評論
打印
It was Bob Diamond, recently of Barclays, who defined business culture as "how people behave when no one is watching." Speaking in a lecture sponsored by the Today programme last year, he declared that business corporations like Barclays had to learn how to be better citizens. Leaving on one side the irony of all this, what is remarkable is not that he said it, but that so many other people are saying it too. Open any edition of the Harvard Business Review or look in the comment pages of the Financial Times, and there it is. "What is wrong with the culture of business and how do we put it right?" they're all asking each other.
近來，巴克萊銀行的鮑勃・戴蒙德把企業文化形容成“在無人注意時做出的舉動”。去年，他在由“今日”節目主辦的演講中稱，像巴克萊銀行這樣的商業公司必須學會如何成為更好的公民。不去討論他說出此話有多么諷刺，讓人驚訝的不是他說了這句話，而是許多人也都這么說。翻開任一版本的《哈佛商業評論》或者瀏覽《金融時報》的評論網頁，這句話隨處可見。“企業文化到底出了什么問題，該如何改正？”人們紛紛詢問彼此。
The Labour MP Jon Cruddas quoted with approval a theologian last year who'd said that our basic choice was between a neoliberal and a neo-Aristotelian view of the good society. Neoliberal means relying on the free market and the pursuit of self-interest as the driving force, not just in business but in life. We are familiar enough with that. But what about Aristotle, where does he come in? The memory of this ancient Greek philosopher is invoked whenever people talk about virtue and good citizenship, for it is to him primarily that we owe our notions of how we should behave when no one is watching. We should, he said, behave virtuously, and he classified virtue under four headings, the so-called cardinal virtues. They are, in whatever order you like, justice, prudence, temperance and courage. These, said Aristotle, were the personal qualities that ancient Athenians needed, in order to be good citizens of democratic Athens to make it work. The many people who are saying that the internal culture of business badly needs reform of its values to make it work, are really talking about the Aristotelian virtues, or something like them. How you behave when nobody's watching depends on qualities of character, acquired by good example and by practice.
去年，工黨議員喬恩·克魯達斯引用了他所贊成的一位神學家的言論：我們最根本是要在新自由主義的優質社會和新亞里斯多德主義的優質社會中做出選擇。新自由主義意味著依靠自由市場，不僅在商業中，還在生活中把追逐個人利益作為驅動力。這已為我們所熟知。而亞里斯多德有何由來呢？每當人們談論美德和優秀公民素養時，我們就會想起這位古代希臘哲學家，因為他最關注的就是當無人注意時人們缺少該如何言行的概念。他提倡為人正直，并把美德分為了四個標題，即所謂的基本美德。它們是堅忍 正義、審慎、節制與勇氣（排序不分先后）。亞里斯多德說這些是古代雅典人必須具備的品格，這樣才能成為一個良好的公民，使民主政體的雅典發展下去。許多人都說企業亟需改革內在文化價值觀才能繼續運作，他們正是在談論亞里斯多德式的美德，或者和它類似的東西。當無人留意時，你的行為取決于你通過學習和實踐所獲得的品質。
One place where these ideas are being systematically thought through, is in what is called Catholic Social Teaching. Business people are slowly becoming more aware of it, including people who do not normally look towards Rome for anything. It provides, so to speak, the theoretical basis for a ready-made architecture of virtue. And it says a business culture based on virtue would strive towards serving the common good rather than just self-interest, and would even work better. As well as Aristotle, it owes a lot to the philosopher Thomas Aquinas, who Christianised the four cardinal virtues by adding three more: faith, hope and charity. Can the bottom line of successful modern business be humanised by taking all these virtues into its culture, rather than just profit and the maximising of shareholder value? An increasing number of people seem to think it has no alternative.
天主教社會教學對這些思想進行了系統性的思考。商業人士開始慢慢注意到了它，包括一些不去借鑒任何經驗的人。這門課程可以說提供了一個即成的道德建筑的理論基礎。以道德為基礎的企業文化會努力去為大眾謀求福祉，還不僅只是為了一已私利。這樣的企業會更加成功。不僅是亞里士多德，哲學家托馬斯·阿奎那也為這一理論做了不少貢獻。他把四項基本美德加上信、望、愛，做為基督教所信奉的美德。成功的現代企業能不再一味謀利、不斷增加股東價值，而是把這些美德全部加入自身文化，使其更加人性化嗎？越來越多的人認為現代企業要想成功，它們就別無選擇。
