Christian Ethics and Business Leadership

This essay discusses the ethical principles of listening, community, stewardship, and interreligious and intercultural understanding with respect to business leadership. It opens by discussing definitions of ethics and their relevance to businesses and business leaders. It continues by providing a description of the consulting company Accenture’s ethical principles and practices, as positive examples. The essay provides Arthur Andersen and its work with Enron and WorldCom, both of which went bankrupt in the early 2000s, as examples of the failures that occur when ethical principles are not practiced. Then, the essay states that Christianity and the Benedictine tradition constitute a basis of the ethical ideas in this essay. After that, the essay specifically explains the Benedictine ethical principles of listening, community, stewardship, and interreligious and intercultural understanding with respect to the Benedictine tradition and business leadership, while emphasizing that those principles are inclusive and potentially relevant to all persons.