Chick-Fil-A's Biblical Worldview Of Business Ethics

In 2012, the CEO Dan Cathy obviously affirmed his opposition to gay marriages in saying: "We are very much supportive of the family - the biblical definition of the family unit" and "We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that” (Gilgoff, 2012).

Enron, a once thriving Houston-based energy titan, is now reduced to a cautionary adage among Americans to what massive failure corporate greed could lead to. At its core however Enron’s ethical and moral behavior was sound and seemed to be aligned with industry competitors. In an opening statement to the Enron Code of Ethics issued in July 2000, Lay wrote: “As officers and employees of Enron Corp., its subsidiaries, and its affiliated companies, we are responsible

Can business thrive by profit alone? Barry (2000) described Milton Friedman’s short essay, in the 1970’s, as extremely controversial, in which he denied that corporate executives had any moral duty to relax the conditions of profit maximization on behalf of the wider interests of society. This example of the “bottom line” of business has been demonstrated within the past couple of decades by publicly criticized companies, for fraudulent activities, such as, Enron, WorldCom, and HealthSouth along with many others. These company executives were willing to sacrifice the vast majority and greater good of society for profit gains. This mindset left many of loyal investors, consumers and employees without a sound stabilized future. There are also many businesses that produce a high yield on their investments;

Business ethics refers to the consideration of moral decisions and responsibilities in the process of operating a business. Business ethics, practiced throughout the deepest layers of a company, become the heart and soul of the company 's culture and can mean the difference between success and failure. Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions. Ethical business environments are created with foundations of integrity, accountability and commitment.

Ruddell (2014) points out how that as we live out our ethics, it is easy to lose track of our standards due to the many influences from others, government, and culture (p. 108). People believe that all Christian faith-based individuals share the same ethical standards but from the readings, Niebuhr discusses how she formed five ways in understanding the rich variety inherent in the work of Christian based ethicists and how Christianity and culture interact. One way of how Christianity and culture can interact that is discussed is through Christ Against Business Culture. Christ Against Business Culture suggests that Christ is bad for business. This view does not tolerate any expressions of faith in the work place and there is not a neutral ground in doing what is best for a business with the mentality of anything associated with Christianity is harmful for others.

The bad corporate culture at Enron deeply contributed to ethics digressions while pointing out how it led to its bankruptcy. A corporate code of ethics as well as an organizational culture are not only essential and vital to a company; they represent the core of a long term success. Notwithstanding the presence of “The Smartest Guys in the Room”, Enron’s corporate culture did not succeed in creating an ethical environment inside the company.

Business Ethics are defined as “moral principles that guide the way a business behaves” (Businesscasestudies, 2017). In order for any business or individual to act in an ethical

One of the key principles biblical views of business ethics is honesty, it is very important for us to be true to ourselves and others. It feels good to be trusted to do the right things at all times. When there is trust there are more freedom to show off the skills and knowledge that you may have. God trust us to do the right thing and carry ourselves with dignity and loyalty. The second key principles that are important in understanding a Biblical view of business is being a hard worker. In business you have to have a driving force and put your all into taking the business to the next level. The only way that business is going to grow is by working hard and possibly putting in long hours. The third key principles is being wise, you have to

Christians are called to the higher purpose of fulfilling a spiritual life in accordance to God’s will (II Timothy 1:9 New Living Translation, NLT). At the same time Christians are a part of society and therefore participate in the wealth of the economy. Although some have challenged business is morally neutral, business can be a wonderful way to bring glory to God (Grudem, 2003). This is possible when Christians apply their Christian worldview and abide by a code of conduct constructed from this worldview (Ruddell, 2004). This paper will examine the process of constructing an ethics program based on a Christian worldview.

Enron’s code of ethics was supposed to be based on respect, integrity, communication and excellence…most of the upper management failed on one or all of the codes. Lay and Skilling had little or no integrity based on their approval of the shoddy accounting practices. They had their own corporate culture driven by greed and intimidation. The top management was continuously aggressive in getting its employees to meet the sales objectives irrespective of ethical behavior. This aggressive earnings management style forces employee to try to accomplish goals regardless of the moral and ethical cost.

Business ethics is the behavior that a business adheres to in its daily dealings with the world. The ethics of a particular business can be diverse. They apply not only to how the business interacts with the world at large, but also to their one-on-one dealings with a single customer. In the recent decades, business ethics has become the platform on which the whole business rest on. Any disturbance to this base has and will cause a great destruction to the whole business sector in that country.

Enron was the model for rapid growth in the 1990’s but part of the culture and ethics of Enron was disturbing. Falsified documents, cutthroat competitiveness among employees and accounting schemes that hid the truth of the company’s indebtedness were just a few examples of the lack of business ethics within the organization. Perhaps a more virtuous management team could have saved Enron from collapse.

Delivering bad news could result in the ―death‖ of the messenger, so problems in the trading operation, for ~ample, were covered up rather than being communicated to management. Enron Chair Ken Lay once said that he felt that one of the great successes at Enron was e creation of a corporate culture in which people could reach their full potential. He said at he wanted it to be a highly moral and ethical culture and that he tried to ensure that people did in fact honor the values of respect, integrity, and excellence. On his desk was an Enron paperweight with the slogan ―Vision and Values.‖ Despite these intentions, however, ethical behavior was not put into practice. Instead, integrity was pushed the side at Enron, Particularly by top managers. Some employees at the company believed that nearly anything could be turned into a financial product and, with the aid of complex statistical modeling, :traded for profit. Short on assets and heavily reliant on intellectual capital, Enron‘s corporate culture rewarded innovation and punished employees deemed weak.

Business ethics is a vital element to the growth and success of any business. To be ethical means to have a system of moral principles. Ethics alone is a branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions. To have business ethics you would take the meaning of ethics and apply it to the things that go on it the work place. We are going to take

To understand the contributing factors leading to the ethical meltdown at Enron, one must first understand the cultural norms of the organization, because, organizational culture according to Al Saifi (2015) is the centerpiece in describing and implementing the organization’s goals. Cultures according to Johnson (2015) are a combination of things that one can see and things that one cannot see, but, are in the minds, and in the form of ideas, feelings, and belief (p. 381). When an individual joins an organization, they already have a set of principles that come along with them; but, the organizational culture in which they are going tends to have a significant effect on the actions and performance of these individuals (Al Saifi, 2015). Most of the individuals involved in the Enron case are described as people who would have done exceptionally under different circumstances or in other organizational cultures (A Conversation About the Documentary 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,' 2012). However, the culture of profit making at all cost, which is the dominant culture at Enron, transformed the actions of these employees, forcing them to act unethically. Upon my evaluation of the video "A Conversation About the Documentary 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,'" I was able to identify the following elements within the culture of Enron that contributed to the moral downfall of the organization; these are the elements of greed, arrogance, and superiority.