Ethical challenge to businesses: The deeper meaning

Today. ethics has become an important dimension for businesses. Broadly, th ere are two lines of thought on this issue. The first one suggests that eth ical issues have to be resolved through development of appropriate ethical standards at personal or organizational level. The second one emphasizes th e process of developing ethical standards rather than the standards themsel ves. This paper argues that the latter line of thought, when taken forward, implies that ethical dimension is essentially challenging businesses to tr ansform themselves and their people at a very fundamental level in order to evolve continuously to higher levels of perfection. The deeper significanc e is that in future, businesses will play a dominant role in bringing forth the human spirit, an aspect that is hitherto perceived to be in the purvie w of other human activity systems like the Church or family. This restructu ring at the societal level is probably the most fundamental message of this age of growing interdependence.