Right Makes Might
Reviving Ethics to Improve Your Business
By Dorothea E. Gaulden, PhD.
ISBN10: 1933538864
ISBN13: 9781933538860
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: August 1, 2007
Publisher: Bridgeway Books
The application of strong ethical practices will make a business more successful in many different ways, writes Dorothea E. Gaulden in her provocative book Right Makes Might: Reviving Ethics to Improve Your Business. She describes the importance of becoming an ethical company for the benefit of shareholders, employees, customers, and society in general. The author also sets out a solution to the dilemma of how to become a business that practices ethics as a way of life.
Dorothea Gaulden begins her book with a discussion of the decline of ethical values in all areas of modern life. Whether it's students cheating in university courses, or executives in huge corporations engaging in illegal and unethical practices to improve a short term quarterly report, ethical behaviour is lacking in modern society. While painting a gloomy portrait of today's society, Dorothea demonstrates clearly that dishonesty provides at best a short term gain. As we see from the current financial headlines, illegal and unethical corporate activities are unraveling at an alarming rate.
Dorothea E. Gaulden (photo left) makes a powerful case for establishing strong ethical practices as core company values. To achieve this goal, business leaders must move far beyond the lip service paid to their alleged codes of conduct. All too often, the ethical words are derailed by tacit or even overt rewards for employees stepping outside those best practice guidelines. Instead of active support of unethical behaviour, good ethics must start at the top, by example. If leadership involves facilitating change in company practices, then the establishment of impeccable ethics is a good place to start.
With so many industry leading companies in the financial and housing communities, teetering on the edge of financial ruin, there is no better example of the failure of unethical practices. They simply don't work over the long term. When unscrupulous business techniques are uncovered, the resulting loss of confidence in the company results in its often very rapid demise. Regardless of the size of the organization, the establishment and adherence to strong ethical principle would have prevented disaster. At the same time, ethical companies gain customers and clients because of their cleaner image.
For me, the power of the book is the development of a program for successful implementation of total ethical behaviour within a company. The author's unflinching dedication to moral and ethical actions is vindicated by current events within society in general, and the economy in particular. Being ethical in business is demonstrated clearly as being good business. People prefer to business with other people whom they know and trust. A strong sense of ethics is essential to creating and nurturing that trust. As we have seen in the business news, unethical companies are failing at an alarming rate. On the other hand, being ethical in your business pays.
I highly recommend Right Makes Might: Reviving Ethics to Improve Your Business by Dorothea E. Gaulden for any business person who is serious about incorporating ethics into their company culture. Ethics must become a way of life for successful organizations in the future. This book helps guide your business on that important high road to improved company culture.
Read Right Makes Might: Reviving Ethics to Improve Your Business by Dorothea E. Gaulden, and feel good about how you conduct your business, and how you live your life.
