Author Charles Fleetham writes about the difference between ethical decisions and offers a guide on how to make ethical decisions in moments of crisis. You'll find that here.

I can't agree with him.

Fleetham argues that ethical decisions are not the same as moral decisions as moral actions follow the custom of the day and that as customs change, so do morals. For example, he says, stealing is usually regarded here immoral, but in another culture, stealing may earn you a badge of honor and that we saw how these two cultures coexisted in many American corporations.

That argument is just wrong. There are certain moral decisions that are absolutes and are there regardless of time or culture. Murder, stealing, corruption are obvious examples. They are just wrong, wherever they happen. Ethical decisions on the other hand are underpinned by rules and codes of behavior. That's why you can have hypocritical organisations with rigorous codes of ethics but all sorts of dirty deeds going on beneath the surface.

If you want a good example of that, check the values of respect, integrity, communication and excellence that were proclaimed in Enron's 1998 annual report

I have written about how corporations go off the rails and do the wrong thing because of their failure to develop moral organisations and sort ethics from morals.That's where the problem lies.

As Justice Neville Owen wrote when in his report on the HIH scandal:

"From time to time as I listened to the evidence of specific transactions or decisions, I found myself asking rhetorically: did anyone stand back and ask themselves the simple question - is this right? . . . Right and wrong are moral concepts and morality does not exist in a vacuum. I think all those who participate in the direction and management of public companies, as well as their professional advisers, need to identify and examine what they regard as the basic moral underpinning of their system of values."