Ethics ? ethics ? ethics.? Pick up any newspaper, surf any news site, and inevitably you will find yet another story on a leader or a company that has taken an ethical fall.? The topic of Christian business ethics is now a hot topic in America.? With so many ethics failures surrounding us, leaders and society at large are taking a closer look at the concept of ethics, and in particular, Christian ethics in business.
But are Christian business ethics enough?? With so much societal pressure to conform and government itself willing to pass legislation that opposes core Christian principles, is business ethics the best place for believers in business to focus and take a stand?
First, we need to distinguish between business ethics, and Christian business ethics, and offer a higher level leadership.
Business Ethics
An enormous amount of writings and training are now being conducted throughout the world on ethics in business.? My Google search from earlier today on the phrase ?business ethics? indicated 6,5070,000 links, with the first 5-6 pages consisting primarily of business ethics training programs and consultants.
Typically, contemporary business ethics training focuses upon answering two key questions: is it legal and is it fair?? These training programs often help create the now popular ?Ethics Codes? that consists of the do?s and don?ts of acceptable behavior based upon prevailing societal values.
The most glaring and significant problem with many ethical standards is that they are concurrently temporal and negotiable.? For example, one current and highly controversial business ethics challenge is whether to comply with the current legislation to provide birth control pills within workplace insurance coverage. Fifty years ago it would have been blasphemy to even suggest that he United States government or any business be forced to pay for (and in subtle ways even promote) free birth control pills.? However, in today?s prevailing ethical culture, this stance is considered ?ethical? (legal & fair) to do so.
Christian Business Ethics
Many fine groups and organizations now bravely taken a stand on Christian business ethics, and I commend every one. I contend, however, that the phrase ?Christian business ethics? lends itself to the notion that Christian business ethics are likewise temporal and negotiable.
If we indeed consider ethics to sway with the whims of societal preferences (and they do) the merely saying ?Christian business ethics? can potentially be an oxymoron.
Whether you agree or not, the executives at Hobby Lobby have chosen to fight the current legislation forcing them to pay for what they perceive as morally unjust.? For those not in tune with the fundamentals of Christianity, the ?ethical? thing to do would be to comply with the law.? However Hobby Lobby has chosen to take a stand for a higher principle, the Christian virtue of the sanctity of life.
A Higher level of Christian Business Leadership
Those of us who are Christian CEO?s and all Christian business leaders need to shift our discussion focus from Christian business ethics to a higher level of leadership.? We need to move from business and leadership ethics toward business and leadership virtues.
Virtues are at the very foundation of who we are, our core being.? They are not dependent upon the laws or mores of the society at large, but based upon our moral foundation.? Virtues are not temporal, they are eternal.? They are not negotiable, they are what they are.
For a Christian businessperson, our virtues are formed by the laws and ethics of men, but upon the laws and commandments of God.
In my white paper (see below), Taking Leaders to a Higher Level, I state that, ?Frankly, we have been too enamored with ethics training when we should be enamored with character development.?? It?s character development, not ethics codes and training, that we need to invest in.? And at the core of our character are the virtues upon which we are, our spiritual capital which is not formed by or confined to a company policy or ethics statement.
In his must read book, ?Doing Virtuous Business,? Theodore Roosevelt Malloch states that, ?Business is the real test of a moral life, and those who engage in it are putting themselves in a position where trust in God?s goodness is the surest guarantee of success.? Dr. Malloch then invests the majority of his book in teaching how the virtues of business unloose the spiritual apical all humans possess, and makes a dynamic case that it?s the Christian-virtues based firms that are the most successful and prosperous.
The Challenge and a Call to Action
Our challenge then is to move our focus and discussion away from Christian business ethics into the exciting and potentially unlimited opportunities that await our clarification and implementation of Christian virtues at work.
I encourage you to do two things.
First, enter your email address below to download my short white paper ?Taking Leaders to a Higher Level.?? It?s a simple and (I think) powerful discussion on four core virtues of great leaders.
Enter your email address to download Taking Leaders to a Higher Level
Second, read my book review of ?Doing Virtuous Business? by Dr. Malloch and order your copy today.? If you are like me, you?ll highlight something on every page.? It?s a Top 20 must-read book for any believer in business.
Source: http://www.toahigherlevel.com/lead-tahl/why-christian-business-ethics-is-not-enough/
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