Neil Salsich's Webassingment: Gods of Business
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Source: http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org
In this Speaking of Faith program, Krista Tippet interviews Prabha Guptara, a global business expert and employee at Switzerland's UBS Bank, and discusses the present state of business ethics, both in the United States and in the world, and the effect that religion has on business ethics. The discussion was mostly aimed to explain why, in the U.S., one of the most religious countries in the world, people have little-to-no business ethics and scandals such as Enron can go on. Guptara began asking this and other similar questions when he was a boy growing up in India. When seeing the poor state of business ethics in India, he asked himself: how can such a highly religious country such as India be so corrupt? And how does spirituality relate or not relate to their business practices? To answer this question, one must approach the roots of any ethics: religion. Historically, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism give common sense advice rather than spiritual advice. Islam, Christianity and Islam, however, are in another category. Judiasm stresses the character of God as a model for business ethics, Islam stresses the will of God as a model, and Christianity stresses human spiritual transformation, applying to all aspects of daily life. Guptara believes that most business, including ones not just in the U.S. are along the Christian and Jewish traditions than anything else, because Asian and African business usually follow international business practices, which were estalished largely by the U.S. Unfortunatley, the growing trend in business is to separate one's morals and religious values from one's work. But for some religions, this is not even necessary. Hinduism, for example, has very little teachings on business ethics, and even encourages people to charge whatever business interest they want. Thus, one explanation for the lack of business ethics is that it is possible to be highly religious but unethical in the workplace.
Guptara places all business people into three categories. The first are people who do not see how their values apply to their business ethics; they don't really think about it--they just follow the trend of business ethics around them. The second category, however small it is, are those who are highly greedy who will do whatever they can to make a profit. The third and final category are those who actively struggle with moral questions about business ethics. Nest, Guptara explains that making a large amount of money is not at all wrong or looked down upon if it is gained the right way: by hard work, intelligence, etc. However, what is wrong is when a small percent of the population has all the wealth and stand by while others live on poverty. He explains that we live in a time of incredible oversupply, which makes it morally unacceptable for people to not have basic things such as food, clean water, shelter, clothing, etc. Today, farmers are actually paid not to produce--the government spends so much money preserving goods that will never be used just to control market prices--that doesn't make any sense!
Tippet then asks arguably the most important question of the discussion: What are the possible answers this question of why the world's economy is in such bad shape? Guptara answers with the first action: inform yourself. Secondly, begin to ask government representatives and officials about the problem. Lastly, take small local action. Be realistic--one person can't have too much of an impact, but many people acting on a small level will have a huge impact. A prime example of this is Transparency International, an organization that was started by one man that has grown into a huge organization that has had a considerable effect upon international business. The organization works to curb supply and demand of corruption. Guptara urges us to find something you are passionate about, because there are so many areas that need reform.
Guptara then explains why the U.S., an extremely religious country compared to others, has such poor business ethics. It is because in Europe, the communities are so established from generations of living in roughly the same area, so their communities are well established and this provides a very strong moral base. The United States is a country of expansion and is relatively young, so it does not have near as many settled communites, thus not a community to keep people within their moral limits. Branching from that thought, Guptara next explains that there are societies where, historically, the individual doesn't matter--the society matters (eg. China, Japan, Middle Eastern countries). Western Civilization, on the other hand, has so much individualism that it is hard to get anything for the common good accomplished. The question to ask is: how can you encourage individuals to make individual choices but at the same time take responsibility for the effect those choices have on society? Guptara provides his very own UBS Bank as a prime example as one of these--a group who made and individual choice to solve their own problem but also accomplished a common good. UBS, known for dirty money twenty years ago, cleaned up its own reputation but at the same time cleaned up the industry because being the only bank with strong morals would hurt them businesswise. Guptara concludes these thought: ultimatley, business is about trust. Business leaders absolutely have to trust their employees, but they cannot anymore because people cannot trust themselves to stay away from poor ethics. The United States business world is in trouble because leaders can no longer trust themselves and/or their employees.
Source:htpp://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org
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