RELIGIOUS BELIEF, CORPORATE LEADERSHIP, AND BUSINESS ETHICS

Should business leaders whose religious convictions lead them to a man agement philosophy that explicitly integrates ethics into business pra ctices censor their religious motivations? While business ethics has n ot taken the harsh exclusionary position that has been taken in a good deal of academic writing about religion's role in politics, there is a sense that religiously motivated executives ought not identify those motivations as reasons for their ethical practices. A 1994 book by bu siness ethicist Laura Nash demonstrates that this issue is a dilemma f or many leaders in business, and a 1995 book by legal philosopher Kent Greenawalt refines the debate over religion's role in politics. Using these books as a starting point for analysis, business leaders ought not restrict referencing their religious beliefs when making corporate decisions. Neither epistemological nor consequentialist arguments exc luding religion are sound. Instead, one ought to adopt an inclusionist approach in which leaders are free to identify the reasons for their ethical (or other) business practices.