The Canadian Ethics Leadership Forum (CELF) is a not-for-profit-association founded on one central belief: effective management of enterprise ethics is an essential component of any sustainable business strategy.
What is enterprise ethics and why it matters
Enterprise ethics is about institutional behaviour. It is about the need to engage, internalize and manage culture and values both within the organization itself and its external interactions. Not a written policy, but a working system that permeates all structures and functions of a resilient modern enterprise - because when it comes to policy, the worth of Enron’s 64-page "Code of Ethics" was two hundred dollars on Ebay. As multiple other failures have demonstrated, when leaders of large institutions, public or private, ignore the values of the communities with which they interact, they create extreme risk for the institution itself, the communities and many other stakeholders.
Worldwide enterprise functions on an unprecedented scale and scope leading to widening number of ethical dilemmas. Those dilemmas have consequences. Ever more restrictive, hasty, and costly regulation attempts to correct the problem with dubious results. All of the above makes effective management of ethical issues fundamental to the productive operation of free enterprise in the service to the organization itself and all humankind as an upshot.
CELF’s mission is to facilitate development of the applied discipline of enterprise ethics in Canada.
CELF focuses on attracting and engaging partners and stakeholders to coordinate and expand the existing dialogue; clarify roles and responsibilities; identify gaps; leverage opportunities; minimize duplication and share discoveries. There is a variety of efforts already underway at the industrial, professional, and institutional levels to analyze and resolve a broad spectrum of ethical matters in business practice. We intend to draw them together to accumulate the critical mass necessary for actual progressive change in the workplace.
The Canadian perspective.
Canadian enterprise exists in a unique cultural, political and economic backdrop. A distinct and continuing Canadian voice and leadership can bring important lessons to the emerging field of Enterprise Ethics internationally.
