Published: September 3, 2009
Book Review by Frank J. Navran
The Ethics Recession
Reflections on the Moral Underpinnings of the Current Economic Crisis
By Rushworth M. Kidder
Rush Kidder is a prolific writer and has penned an insightful series of columns for the Institute for Global Ethics’ online ethics news forum, “Ethics Newsline”. This book draws from those columns to illustrate how the current economic crisis is perhaps better understood as an ethics recession than as a financial recession. The themes are familiar to those who have been examining our financial times through an ethics lens: corruption, greed, executive inattention, the failures of regulation and the politicization of the process. And, of course, a self-serving press.
What I find refreshing in this book is the focus on culture. Kidder’s theme underscores the significance of organizational culture in defining the rights and wrongs of “how things really work around here”. He then narrows that focus to underscore the obligations of leaders, in all sectors, to be aware of and attentive to the cultures they foster. The book then goes further, with numerous, brief, easy-to-read essays on the impediments to creating an ethical culture, what Kidder calls the Ten Challenges and a series of encouraging descriptions of what managers can do to reverse the trend – to create and sustain an ethical culture in whatever portion of the organization they may lead.
Another encouraging note is that Kidder is not confining his remarks to the Boardroom or the “C Suite”. In the twenty years I have know Rush, he has always understood the significance of front line management – the immediate supervisors and managers of the decision makers whose actions sustain or corrupt the ethical cultures of their organizations. He also recognizes the importance of the non-management employees who do (or subvert) what management decides. This book is no exception, in that it is recommended reading for employees, supervisors and managers at every level.
As an exploration of “moral underpinnings” Kidder is not adding a whole lot that is new to the conversation as much as he is taking what is broadly understood and focusing it with laser precision on the issue we face today in today’s economy. The book’s greatest contribution may be that it brings common sense language, understandable descriptions, useful definitions and feasible recommendations to our situation. Too many appear to be framing the current recession as too complex to be understood by “everyone” and too big to fixed by anyone. The complexity, impenetrability and scope of the situation become excuses for it not having been anticipated and/or prevented. They further serve to justify doing little or nothing to correct the situation.
Kidder’s empowers us all in his essays by putting the lie to those suppositions. While the economic machinations of “collateralized debt obligations” might beyond many of us, Kidder reminds us doing what we know to be right, good, fair and just is not.
Good on you, Rush.
Frank J. Navran President, Navran Associates (www.navran.com).
Track progress of the 2009 NBES.