Michael Volkov posits a reasonable definition of business ethics – and outlines what it’s NOT – and offers a framework for going beyond determining whether a decision is “legal” and instead determining whether it is “right.”
Forgive me for the title of this posting. I am trying to make a point; a rather obvious one. I confess: I did not take philosophy classes in high school or college, so I may have missed the boat on this issue. But from my limited vantage point with respect to the compliance industry, everyone needs to take a breath and re-evaluate their use and understanding of the term “business ethics.”
As a start to this effort, let me first tell you what ethics in relation to compliance does not mean. We are not talking about some metaphysical, undefined concept surrounding human existence. Also, and perhaps more relevantly, we are not speaking about legal ethics, a term that has little to no relevance to corporate or business ethics except for perhaps one minor issue (duty to act in circumstances where the lawyer has knowledge of future illegal actions (e.g., a client who tells his/her lawyer that he/she intends to commit a violent crime)). Legal ethics has very little relevance to business ethics.
Without belaboring all the “feel good” and esoteric discussion surrounding…
