Business Ethics – Faith That Works, 2nd Edition
Leading Your Company to Long-Term Success
by
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Chapter 2 – Understand Your Own Ethics
Now that we have laid out some basic principles, let's shift gears and start addressing the heart of the book, starting with you understanding your own ethics.. Let's get personal!
Stop and Think
Think about your job. Take your time. Let’s reflect. Maybe you work in a corporation, or you own your own small business, or you do contract work for different people. Maybe you pour out sweat every day in a manufacturing plant and it is amazing that you have found time to look at this book! Maybe you work for the government, or you work for a non-profit organization whose cause is very dear to you, or you are a student wrestling with the idea of exactly what you want to do. Think about it.
Now remember the last time you faced a difficult decision. How did you determine what to do? Why did you decide that one action was right and another action was wrong? Perhaps then (as well as now) you find that you don’t want to answer the question why. You really don’t want to think. It is too complicated or maybe you have already heard the issue hashed out with your social network with no conclusion so there is no need for you to really think about it. You just go with what your gut tells you; what feels right. Perhaps, on the other hand, you really do want to do the right thing and you need direction and encouragement to continue in this good path. In either case, you still want to be successful.
It is a challenge, isn’t it? On the one hand, deep down you know that there must be standards of right and wrong. On the other hand, you may not have time or energy or maybe even interest to think about them, much less think about how those standards fit in with business success and profitability. You are busy. You have a job to do. You have a business to run. You have a life to live. Yet when you slow down, you realize that you would like to do more. Sometimes you feel like two different people; you act one way at work, and you act differently with family and friends. You think business is business. Business requires you to act a certain way in order to compete and succeed. If you have read this far; you are one of the ones who wants to grow, who wants to make their life count, who wants to do and be their best. You figure that you will spend 20 to 30 to 40 or even more years in the work world; much of your life. Don’t you think it’s worth it to spend a few hours figuring out how you will spend that time? … to what purpose?
I can remember as a seven-year-old boy in Charlotte, North Carolina lying in bed late at night and thinking about my life. I realized that I would spend time on this earth and then I would pass away. I wondered what death would be like. I thought long and hard about my purpose. What is the point? Why am I here? It has been a long journey to discover some answers, but even from that young age I have made it my aim to seek them.
How about you? Are you purpose-driven? Why do you do what you do, particularly as it applies to that important area of your work; where you spend the majority of your time week in and week out?
This book is about helping you explore what you believe, because I am firmly convinced that this is what forms the foundation for the decisions you make in your work. If you do not know what you believe, then your decisions at work will be haphazard at best, destructive for you and others at worst. I think that you will find this exploration very freeing. Once you find out what you really believe and act on that belief, then you will find a unity between the real you outside of work and how you act in your job. It will help you find work situations that are in line with what you believe, not working against what you believe. It will help others work with you as you understand and articulate to them what you believe. Finally, it may help you realize that you want to change your beliefs to something different!
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About the Book
Business Ethics—Faith That Works, 2nd Edition shows how faith forms the foundation for the theory and practice of business ethics and how ethical leadership results in long-term success in business. It challenges readers to understand their own beliefs and actively base the ethics they practice in business on those beliefs for building an ethical culture that can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage.
The book begins by covering business ethics basics, highlighting how ethics are good for business. Ruddell then analyses the Scriptural teaching about business ethics as a model for how faith can (and indeed must) integrate with business ethics and then contrasts with other, secular, views of business ethics.
He continues by reviewing steps for solving ethical problems in business and how to set up and carry out an effective ethics program inside the business and how companies can extend those ethics to those around them through effective social outreach programs, and to the environment by being good stewards of our resources.
About the Author
Dr. Larry Ruddell grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina and graduated from Davidson College near Charlotte with a degree in Psychology. He then attended The Ohio State University, where he received his Masters in Counseling. After working for two years with the Dean of Students Office and as an Instructor at Sterling College in Kansas he completed his Seminary Degree at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia with an emphasis on counseling.
Dr. Ruddell was commissioned as a Chaplain in the United States Navy and after three years of active duty with the 2nd Marine Division, completed his doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of Houston with an emphasis on computer systems and business ethics. He then worked as a computer consultant with major companies in the Houston area during the 1990s, along with a stint with Booz-Allen & Hamilton. He then graduated with his MBA. from the University of Houston–Clear Lake with a focus on business management. As well as running his own computer consulting company, he currently serves as Dean of Faculty and Associate Professor of Business for Belhaven University–Houston, and continues to serve as Founder and President of The Global Institute for Ethical Leadership.