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<p>Uh, no there is no such consensus at all, because I certainly don’t agree, and neither do other posters such as KnowledgeKick. So it seems to me that there is quite a bit that could be added to this thread.</p>
<p>And as far as my parents are concerned, my parents didn’t raise me to be naive: you don’t owe altruism to anybody who isn’t going to reciprocate. Sure, you should be altruistic with your family and friends. But business is different. I think we all know that businesses will screw you over, whether as a customer or an employee, without even thinking twice. Nor is this mere speculation on my part, but rather ample evidence of that can be found every day in the business news. </p>
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Sakky, are you seriously arguing that because employers may have questionable ethics, prospective employees should try to get away with whatever they can? Where do you learn your business ethics? Are you an adult functioning in the business world or just a student? In either case, how do you have time to write such lengthy (and repetitious) posts?[ /quote]</p>
<p>I type fast. More importantly, since you raised the issue, I’m quite confident in my knowledge and experience about practical business affairs, if I don’t say so myself. Indeed, it is precisely that experience that leads me to take my current stance towards business. </p>
<p>Let’s keep in mind that ethics is largely a community-generated cultural concept. For example, it is obviously deeply unethical for me to walk up to somebody on the street, strike them in the face and try to choke them to unconsciousness. But that is entirely ethical - indeed, expected - if we’re competing in a mixed martial arts match. Similarly, I’m sure we wouldn’t want a bunch of Indians expounding upon the immorality of killing cows while we’re trying to barbeque a July 4th hamburger here, but I will refrain from eating burgers whenever I travel to India. Celebrating a successful business relationship via copious public consumption of alcohol is widely accepted in the West and East Asia (especially Japan), but would be considered to be deeply immoral in the Muslim world or even certain subcultures in the US (e.g. the Mormons). </p>
<p>The exact same philosophy holds when it comes to the business ethics of information disclosure. Perhaps there are certain regions of the world where the business culture is such that every participant truly does feel morally obligated to provide complete information disclosure for every business transaction. {I would actually be surprised that such a culture would have been able to survive competition from Western businesses.} But even if such regions do exist, we surely don’t reside in one of them. We live within a culture where business success is indeed largely (probably mostly) based upon the leveraging of information as a strategic asset. </p>
<p>Microsoft’s ingenious business transaction that transformed it into a behemoth was its bluff to convince IBM that Microsoft could sell an operating system for IBM’s new PC, when in reality Microsoft had no such product and had to scramble to buy one from SCP. If Microsoft had provided full disclosure as the moral guardians here might have dictated, then IBM would have simply purchased directly from SCP and Bill Gates would likely not be a billionaire. </p>
<p>Why is it morally wrong for employees to be able to get away with whatever they can, when it seems as if Bill Gates got away with whatever he could with regards to IBM and is laughing all the way to the bank?</p>