Interesting interview and a book to add to my long reading-list:
In recent years, however, I have seen more attention being paid to the positive side of ethics. More managers are waking up to the ways in which positive values contribute to a company's effective day-to-day functioning, as well as its reputation and long-term sustainability. In the book, I trace these connections in some detail and show how they play out in practice—sometimes in surprising ways.
In the future, I think more managers will recognize that risk management is only part of the story and that the benefits of positive values go well beyond problem avoidance. I have seen this progression in some companies that initially turn to values as a damage control measure when confronted with a scandal in their organization or industry. Then, over time, they come to take a broader view as they see the positive effects on work life, product quality, relationships with their constituencies, or their standing in the community.
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This shift in our understanding of the corporate personality has profound implications for management. Among other things, it means that managers must develop more robust ethical reasoning skills and increasingly subject their decisions to ethical as well as financial analysis. In a world in which companies are expected to behave as moral actors that conform their activities to certain ethical requirements, financial tests of acceptability alone are insufficient.
Where Morals and Profits Meet: The Corporate Value Shift — HBS Working Knowledge
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