The 15th session of URI MENA Cultural Cafe (via Zoom)
URI MENA Cultural Café session on 18 July 2020 was on “The required traits & ethical aspects to overcome the economic plight in our society“.
The discussion focused on three main questions:
– To what extent are business and ethics connected nowadays?
– How can we cooperate to overcome the current economic crisis caused by COVID 19?
– Is there a need to restructure the economy to avoid similar crises in the future?
Takeaways include:
– Most business firms claim to be ethical, but we do not see that reflected is most of their actions. Businesses often primarily care about maximizing profits whereas integrating an ethical lens deliberately calls out moral and immoral behaviors. These two frameworks cannot work together.
– Some believe morality comes from their religion, while others believe morality does not necessarily depend upon religion.
– To overcome future economic crises, we need to promote ethics drawing on social, cultural, and religious values.
– People start building their ethical conscience in early childhood, which is why integrating the basics of business ethics into school curriculums could considerably improve the situation.
– In some countries, effective enforcement of laws improves ethics in business.
– We need to promote Green growth: fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural resources continue to provide us what we need to secure our well-being. We need to reduce the use of our natural resources and think about future generations.
