Activist Business Ethics

This title expands upon the theoretical concepts developed in the author's first book "Business Ethics: The Ethical Revolution of Minority Shareholders", published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in March 2001. Activist business ethics is needed in order to remedy the wrongdoing committed to stakeholders and minority shareholders. This will be achieved by co-operation between ethical businessmen, activist academics, stakeholders and minority shareholders. We should treat others as we would want others to treat us, not through interest, but by conviction. Yet this principle is not the guideline of many companies in the modern business world, despite the fact that most religions and philosophers have advocated it in the last 3,000 years. How can we convince or compel modern business to apply this principle? And is it essential to the success of the economy? In order to answer these questions this book examines the evolution of activist business ethics in business, in democracies, in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, in philosophy and psychology. The book examines international aspects, the personification of stakeholders, the predominance of values and ethics for CEOs and the inefficient safeguards of the stakeholders' interests. It presents vehicles for the safeguard of those interests, such as the Internet, transparency, ethical funds and activist associations, and future activist vehicles, such as the Supervision Board and the Institute of Ethics. In the 21st century everybody is a stakeholder and a minority shareholder of a company, directly or through our pension funds, or as a client, a supplier, a member of a community and a citizen. The principal premise of the book is, therefore, that ultimately the wrongdoers act against themselves. The book is woven with many references on ethics and business ethics from the professional and classic world literature, the Bible and other religious texts, poetry, maxims, and folk tales - showing that ethical problems are similar throughout the ages and cultures.