The temple and the marketplace: an accountant's reflections on business ethics by Abraham J. Briloff.

This paper should be required reading for business students and professionals alike. It forces us to define unethical behavior patterns and to ask ourselves why such behavior occurs.

Indeed, Dr. Briloff has done it again. In his work entitled "The Temple and the Marketplace, An Accountant's

The Business Ethics Convocation at Seton Hall University, he continues to encourage, even to motivate individuals to look beyond their own personal self interest and narrow existence, to the broader concern of serving society.

Each member of society must be aware of society's demand for ethical standards. Briloff points out that societal standards are implemented by individuals within that society, not the society itself. Each of us must adopt ethical standards as a self-imposed behavior pattern if we are going to fulfill our obligation both to ourselves and to our society. A warning was issued that the complexity of our society has a multiplying effect upon human behavior. Failure to instill a "grass roots" ethical foundation within ourselves can only lead to actions which will not be in the best interest of society.

Throughout his work, he presents many illustrations whereby an individual's conduct was misdirected, misguided and even intentionally misconstrued in order to justify actions which were unethical. The illustrations run the gamut from corruption in government to corporate involvement in "gray areas" of unethical behavior. It is noted that the violations were caused by individuals who held a position of power; thus their unethical conduct had far reaching effects on society. These individuals tried to rationalize their actions by pointing to the "form" followed rather than the "substance" of their actions.

In his work Briloff puts little faith in legalistic, mechanical rules and regulations, but rather sees ethical behavior being measured by the actions of each individual. He is particularly critical of attempts to rationalize activities by cloaking the unethical action with claims of "corporate governance," "normal procedures followed," self righteous statements from involved groups and even physical attempts to falsify documents. The author partictilarly questions the ethical standards of professional organizations which misconstrue facts in an attempt to support positions of misconduct by their members' actions.