Is business ethics just a buzzword?
Business ethics has been booming for ten years, especially in the form of corporate ethics. Big banks and other big companies are increasingly claiming that they are operating in an ethically responsible way.
They use terms such as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship and sustainability when they talk about their ethics measures. In this way they are exposed and lay themselves open to public criticism.
Why do companies do that?
Despite - or probably because of - globalisation, companies are still moving in the public domain and need the support of stakeholders, employees and clients. The public expects companies to act in a responsible way.
Why should bosses care about the wellbeing of their employees, when they hardly ever meet them?
From an ethics point of view, the reason is that employees have a legitimate right to be treated in a decent or fair manner.
It is not easy to measure ethics. How can you define fair play?
Fairness is a central point of business ethics. It’s based on how to interact in a fair way, on the justice of individual achievements and on achieving a fair distribution of the burden.
You might question whether the recent massive increases in managers’ salaries and the fact that they claim to be mainly responsible for creating economic value could be seen as fair.
Are these salaries justified?
Today some managers earn more than several hundred times more than the average. I don’t see how this can be justified.
It is highly implausible to talk about the justice of individual achievement here.
How do Swiss firms compare internationally in terms of business ethics?
They are extremely ambivalent. On the one hand, ethically responsible consumption in Switzerland is more commonplace than in other countries. One only has to think of the big distributors competing over ethics. On the other hand, Switzerland is home to many multinationals that are very heavily criticised in public.
How strongly established is ethics in the economy?
It started on a voluntary basis and now there is no going back. However, we need to continue to strengthen the dynamics of critical debate between companies and society.
It requires a framework that would be in addition to and support this process, and nowadays this would have to be globally targeted.
Should politicians step in?
Urgently, because nation states and democracies have lost a huge amount of sovereignty. Instead of a bastion of freedom, the market economy enslaves rather than frees the individual.
It almost seems as though the only thing left for people to do is to make themselves attractive to global investors - and Switzerland scores well here.
In what way?
The Swiss practice of failing to render judicial assistance in tax matters where foreign citizens are effectively invited to deposit their money in Switzerland is parasitic.
The country takes it upon itself to free people and companies from taxes. This is rather a massive intrusion on other states’ sovereignty.