There is, indeed, a moral crisis in business: capitalists fail to make their case. Consequently, those who are drawn to business come in large numbers through corporation management, not free enterprise. Generally speaking, public education and mass entertainment are both hostile to enterprise. College education, in particular, is decidedly leftwing, socialist or Marxist. It is easy to find sociology professors who advocate for government control (or ownership) of major industries (or all businesses). The equal and opposite case does not obtain: it is hard to find professors of economics or management who advocate for privatization of police and courts or laissez-faire in banking. In short, the deck is stacked. The playing field is not level. And this is not surprising. Education is tax-funded. Even nominally private schools get their teachers from the public system.
The Academy of Management Review published “Integrity in Organizations: Beyond Honesty and Conscientiousness” by Thomas E. Becker of the University of Delaware. Becker’s thesis is that integrity is more than a loose synonym for other virtues.
Becker opened his article with a validation of the Objectivist ethics via metaphysics and epistemology. He then showed the special nature of integrity. Objectivism is based on “the primacy of existence.” Therefore, it is possible to derive value judgments from matters of fact. The validity of capitalism derives from our need to produce the means of our survival. Unlike plants and animals, we have no automatic modes. We must create the solutions for the problems we face. We achieve that “guided by reason and aimed at man’s happiness as the essence and the glory of mankind.”
"Morality in Business: The Objectivist Ethics," by Michael E. Marotta, SOCL 202: Social Problems, Winter 2008 Dr. Ron Westrum, Eastern Michigan University.
Read entire paper here via Google Documents