Charles E. Watson. Praeger. 200 pages. Hardback. £22.95
Business ethicists have worked tirelessly to try to answer the question
‘do ethics pay?’ and there is accumulating empirical evidence that it
does. But Charles Watson, professor of management at Miami University,
takes an entirely different approach. Not a single number appears in
this text; rather he relies on a spectacular quantity of anecdotes,
interviews and stories to show that ‘doing the right thing’ pays. There
are also plenty of negative tales showing that while dishonesty may
have short term advantages it will be revealed in due course and lead
to discomfort.
There is copious practical advice too. Many of the 15 chapters include
a checklist of how to test yourself against the high standards that
Watson sets out, and there are self-improving soundbites such as
‘listen to your inner voice’; ‘become a first rate person’; ‘face
difficulties head on’ and so on. In fact this book could equally well
appear on the bookshelves under ‘self help’ as ‘management’.
There is a missing element, however: the international dimension. None
of the illustrations of additional reading, for instance, are sourced
outside the US, although there are passing references to Mother
Theresa, Einstein and even Pavarotti.
Simply calling on business people to behave with integrity may resonate
in America given its recent experiences of Enron et al, but it is
doubtful if a US-centric storytelling approach will have the same
impact in other parts of the world, especially those where corruption
is still endemic.
Simon Webley
