Attention to ethics is critical during times of change – times like those faced by most businesses today. The global economy, e-commerce, corporate mergers, diversification and the emergence of a vast array of new products – these are all examples of the fundamental changes occurring in today’s business world. These changes and the need for business leaders to respond to them from a sufficiently humane and enlightened standpoint have created a whole new realm of interest: the field of business ethics.
The term “business ethics” has only recently been coined but the recognition of the need for ethics in business goes back many years. An early example of this recognition was the Golden Rule Stores that sprang up in the Western United States in the early 1900s. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, famous American entrepreneurs such as J.C. Penney, Samuel Jones and Arthur Nash made the Golden Rule an integral policy in their companies.
In recent years, the concept of business ethics has gained increased prominence, partly because of a number of high-profile corporate scandals, but also because of the keen and genuine interest being shown by managers who want to conduct their business in an ethical fashion.
Over the past decade, businesses and governments as well as consumer and corporate watchdogs have been developing ethical approaches to doing business. Business ethics is now widely discussed and debated; it is being taught in universities, written about in business and mainstream journals, and developed into company policy.
The Golden Rule is sometimes cited as a guiding principle in many of these approaches. In researching this document, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are thousands of business ethics websites. I was also surprised to learn how often the Golden Rule is mentioned on these websites.
One researcher suggests that the Golden Rule remains the most common method to resolve ethical dilemmas. More often, however, the Golden Rule is the implicit ethic that underlies and supports codes of good business conduct and responsible consumption.
The websites presented in this document are offered as a service to all who are interested in delving further into the field of business ethics.
More than 50 websites are listed here, subdivided in six categories: History, Services (for business), Research, Practical Application, Faith-Based Perspectives and Golden Rule Applications. These particular sites were chosen in order to present a diversity of approaches to business ethics. Websites from all over the world are featured here. A few sites are included in two categories because of their varied content.
Not all of these websites contain references to the Golden Rule. Sites that specifically discuss the Golden Rule in relation to business ethics are marked by asterisks.
A history of American Golden Rule entrepreneurs **
“The Golden Rule in Business” **
** Websites that specifically discuss the Golden Rule in relation to business ethics
http://www.crossroadsprograms.com/
Includes a corporate integrity check-up
http://www.accountability.org.uk/
See section: “A21: Reinventing Accountability for the 21st century”
http://www.managementhelp.org/ethics/ethxgde.htm **
An excellent introduction to the subject
http://www.goodcharacter.com/NFS/SchoolToWork.html
Ethics in the workplace
b) Introduction to Business Ethics: This site offers a primer on how business ethics is taught in management courses (includes a Golden Rule section).
http://www.foolonahill.com/mbabizethics.html **
c) Articles: These websites offer a wide variety of articles in the field of business ethics.
http://www.business-ethics.com/
An online business ethics magazine
http://www.bsr.org/
Business for Social Responsibility
** Websites that specifically discuss the Golden Rule in relation to business ethics
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/aboutec/whybuyethically.htm
The UK’s leading alternative consumer organization
b) Ethical investment: These websites promote ethical investment.
http://www.socialfunds.com/
Features over 10,000 pages on ethical investment
c) Ecology: Featured here is a website that promotes business ethics in relation to ecological sustainability and a third that reports on the disastrous results of environmental mismanagement.
http://www.interfaceinc.com/who/
An international carpet company
d) Codes of ethics: These websites offer guidance on preparing a business code of conduct as well as examples of codes of ethics that have been developed by specific companies.
http://www.bce.ca/en/governance/codeofconduct/index.php
Bell Canada Enterprises
http://www.ups.com/content/corp/code_conduct.html
United Parcel Service
http://www.itcportal.com/careers_with_itc/code_of_conduct.html
ITC
http://www.ethicsweb.ca/codes/ **
Creating a code of ethics for your organization
http://www.orgtrans.com/conflict.html **
Resolving Workplace Conflict by Customizing the Golden Rule
e) Corporate social responsibility: This site focuses on corporate social responsibility and the relationship between business and sustainability.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/incsr-rse.nsf/en/Home
Industry Canada
** Websites that specifically discuss the Golden Rule in relation to business ethics
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/bus-ethi.html
A Christian perspective
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0766164926/104-1600420-2299154?n=283155 **
“The Golden Rule in Business”
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jwattles/grbro.htm **
History of American Golden Rule entrepreneurs
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586215760/701-1435962-3176369 **
Best-selling book on business ethics
** Websites that specifically discuss the Golden Rule in relation to business ethics
Published by Scarboro Missions (Toronto, Canada)
Copyright © Scarboro Missions 2006
