is relative. What is honorable
in one society may not be honorable in another. It depends on several
factors: world views, descriptive values, and moral values. It is a func-
tion of the environment. What one salesperson may consider being an
unethical marketing behavior, another salesperson may perceive it as an
aggressive marketing strategy.
Ethical Codes
Ethical codes state the major philosophical principles and values in
organizations and function as policy documents which define the respon-
sibilities of organizations to stakeholders. They spell out the conduct
expected of employees and articulate the acceptable ethical parameters
of behavior in the organization. Most large U.S. and multinational firms
today have a code. If utilized effectively and embraced, codes can be key
strategic documents in organizations for moderating employee behavior
and reducing unethical actions. To be effective they must be communi-
cated well and become a part of the culture of the organization (Wicks
2020).
1 ETHICS OF MANAGEMENT 5
Codes range in length from one paragraph to more than fifty pages
and are intended to impact employee behavior (Stevens 1994). Also
called codes of conduct, business principles, codes of ethics, and corporate
ethics statements, they typically contain open guidelines describing desir-
able behavior and restrictive language prohibiting other behaviors such as
bribery and conflict of interest (Nijhof et al. 2003).
Codes differ from mission statements by articulating the value system
and answering the question—with what ethical standards and values
should the mission be pursued? In contrast mission statements spell out
the objectives of a company and articulate organizational goals. Firms
frequently attempt to manage and articulate ethics through their codes,
which are designed for internal and external audiences.
An effective code enhances social responsibility and clarifies the norms
and values the organization seeks to uphold. It is visionary and transfor-
mational, providing guidance in difficult circumstances (Stevens 2008). It
sets the tone for the organization and can be the key corporate strategic
document upon which all decisions are based. Adherence to the code in
ethical organizations is a commitment an organization can undertake to
ensure a strong ethical climate. When codes are embedded in an organi-
zation’s climate and both leaders and employees embrace the codes with
words and actions, they can help create and maintain successful ethical
organizations.
Most large U.S. corporations today have an ethical code, after increas-
ingly adopting them in the 1980s and 1990s (Chonko et al. 2003;
Trevino et al. 1999) and they can found in about 53% of the largest
companies worldwide (Kaptein 2004). Most of these companies reflected
concern over unethical behaviors that could hurt profits (Cressey and
Moore 1983).
A content analysis performed by Mathews (1987) showed that firms
primarily emphasized avoiding illegal activities, employee misconduct and
placed little emphasis on the environment, product quality, or safety.
Another study confirmed that the most frequently mentioned topics in
codes were conflict of interest, gifts, and misuse of confidential informa-
tion (Pitt and Groskaufmanis 1990). A study by Stevens (1996) showed
that codes were primarily designed to defend organizational against egre-
gious behavior by employees and were lacking in ethical guidance and
vision. Snell and Herndon (2000) agreed, concluding that codes were
focused largely on corporate self-defense (Cressey and Moore 1983).
6 D. BASU AND V. MIROSHNIK
that company. This is why companies now provide ethical codes or codes
of conduct and expect workers of all levels to obey these codes when
they make a decision as a part of their jobs. According to the code of
conduct of most companies, employees are not allowed to accept any
gifts of substantial value from partners. Thus, this code provides an idea
as to what is right and wrong in the offices of Facebook. As a result,
business ethics is not only moral obligations to its stakeholders but ethical
behaviors expected from employees.
By taking the definitions above into consideration, it can be argued
that corporate governance, social responsibility, and business ethics
concepts have some shared characteristics and that all these three concepts
are interrelated. Corporate governance demands that executives make
their companies more transparent and accountable; social responsibility
demands that companies support society with their activities, and business
ethics clarifies moral norms for employees.
Business ethics can help a manager make his/her company more
accountable and transparent. Similarly, when a company adopts corporate
governance principles, it also has to meet the expectations of its stake-
holders. Corporate governance principles include principles related to
business ethics and social responsibility. However, some scholars (Heath
and Norman 2004) believe a coherent theory of CSR cannot be created
without corporate governance. In any case, it is logical to conclude
that all these three concepts are interrelated and they are imposed upon
companies by shareholders and stakeholders (Scott 2007).
