Christian Ethics and Secular Views in Business Practices

“Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven” Colossians 4:1 (Dake’s Annontated Reference Bible). Leaders should always treat their employees and fellow business leaders with respect and dignity and should never violate ethical codes of conduct. Christians have a Lord and Master in heaven and should never treat people unethically because our lord and master will judge us for this on Judgment Day. It is important that all people even non-Christians follow universal values, morals and ethical behavior in all business activities. This paper will talk about three different secular views of business ethics, why it is important to practice common standards in the business world.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a way of looking at ethical decisions without applying religious beliefs its founder was Bantham and Mil (Ruddell, 2004). Its method is to determine whether an act

It is the Christian way to treat people, as we want to be treated. Common standards are similar to this verse because everyone knows how he or she expects to be treated in business so they should treat others the same way. People have a clear understanding of what is right and wrong, what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable in the business world. Utilitarianism is a form of moral universalism where people understand the difference from right and wrong because they understand universal norms and local norms (Mele & Sanchez-Runde, 2013). People’s understanding of universal norms and local norms allow them to make ethical business decisions. Another example of common standards is common values. People use their common values when making business decisions because they have an understanding of what is important to themselves in the group that they are doing business