Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Genuine Business Ethics.’ Ethics Matters, 2004, pp. 1-3
Ethics is fundamental to and relevant at all levels of economic activity, from the individual and the organizational to the societal and the global. Yet there is a paradox in the proposition that higher standards of behavior in today’s world will automatically lead to higher profits and better performance. If the aim of top executives is merely to use ethics to achieve greater efficiency their efforts will ultimately fail. Superficially motivated business ethics initiatives, rightly called ‘window dressing’, often prove counter-productive. They are perceived as cheating by the stakeholders who will react accordingly. Sometimes no ethics at all is better than opportunistic actions.