What (Business) Ethics is Not? [Part 2]

Answer #2: Business Ethics is Not Religion.
It, in the first place, makes no real sense to construct a business on religious orders. BUT, if we could get little assistance form those holy orders it may do the trick like the Jewish Businessmen example. But why it works in the Jewish example is for the reason that those rules (thoughts) really match our generally applicable (the ones that we really want the whole community to apply) social contracts. They are easy to follow for any single man in the community, not only a Jewish person.

However, it is not always the same for many situations. (Especially for the other communities.) The major problem here is, that the religious beliefs of stakeholders and shareholders may not always be the same. (And usually they are not.) What is unethical for a Muslim businessman may not create that much of a sense for a Christian customer, or a Jewish community where the businessman lives within. To apply common sense there, would be the most appropriate way to solve problems.

Think of a Muslim investment banker for instance. If she fully tries to do what she has to do at her job, would it be O.K. for her to deal with interest rates, and securities with proceeds yielded over those rates? If she wants to act ethically for his job and do to “right” thing to do by doing her job “right”, yes she deals with them and goes on working on the promising investment banking job with making a lot of money both for her clients and herself. But this time she will be ignoring an order of her holy book and will be considered as acting unethically under her religious code (She’ll be a sinner.)

If it is all about "ethical versus unethical" inside a corporation, we have to do the right thing to max. our firm’s “long-term” value. Even it is a sin or not. (As long as it is legal of course...)

As a conclusion, what we do right might also be mentioned in our holy book, but what is written as ethical in our holy book does not necessarily make that “long-term owner value maximizing” for our corporation. It is nothing to do with religion. Religion can only be a guide here, if only if it has the “favorable thoughts for running a reasonable business”.