IT USED to be that the moral values of our society were taught by the Church, the State, the family and at school. This was achieved by the detection and deterrence of our immoral acts. With the decline of these institutions, however, the power of these two primary ways of controlling ethics is being eroded. But is there a case for business to step in?
As Britain becomes more secular the Church is failing to influence our moral upbringing. We have a liberal government that is non-interventionist in family life, except when it comes to the deterrence of smacking. As class sizes increase, fewer staff are there to detect unethical behaviour and the inability to chastise children means that there is less of a deterrent for bad behaviour. We have an increasing number of nuclear families, with fewer grandparents, aunts and uncles to teach children ethics, and in many families both parents often work long hours.
These factors interact in a complex social web and contribute to the moral decay of ethics among UK citizens.
Alongside this decline we have seen an increase in the power of big business. Many people now have more interaction with business than they do with Church, State, family or school. Business, therefore, should recognise that it has the influence and power to be a key force in shaping society’s ethics for the better. Business is in a prime position to become the new social police.
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Business suffers huge losses from unethical customer behaviour and spends millions trying to protect itself against this, so why not tackle the problem by helping to develop society’s morals? For example, if an item is missed off a restaurant bill and the customer alerts the restaurant to the fact, the customer should not be asked to pay for the item.
Why? Because the restaurant would have lost the money anyway if the customer had been dishonest. By rewarding ethical behaviour, a positive moral statement is made that ultimately benefits both parties and, more importantly, society as a whole.
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This article by Vince Mitchell, Professor of Consumer Marketing at Cass Business School, is based on research published in the latest edition of the Journal of Consumer Marketing.