With the Growing Rise of the Right Wing, Do We Need to Redefine Business Ethics?

      You walk up in the morning and you hear the breaking news about a president who is taking extreme measures to close the country borders against labors mobility and international trade. In another country, you hear the sound of national identity roaring “Go Back” to the first and second generation immigrants who are country citizens by definition! The phobia against the cultural and religious minorities is getting worse and worse. Tolerance is declining where people are closing their brains from hearing the sound of the humane logic. Even athletics are not getting away from it. So what is going on?

      During the past three decades, free trade, globalization, international business, and diversity were pushed by university professors, World Trade Organization, International corporations, and Trade Unions. In our business lectures we support diversity dismissing apartheid and segregation based on race, gender, religion, color …etc. The empirical researches indicate a significant level of innovation amongst corporations who employee highly diversified workforce. I can mention easily the names of many migrants who contributed to the host countries economic and scientific growth. On the macroeconomic side, labor mobility brings wealth to nations. This is what we know, read, and preach.

      Not long time ago, nations were closed economies before where export was allowed but import was not. The domestic income was totally dependent on consumption, government expenditure and investment. When countries started to open their borders under the pressure of excess production, export and import were introduced to the formula. In essence, importing and consumer-based countries became highly dependents on the developed countries. Therefore, the stream was one way rather than in two ways. Labor mobility was seen to be from the highly developed countries working in the emergent market getting higher salaries than what they used to get back home. The minute labor mobility direction switched from the emergent countries to the highly developed ones, national identity rose. The question is: do we need to redefine business ethics to reflect the current situation? Frankly, I don’t know!

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