Thus, we simply argue that companies take corporate governance,
social responsibility, and business ethics concepts into consideration in
order to gain legitimacy though they do not care about their poten-
tial impact on corporate performance or strategy. From this point,
these concepts can be dealt with as institutional pressures, which force
companies to isomorphism (DeMaggio and Powell 1983). Obviously,
companies have to adapt to their institutional environments in order
to gain legitimacy and to survive even if this adaption harms corporate
performance.
One of the fervent opponents of this idea was Nobel laureate
economist Milton Friedman (1970). In 1970, Friedman gave an inter-
view to the New York Times Magazine (http://www.colorado.edu/
studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html,
retrieved 8.3.2013) and in this interview, he explains his opinions about
social responsibility with these words:
1 ETHICS OF MANAGEMENT 19
accelerates and the pace of imitation quickens, firms that want to sustain
distinctive global competitive advantages need to protect, exploit, and
enhance their unique intangible assets, particularly integrity (building
firms of integrity is the hidden logic of business ethics).
Sustainable global competitive advantage occurs when a company
implements a value-creating strategy which other companies are unable to
imitate. For example, a company with superior business leadership skills in
enhancing integrity capacity increases its reputation capital with multiple
stakeholders and positions itself for competitive advantage relative to
companies without comparable leadership performance. Companies could
perceives stakeholder interdependence, demonstrate ethical awareness,
and respond effectively to moral issues, management creates a position
of a competitive advantage in comparison to other companies who are
without those resources, by providing a more comprehensive list of ethics
(Petrick and Quinn 2001; Mulej and Bohnic 2021).
International organizational leaders can and should be held account-
able for enhancing the intangible strategic asset of integrity capacity
in order to advance global organizational excellence. The marketplace
with globalization is becoming increasingly aware of, and increasingly
discriminating against, corporations that fail to meet the criteria of ethical
business operations and ethical management principles (Svensson and
Wood 2004).
Furthermore, sustaining advantage requires change. It demands that a
corporation should utilize and exploit industry trends on business ethics.
It also demands that a company invest to close off the avenues along
which competitors could attack (Porter and Kramer 2006).
Business ethics as competitive advantage involves effective building of
relationships with a company’s stakeholders based on its integrity that
maintains such relationships. Business relationships, like personal ones, are
built on trust and mutual respect (Boatright 2005; White 2006; Carter
2012).
Successful business must treat the parties affected by the corpora-
tion’s actions as constituents to be consulted rather than spectators to
be ignored. Doing so was just smart business. This was a novel step in
that it was among the first attempts to characterize the impact of ethical
behavior on a company’s financial performance. As Henry Ford, Sr. once
said: “For a long time people believed that the only purpose of industry
is to make a profit – They are wrong. Its purpose is to serve the general
welfare” (Harting et al. 2006).
20 D. BASU AND V. MIROSHNIK
68.
69.
70.
71.
“Neuer,” quoth I, “was fortune so vniust
As to do wrong vnto thy noble[2067] hart,
What man so wicked could betray the trust
Of one so vpright, of so good desart?
And though obey necessitie thou must,
As when the great’st[2068] the same to me thou art,
Let me alone the last be left of all,
That from the rest declin’d not with thy fall.”
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
The wisest and most prouident but build,
For time againe too wastfully destroy,[2089]
The costly piles and monuments we guild,
Succeeding time shall reckon but a toy,
Vicissitude impartially wil’d,
The goodliest things be subiect to annoy,
And what one age did studiously maintaine,
The next againe accounteth vile and vaine.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
The frier soone feeling Conscience had him found,
And hearing how hypocrisie did thriue,
That many teachers euery where did wound,
For which Contriton miserably did grieue:
Now in deceit to shew himselfe profound,
His former hopes yet lastly so reuiue
Gets the pope’s letters, whereof he doth shape
Him a disguise from conscience to escape.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
110.
111.
112.
113.
114.
115.
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
Michael Drayton.
FINIS.