Laszlo Zsolnai

Director
Business Ethics Center
Corvinus University Budapest

Chairman
Business Ethics Faculty Group
CEMS - Global Alliance
in Management Education

Business Ethics is Mandatory in Europe

Ethical blog - Wed, 11/02/2011 - 14:43

The European Commission approved a new European strategy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on 25 October 2011. Compared to the previous EU definition of CSR as voluntary standards, it now describes “CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” and as compulsory in respecting core standards “in particular the recently updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility, the ILO Tri-partite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights." This core set of internationally recognized principles and guidelines represents a strengthened global framework for CSR. European policy to promote CSR should be made fully consistent with this framework.

The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business

Luk Bouckaert & Laszlo Zsolnai (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. (This book may be available at: Amazon)

The handbook summarizes the most important issues, approaches and models in the field of spirituality in business, economics and society. It presents a comprehensive pluralistic view covering all the major religious and spiritual traditions. It is a response to three developments that challenge the business-as-usual mindset.

Firstly, in response to a growing interest in spirituality applied to models of transformational leadership, in theories of social capital and in practices of values-driven management, it explores the emerging field of business spirituality—its main concepts, models and practices.

Ethical Principles and Economic Transformation - A Buddhist Approach

Laszlo Zsolnai (ed.) Ethical Principles and Economic Transformation - A Buddhist Approach. Springer, 2011. (This book may be available at: Springer)

The book presents new contributions of Buddhist economics to pressing socio-economic problems. Buddhism points out that emphasizing individuality and promoting the greatest fulfillment of the desires of the individual conjointly lead to destruction. The book promotes the basic value-choices of Buddhism, namely happiness, peace and permanence.

The Collaborative Enterprise: Creating Values for a Sustainable World

Antonio Tencati & Laszlo Zsolnai (eds.) The Collaborative Enterprise: Creating Values for a Sustainable World. Peter Lang Academic Publishers, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2010. (This book may be available at: Peter Lang)

Competitive economics produces an enormous abundance of goods and services but at an intolerable environmental and social cost. Competition has become an end in itself, which leads to detrimental effects on nature, society and future generations. A change of paradigm is needed. Business should respect the ecological and social limits in which it operates and embed its activities in the natural and social systems. This book promotes a collaborative attitude of doing business based on a positive view of the self and others. Theoretical contributions, reflections, cases, examples, and initiatives collected in the book show that a collaborative enterprise is not only possible but also a feasible and desirable alternative to the current, self-defeating, managerial models.