Proceedings at this national roundtable got underway with the observation that, in recent years, the concept of ethics seems to have taken center-stage in economic debate. Expressions such as ethical finance, ethical trade and business ethics are being used more and more frequently, and all major international companies have a code of ethics. Yet acting as a counterpoint to this apparent “ethicization” of the economy is an extremely serious crisis which could be interpreted as the consequence and product of excessive and reckless behavior by some market operators, especially those in the finance sector. Some participants suggested that the explanation for this apparent paradox may lie in the fact that the demand for ethical behavior is a reaction – and indeed a predictable response – to the current crisis, but also that professing ethicality may at this point be merely a marketing tool employed to disguise and justify behavior which, in substance, continues to be anything but ethical. Whilst it is likely that both of these interpretations may be valid and not mutually exclusive, the question remains what ethical behavior in business really entails.
The spiritual legacy left by the last world war is perhaps that of having shown that ethics are based not so much on good intentions as taking full responsibility for the effect of one’s actions or omissions on others. Ethics is therefore first and foremost about taking personal responsibility vis-à-vis a collective group. It follows that the economic arena which governs exchanges between collective groups of actors – be this at the level businesses or of entire economic systems – is the appropriate forum within which to conduct the ethical debate.
In terms of businesses, whether and to what extent a given firm is, on the whole, ethical, may be debatable and impossible to gauge objectively. Nevertheless, it was stressed that it is possible to assess the behavior of the individuals who make up the firm – whether they are business owners, managers or employees – and to observe what values bind the group as a whole, what the prevailing culture of the organization is, what the attitude is towards external stakeholders, and what mechanisms of exchange and trust bind individuals to each other within the organization.
It was thus felt that the ethics of a business can be seen as the product of the values that hold together the group and the mechanisms that reward observance of these values. The operational implications for all members of the firm, and especially for senior management, is that on the one hand the values must be clearly defined and communicated, and on the other, that deviating from them must be explicitly penalized (especially to provide a deterrent), even if this is at the expense of short-term returns. Indeed, the time range used to measure the achievement by a business of its goals is the key to setting the mission and culture of a firm: whilst certain opportunistic behaviors might be profitable in the short term, long-term business and financial sustainability can only be based on business models that incorporate elements such as sound ecological management of environmental resources, the development of an effective employee welfare package, and transparent and responsive dialogue with stakeholders, including minority shareholders.
In terms of entire economic systems, it was noted that although theoretical discourse on the ethicality of the market principle as opposed to other forms of economic organization would seem to be futile, the focus of the debate should instead be on which mechanisms, rules and corrective measures could be introduced to improve the system, making it tangibly more just and equitable. Here again, the best answer lies in pinpointing the shared values with which a local, national or international community identifies, and upon which it has chosen to base its civil life and build its future. It is all too often forgotten, as is happening in the current crisis, that a key and preordained role is played in economic matters by, for instance, declarations of the values of freedom, equality and the pursuit of peace contained in the Italian Constitution or the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, or even in a document which solely governed purely commercial transactions such as the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. In conclusion, the participants emphasized that it is only by bearing these values in mind that it will be possible to respond to the “ethical challenge” of globalization so as to restore the primacy of rules, thereby recovering the difficult but crucial balance between efficiency, equity, freedom and prosperity.