Teaching Right From Wrong

Teaching Right From Wrong
by Rosalind Wright, Former Director of the Serious Fraud Office


I have for some time believed firmly that if you inculcate the values of trust, truthfulness and honesty into people almost as early as they begin to understand the concepts of "mine" and "thine", many of the crimes that my Office, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), and, on a smaller scale, the police, investigate daily, would never be committed.

The work that the Jewish Association for Business Ethics (JABE) does in schools is exactly what I have in mind. JABE goes into the sixth forms of mainstream and denominational schools and demonstrates in the most lively and vivid way, how the values of ethical behaviour can be of practical benefit in everyday life.

Business life is not confined to business. In day to day living, everybody encounters instances where their moral judgement is challenged. There is a "right" approach and an alternative approach, which might, superficially, bring more immediate benefit to the person faced with the choice of actions. These are not dilemmas that are necessarily confined to the Board room; the shopper who returns an evening dress to a shop as "bought in error", the day after she wore it to a dance, has been faced with a moral choice. And has chosen the unethical approach. The person at a carboot sale who sells a pensioner a cheap old Betamax video player without warning of the limitations of the product has taken advantage of the imbalance of information and experience.

This is where ethical decision-making and the business world interact, in as common a context as that of a take-over bid or a million pound City deal.

It is against this background that JABE creates business dilemmas for sixth formers as ones with which they can identify. It makes them think, "What would I have done?" Sometimes there are no obvious right or wrong answers. These are not easy decisions. One favourite dilemma that JABE presents in schools, acted out by young actors, which brings it home to the audience in a particularly vivid way, is the situation faced by a schoolboy on work experience, who spots his colleague, of a similar age, stealing from their employer. Should he "shop" her? The colleague tells him a hard luck story, which just might be true, to enlist his sympathy. Her mother is sick, her father out of work and her brothers and sisters have no food at home. Our schoolboy knows that stealing is "wrong" and that the employer will be harmed by the thefts. He knows that if found out, he may be implicated too and lose his job and reputation and maybe both will face the juvenile court. But perhaps her story is true. Should he turn a blind eye?

The sixthformers at the three schools where I have seen this dilemma acted out, have reacted in a thoughtful and animated way. They have obviously scrutinised the competing arguments and even brought up two more that the JABE "business" personages present had not considered. On the whole, I have been impressed by the approach that participants adopt when approaching the dilemmas. They have, of course, been exposed to the JABE course materials. The "road show" which we put on, with bells and whistles, actors, business people and rabbinical commentator in tow, comes as the climax to a year's work. So perhaps we should expect them to have absorbed good ethical teaching and be able to apply it to practical situations.

It comes as quite a shock then, when they suggest solutions which signal "Me first!" Personal gain comes to the fore or they may think in terms of a cunning solution, which is not an "ethical" one, whether in terms of Jewish or secular ethics. They (and it is usually the boys who do this) may be reflecting and copying what they have heard at home, or on television. They may, of course, be irritated by what they see as "moralising", although we do try and avoid preaching to them, and try and shock. It is these comments that I find particularly dispiriting:
"My dad says that it's all very well to be ethical in business once you've made your money".
"All those millionaires didn't get rich by behaving ethically".
"If you don't watch out for yourself, the opposition will get one over you". "Everything's fair in love, war and business".

Many of them are aware of the English law "Caveat Emptor" principle, a doctrine wholly unacceptable in Jewish law, which, instead, adjures us not to put a stumbling block in front of the blind. The scepticism of many of the students when explaining that in Jewish law, you must point out known defects in a product you are offering for sale, rather than allowing the buyer to make his own mistakes, has to be handled sensitively. You are in fact explaining to a future solicitor, stockbroker or salesman a principle which is ethically impeccable but which may place him at a commercial or competitive disadvantage in the harsh commercial world.

The role of JABE in these sixth form road shows is to demonstrate how an ethical approach to a practical dilemma actually carries a tangible advantage. You will enhance your reputation as a sound and honest person with whom to do business. You will not carry the burden of guilt that you did someone down to gain a commercial advantage. Most important of all, you will never become one of my customers...