Financial Business Ethics and Professionalization in the Anomic Environment

Abstract

Based on cases and interview data, my research indicates that financial crime in China is primarily guided by the anomic social climate and the lack of financial business ethics. My social climate thesis is consistent with Durkheim’s and Merton’s ideas of anomie. With the rapidity of Chinac’s social evolution under economic reforms, the existing moral orthodoxy provided by the political theories and ideology of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought, which largely emphasize political control and coercion, is in shambles, but no alternative vision has emerged to fill the moral vacuum. This finding also supports the premise of institutional anomie theory and Robinson and Murphy’s contextual anomie theory. While China has enjoyed unprecedented economic growth over the past 33 years, popular culture has become obsessed not only with money but also with “‘face” (prestige). A culture of pan bi has developed: intense, spiraling, competition among individuals and organizations to acquire wealth. In such a culture, money becomes the exclusive denominator, defining prestige and excellence, while the very meaning of morality is debased. Individuals and corporations have been left to act on their own to maximize profits, with no moral laws, no sense of responsibility, and no awareness of guilt to guide them.