Oh gosh, what have we done here...Having released countless highly classified NSA documents in 2003, Edward Snowden immediately turned into one of America’s most wanted fugitives. His actions have crowned him with the title of being “the world’s most famous whistle-blower” . Having previously worked for the CIA as a systems administrator in Hawaii, Snowden has had access to numerous US classified documents regarding its global surveillance programs. Even though the release of these documents put his life at great risk, Snowden believed that he “had a moral obligation to act”. "I was very much a person the most powerful government in the world wanted to get away" It’s stories like these that make me question whether or not I’ve been responding to my moral obligations adequately. How do I decide on when to focus on myself or rather on the well-being of others? It’s certainly a difficult question to answer for all of us, but imagine having to run a global business on top of that! There’ll be hundreds or even thousands of stakeholders that are directly affected by the seemingly tiny decisions you make every day. Would you be able to cope with the dilemma of having to choose between yourself and others? There are way too many prominent examples of companies that have favoured short-term profits at the cost of others (e.g. Enron scandal 2001, VW scandal 2009, or just have a look at some examples from the finance sector in our previous post)! It sticks out a mile that we haven’t been capable in resolving the issue of businesses not campaigning for the greater good of society (in other words acting ethically). Many of these scandals share a ‘key ingredient’: imbalance of power. That is why more and more people demand of those in charge to have “their identities and interest bound up [closer to their actions]” (Brenkert, 2018), meaning that it should be their own job that’s on the line if something goes wrong! This is one of the points that stuck out most to me when reading one of Brenkert’s papers titled “Mind the Gap”. He covers the issue of companies not fulfilling the ethical requirements that they’ve been given and offers some solutions on how to reduce this gap between expectations and reality. Even though I agree with his point of view, I feel like there’s more to it sometimes... Imagine being the CEO of a multinational corporation for example. You have to pay attention to so many little details when doing business in the dozens of different countries you’re active in. They’ve all got different perceptions of what’s right and wrong, but YOU’RE the one who loses his job if you miss or mix up just a single one of them! But then again, ignorantia juris non excusat (you can’t escape an ethics blog without a Latin phrase thrown in there somewhere), which basically means that just because you didn’t know something is forbidden or wrong, doesn’t mean you’re not guilty. Back to the Brenkert’s view though... Only by linking identities and interest closer to one’s actions are we able to enforce enactment and close the gap between expectations and reality. More importantly, however, we need to understand that only through the alignment of private and public interest will we be able to enforce ethical and sustainable conduct in the future. Not only for businesses, but also for individuals and governments alike! I think former British Prime Minister Brown brings it to the point quite nicely: there’s a huge opportunity that allows us to organize the world in a different way. The only thing separating our current world from the one that we expect to be living in, is ourselves. Coming closer together and treating everyone with the same ... will close the gap between reality and expectations.
It’s people like Edward Snowden, Gordon Brown, or George Brenkert, that we need in order to bring our modern day ethical issues in business to the light of day! Take action by enforcing what’s right and cherish the freedoms of global citizenship that we are slowly but surely taking for granted. What’s your opinion? Shouldn’t companies and countries first consider benefiting their own stakeholders, like the British are doing with their Brexit? As you might have already expected, I completely dissagree! But I'm going to leave some food for thought down below...
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