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New Age entrepreneurs are redefining the way business is conducted, placing environmental and moral needs and job satisfaction at or near the top of the corporate mission. Today's company is a place where managers encourage employees to do community work on office time and where everyone creates products that they themselves love. This view of work may seem overly idealistic to many, but New Age ideals are growing in popularity among today's workers whose futures seem increasingly uncertain in the wake of layoffs and restructurings. While the founders of companies like Tom's of Maine or The Body Shop believe they are making the world a better place, writers like Paul Hawken and Charles Handy have discovered a more pragmatic use of New Age ideals, as a way for business people to think about their organizations.

The new vice president of international contracts for Timothy & Thomas North America, Jonathan Stein, faces tough decisions regarding the company's Pakistani contractors. In a plant in Lahore, Stein sees girls who look no older than ten, sweeping the floor. T&T shorts are currently the hottest item in Timothy & Thomas's line of casual clothes. Like the rest of the company's products, the shorts have a wholesome American image. But that image doesn't fit the image of those girls at work - or Timothy & Thomas's reputation for social responsibility. In fact, the company's new Global Guidelines for Business Partners prohibit the use of child labor. The complicated situation puts Jonathan Stein on the cutting-edge of company policy. Six experts on global sourcing and labor in developing nations discuss the agonizing decisions that confront Stein and his company.