Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T09:04:51.630Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developing a Religiously Grounded Business Ethics: A Jewish Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Moses L. Pava
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The specific purpose of this introductory paper is to explicitly introduce readers to some of the important Biblical, Talmudic, and post-Talmudic texts which deal with business ethics. As the discussion will show, Judaism’s traditional texts treat an amazing variety of issues emphasizing responsibilities in the business context. These texts are both legalistic and aspirational in character. The theme of this study is that an authentic Jewish business ethics needs to grow out of an understanding of the needs of modern, complex economies but need not accept the status quo as binding. Jewish business ethics texts provide rules of behavior, but more importantly, the texts reveal a vision encouraging us to incorporate the highest human and spiritual ideals into the common world of business.

The second section of the paper emphasizes that in order to develop Jewish business ethics, especially (but not exclusively) at the level of the organization, models of aspiration will of necessity play an integral role. A Jewish business ethics which conceptualizes Judaism as merely a set of legal rules is bound to failure. A key conclusion of this section is that Jewish business ethics needs to continue to selfconsciously promote models of aspirations, as well as rely on fixed legal norms.

Finally, the third section of the paper examines a specific corporate policy (no smoking) in light of a Jewish business ethics.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 65 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buber, Martin, I and Thou, (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1958).Google Scholar
De George, Richard T., “Theological Ethics and Business Ethics,” Journal of Business Ethics (Volume 5), 1986, pp. 421–432.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas and Dunfee, Thomas W., “Integrative Social Contracts Theory: A Communitarian Conception of Economic Ethics,” Economics and Philosophy (Volume 11), 1995, pp. 85–112.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald, A Matter of Principle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985).Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward, “The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions,” Business Ethics Quarterly (Volume 4, Number 4), 1994, pp. 409–422.Google Scholar
French, Peter A., “The Corporation as a Moral Person,” Paper presented at the Ethics and Economics Conference, University of Delaware, 1977.Google Scholar
Friedman, Heshey H., “Ethical Behavior in Business: A Hierarchical Approach from the Talmud,” Journal of Business Ethics (Volume 4), 1985, pp. 117–129.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962).Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton, “A Friedman Doctrine—The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970, pp. 32–33, and 123–125.Google Scholar
Goodpaster, Kenneth E. and Mathews, John B., “Can a Corporation Have a Conscience?”, Harvard Business Review (January-February), 1982.Google Scholar
Heschel, Abraham Joshua, Who is Man? (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1965).Google Scholar
Jensen, Michael C., and Meckling William, H., “The Nature of Man,” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance (Volume 7, Number 2), 1994, pp. 4–19.Google Scholar
Jung, Leo, “The Ethics of Business,” in Contemporary Jewish Ethics, edited by Kellner, Menachem (New York: Sanhedrin Press, 1978).Google Scholar
Levine, Aaron, Free Enterprise and Jewish Law: Aspects of Jewish Business Ethics (New York: Ktav Publishing House and Yeshiva University Press, 1980).Google Scholar
Levine, Aaron, Economics and Jewish Law: Halakhic Perspectives (Hoboken and New York: Ktav Publishing House and Yeshiva University Press, 1987).Google Scholar
Levine, Aaron, Economic Public Policy and Jewish Law (Hoboken and New York: Ktav Publishing House and Yeshiva University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Levine, Aaron, “Aspects of the Ideology of Capitalism and Judaism,” Paper presented at Orthodox Forum, Yeshiva University, 1994.Google Scholar
Lichtenstein, Aharon, “Does Jewish Tradition Recognize An Ethic Independent of Halakha?”, in Contemporary Jewish Ethics, edited by Kellner, Menachem (New York: Sanhedrin Press, 1978).Google Scholar
Pava, Moses L., “Religious Business Ethics and Political Liberalism,” Paper presented at Third Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, Niagara Falls, NY, 1996.Google Scholar
Pava, Moses L., “Religious Business Ethics As Interpretation: A Jewish Perspective,” International Journal of Value-Based Management (forthcoming, 1997).Google Scholar
Pava, Moses L. and Krausz, Joshua, Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: The Paradox of Social Cost (Westport: Quorom Press, 1995).Google Scholar
Soloveitchik, Joseph B., The Lonely Man of Faith (New York: Doubleday, 1965).Google Scholar
Soloveitchik, Joseph B., “Confrontation” in A Treasury of “Tradition,” edited by Lamm, Norman and Wurzburger, Walter S. (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1967), pp. 55–80.Google Scholar
Tamari, Meir, With All Your Possessions: Jewish Ethics and Economic Life (New York: The Free Press, 1987).Google Scholar
Wurzburger, Walter, Ethics of Responsibility: Pluralistic Approaches to Covenantal Ethics (Philadelphia and Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society, 1994).Google Scholar