ABSTRACT
This chapter says that any emphasis on leading with integrity needs to be in the context of the global reality of economic disparities between rich and poor, in order to create a fairer, more just global economy. This includes not only global inequalities but also pay gaps within business organizations—the gap between boardroom pay and average wages, which often fuels anger against business. While there has been huge global economic progress in the last 200 years, the benefits have not been evenly distributed. Yet there are encouraging case studies, from India to Japan, of business people doing the right thing to limit pay disparities. Capitalism, rather than centrally planned economies, has helped to reduce poverty around the world. Economic growth in India and China, home to over 35 per cent of the world’s population, has fuelled this poverty reduction. And some African countries are now the world’s fastest growing economies. The chapter quotes a World Bank report declaring that “the share of the world population living in extreme poverty had fallen to 15 per cent in 2011 from 36 per cent in 1990”.
