This book could not have come at a better time for everyone with responsibility for decision-making, irrespective of climes or vocation. In fact, the need for a book like this extends far beyond corporate entities, transcending professional careers and having far-reaching implications for personal decisions. The apparent stark divide in perceptions of right and wrong—”acceptable, not acceptable,” and “maybe acceptable”—is more a generational issue than a geographic or cultural dilemma. The perception divide of the relevance and importance of maintaining high ethical and moral standards is worrying, especially as the younger generations, who seem not to place sufficient emphasis on ethics, are gradually getting into positions of power and decision-making of significance, even of national proportions and importance.

When young leaders anywhere in the world seem not to care about ethical standards, the fabric of our society will slowly unravel. Often times, relativism will compound this malady. As you compromise or relativize ethical decisions, you will also start to slip on the transparency and accountability front. When you take decisions that are ethically right and sound, you can “sleep easy.” Proper and correct ethical behaviour, as well as decisions taken on this basis, stand the test of morality over time.

As the author correctly points out early in the book, “Ethical decisions tend to be transparent and accountable.” 

I have known and interacted with the author, Dr. Peter Akindeju, for many years, first as an Executive Director at ICS Outsourcing Limited and then as the Group Managing Director for the past eight years. During this period of knowing and interacting with him, I have found him to be “measured and deliberate” in all he does, a hallmark of someone who thinks things through before deciding and therefore proceeds firmly in implementation. This character trait plays a significant role in empowering the individual to make decisions and ensuring their ethical acceptance in society.

Allowing ethically sound decisions to guide our lives, operations, and interactions ensures that we operate in a “rule-based” environment. This is true regardless of whether we are talking about an individual, a company, a nation, or a society in general.

This also requires the ‘leaders’ or ‘champions’ to adhere to the mutually agreed “rules.” This ensures a smooth-running environment, be it the home, club, company, or nation.

Championing a “rule-based” society and then turning around to portray yourself as being exempt from the “rules” or even above the “rules” has severe consequences for one’s integrity and the perception of lacking integrity.

The absence of ethically correct decisions or behaviour leads to all manner of complications. Spencer Ackerman, a foreign policy columnist for “The Nation, of the U.S., and the author of “The Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump”, wrote in The New York Times of April 13/14, 2024, on “Doubting ‘rules-based order’ now”; after the United States abstained from using its veto at the Security Council on Resolution No. 2728, and the Resolution was passed with a near unanimous vote. After the resolution was passed with the US’ tacit concurrence, the US then proceeded to arm Israel in its Gaza war.

He wrote: “Whatever the Biden administration may have thought it was doing by permitting the resolution to pass and then undermining it, the manoeuvre exposed the continuing damage Israel’s war in Gaza is doing to the United States’ longstanding justification for being a superpower, guaranteeing what U.S. administrations like to call the “international rules-based order.” The concept operates as an asterisk placed on international law by the dominant global superpower. It makes the United States one of the reasons international law remains weak, since a “rules-based order that exempts the United States and its allies fundamentally undermines the concept of international law.”

He goes on to say, “The reality is that Washington is now arming a combatant that the United Nations Security Council has ordered to stop fighting, an uncomfortable position.”

Concluding that: “rising powers will be happy to cite U.S. precedent as they assert their own exceptions to international law.”

We have seen how these decisions have led to demonstrations and ‘sit-ins’ on US and European University Campuses. 

This clearly shows how, in our times, a person, company, or nation can expose himself or herself to self-inflicted and unnecessary dilemmas, by not adhering to ethical decision-making.

Ethical decision-making is so fundamental to our society and way of life. The book provides numerous examples and case studies that clearly illustrate the author’s point.

On Virtual Ethical Theory, for example, the case study of Greentech Solutions Group and their decision to reject the offer from Global Energy Corp. resonates with me. This is the kind of ethical decision-making that should guide executives in making decisions: long-term sustainability, integrity, and stakeholder well-being.

One can always ask, “How does ethical decision-making, or lack thereof, affect us in our daily lives?” We see this every day; there are many examples in the book.

This book, “Ethical Decision-Making: A Guide to Ethical Dilemmas in Professional and Personal Life,” will provide you with answers to such and many other questions on ethics and how to be ethically compliant in many of your day-to-day activities. It is “MUST READ”!