Back in January the Economist ran an article on Corporate Social Responsibility that indicated it was more a matter of enlightened self-interest, this last week they brought up the recurring theme of the executive pay package. As big corporations begin to lose their heads and proverbially drop their CEOs, (AIG loses CEO today) there raises the real question of integrity in the leaders that run big businesses and governments.
We have profited for quite a few years now on the back of a strong economic boom, and the fat cats have indeed got fatter, at the price of ‘doing the right thing‘. Now with recession looming more than ever, it is not these fat cats that will suffer, because they were cunning enough to arrange for their Golden Parachute in advance, it is the rest of the so called general public, who will have to worry about job security or negative equity, raising debts and the higher cost of living. The moralistic intent and the best interest of society are not concepts that today’s leaders entertain, they have lived in a walled garden protected from the society they so deem to take advantage of, yet they are the ones who are charged with the decision-making.
I recognize that these are sweeping statements of perturbed sentiment, yet I struggle to feel easy knowing that whilst there are so many people that are not recognized for their contributions, that practice integrity as a way of life. It seems in many ways that we have forgotten what is important. As we enter this essentially difficult transitional phase of our evolution, not only accounting for recession but from an industrial and capitalistic era to one of knowledge and information, integrity will be an essential characteristic that will define how well we evolve, let us hope that we remember just how we should ‘do the right thing!’.