Business And Christian Ethics Essay Research Paper

Business And Christian Ethics Essay, Research Paper

Business and Christian Ethics 1

Your behavior towards other. s is a matter of making choices: whether to be friendly or unfriendly; whether to tell the truth or to lie; whether to be generous or greedy; whether to study in order to pass an exam or to spend valuable study time watching television and then cheat to pass it. These, and all other questions about how people act toward themselves and one another are dealt with in a field of study called ethics. Ethics is a code of conduct and values that are accepted by society as being right and proper. A Code of ethics is simply a compilation of the rules that are meant to govern the conduct of members of a particular organization or profession.

Ethics is primarily concerned with attempting to define what is good for the individual and

society. It also tries to establish the nature of obligations, or duties, that people owe themselves and each other. I feel that people do not willingly do what is bad for them, but may do what is bad for others if it appears that good for them will result. I think most people find it difficult to define what is good and how one should act to achieve it, because individuals and whole societies have performed outrageous criminal acts on people. In addition, every one is expected to comply with business ethics of all applicable laws and regulations, and with other company policies and instructions, while attempting to maintain their Christian ethics. Our conduct is our responsibility. None of us should ever commit dishonest, destructive, or illegal acts even if directed to do so by a supervisor or coworker, nor should we direct others to act improperly. We should not deviate from Business or Christian Ethics, policies and instructions even if doing so appears to be to the company.s advantage.

Ethical problems are inevitable at all levels of a business and this means that it’s simply good sense for companies to take seriously the task of institutionalizing ethics in their organizations. When one looks at corporations with a strong commitment to ethics, the first thing one notices is that the leaders of these organizations are the strongest advocates of corporate integrity. CEOs and Chairmen of such companies are clear and vocal; forcefully charging everyone in the company to look at not only how profitable their actions are, but how ethical. Therefore, if a company is owned and operated by Christians, Christian ethics. will be applied.

There have been radical changes in business conditions over the past century. Originally commercial activities were largely conducted between neighbors, now commerce is conducted in a global market. This change has also brought about a concern that the traditional requirement of a personal biblical ethic in commerce no

Business and Christian Ethics 2

longer applies. Arguments are increasingly made that personal morality is unnecessary in the modern marketplace, since the system of the market would control people’s actions and only allow results that are for the public good. This idea has continued to the present day, and as a result, the church has had little to say about economic matters. While the market has an important regulatory role to play in governing the economic behavior of people, any social system becomes ineffectual if not upheld through the underlying ethic and trustworthiness of its participants. If the social system of the market cannot adequately control the behavior of people, it becomes obvious that the church made a grave mistake when it gave up its voice in the marketplace. To reclaim this loss, and to effectively prepare Christian students for their future roles in business, it is important to have students to continue integrating the saving faith in God with every part of life, and work.

I think since commerce has grown from a community affair, participated in by individuals that had usually known each other most of their lives, to the much more impersonal, increasingly complex, and radically enlarged scope of commerce that has rapidly taking over the known world. Over time, the predominating view changed from a view of economic activity, which regarded it as one among other kinds of moral conduct, to the view of it as dependent upon impersonal and almost automatic forces. The struggle of individualism, in the face of restrictions imposed in the name of religion by the Church and of public policy by the State, has been denounced, then justified in the name of economic liberty. Today, such reasoning is a normal fixture in the day-to-day work life of modern business people, whether they are believers or unbelievers.

In essence, the problem that Christian.s face has to do with whether the Bible provides sufficient direction to adequately control economic exchange, or whether the social systems (the economic, legal, and monetary systems) are the appropriate modern systems which should be used control economic exchange.

If the principles found in the Bible are not sufficiently complex to deal with the business problems of today, or if the social systems have a built-in ability to control the actions of the participants so that the end result is the betterment of all, the rules of Christian godly living, have little to offer the practical world of business. From a theological perspective, the question is whether