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There's No Such Thing as Business Ethics There's No Such Thing as "Business" Ethics: There's Only One Rule for Making Decisions by John C. Maxwell Warner Books, 2003 142 pp. $14.95

John C. Maxwell has built a large and apparently influential movement around his messages on leadership. His book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership was a bestseller, and his book jackets proclaim him "America's expert on leadership," adding that he speaks "in person" to more than 250,000 people each year. Precisely because he commands such an audience, Maxwell's latest little book, There's No Such Thing as "Business" Ethics, cannot simply be ignored as a harmless, lightweight compendium of folksy counsel, anecdotes, and lists (lots of lists). Woven through the book are two major points that must be challenged.

First, Maxwell boldly insists that there is no such thing as business ethics. What he means is that there is no such thing as a separate realm of ethics for business. Our values and ethics at home must be the same as at the club, in politics, in church, and in business. But Maxwell does not limit himself to the noncontroversial admonition that our core values and principles should be consistent throughout all areas of our life; he goes on to rule out any specialized focus on business ethics and to mischaracterize business ethics as an enterprise inherently bent on justifying behavior we would not tolerate in our personal lives. Not so.

Second, Maxwell insists that there is one and only one principle of sound ethics: do unto others what you would want them to do unto you. Some version of this principle, he points out, is fundamental to most of the world's religions. But rather than limiting himself to a brief reflection on what the Golden Rule can contribute to our ethics, he declares illegitimate and unnecessary all moral guidance beyond the Golden Rule.

Contra Maxwell, "business ethics" can be defined as "serious ethical reflection on matters of right and wrong, good and bad, in the business context." This definition requires no contradiction between personal ethics and business ethics. On the contrary, such a contradiction has always received its strongest support from those who say that "'business ethics' is an oxymoron" or "business operates like a game with its own unique rules" or "the market is an amoral, impersonal entity governed by an invisible hand, not by people's personal moral values." Business ethicists are usually people who work hard to bring serious moral reflection into our work, our commerce, our business organizations, and our economic life. Criticizing that effort, as Maxwell has done, is exactly the wrong thing to do in the age of Enron.

Maxwell defines an "ethical dilemma" as "an undesirable or unpleasant choice relating to a moral principle or practice"—a choice between "the easy thing or the right thing" Again, a very naÏve and misleading position to take. Most ethical dilemmas are such not because of "easy versus right" but because of the difficulty of figuring out the right thing to do. Should we lay off these loyal workers, getting close to retirement, and move their jobs offshore in order to increase profits, and possibly lower costs to customers? Should we share our research on this pharmaceutical project with our competitors to advance the pace of discovering a cure for this disease? Such dilemmas are constituted by serious conflicts of values and by complex circumstances requiring careful, focused attention and analysis, not a simplistic dismissal.

One thing a good course in business ethics could do for Maxwell is teach him the differences between such things as corporate culture, organizational structure and policy, personal character, and decision-making. He writes about the importance of character, for example, but offers no real insight into just what character is, how it is formed, or how it relates to decision-making, community, or diversity. Nor does Maxwell show any awareness of how structures and policies are laden with values and why, thus, it is critical not just to call for more ethical individuals but for procedural and organizational reforms.

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