Business Ethics Practices in Israel: Jewish Ethical Traditions and Management Behaviour

Abstract

According to the Bible, the nation of Israel should eventually be considered a ‘light unto the nations’, in other words, the nation should act as an ethical role model to others. Has Israel fulfilled this mission, especially in terms of its business practices? Israel, now with a population of close to eight million, including well over one million Arab citizens, declared independence as a Jewish state in 1948. Over the years the tiny country, in addition to surviving several wars threatening its very existence, has in many ways become a significant business power relative to its size.¹ Israel’s GDP back in 2010 was approximately US$217 billion making Israel the 41st largest economy in the world.² On the occasion of the nation’s 60th birthday in 2008, the Economist magazine noted some of the positive attributes of Israel’s economy and society³:

Meanwhile, the high-tech boom that began in the 1990s has not only survived the intifada [i.e., Palestinian uprising] but gone from strength to strength, fuelling impressive economic growth. Tourism is rebounding and property prices have shot up. The massive influx of immigrants from the former Soviet Union is melting slowly but smoothly into Israeli society. Even some of the social conflicts of the early years — between religious and secular, and between eastern and European Jews — seem to be settling down.