What is (and Isn’t) the Matter with “What’s the Matter…”

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph H. Monast
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Harvard Business Review ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Managerial Practice

Abstract:In mid-1993 a provocative piece on business ethics appeared on the pages of the Harvard Business Review. Andrew Stark’s “What’s the Matter with Business Ethics?” (1993a) found plenty wrong with business ethics, arguing that the product served up to managers and potential managers by traditional ethicists in their articles and classrooms is without practical value. Since it is supposed to be “applied” ethics, he finds something seriously amiss with a business ethics that offers nothing to help a manager resolve moral dilemmas in business. While some “new” ethicists are now beginning to appear, ethicists who are willing to get their hands dirty and acknowledge the legitimacy of normal business practices, the traditional ethicists continue to dominate the field and continue to offer a product unable to satisfy the manager’s needs. According to Stark, “[Business ethicists] have been too preoccupied with absolutist notions of what it means for managers to be ethical, with overly general criticisms of capitalism as an economic system, with dense and abstract theorizing, and with prescriptions that apply only remotely to managerial practice” (1993a, p.38). Or, as he puts it in a more detailed discussion, traditional business ethics fails because it is a deadly combination of “too general,” “too theoretical,” and, worst of all, “too impractical” (1993a, p.44). In short, the “old” approach is idealistic and academic, irrelevant to the rough-and-tumble of real business.

Business Ethics and (or as) Political Philosophy

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Heath ◽  
Jeffrey Moriarty ◽  
Wayne Norman
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Distribution Of Income

ABSTRACT:There is considerable overlap between the interests of business ethicists and those of political philosophers. Questions about the moral justifiability of the capitalist system, the basis of property rights, and the problem of inequality in the distribution of income have been of central importance in both fields. However, political philosophers have developed, especially over the past four decades, a set of tools and concepts for addressing these questions that are in many ways quite distinctive. Most business ethicists, on the other hand, consider their field to be primarily a domain of applied ethics, and so adopt methods and conceptual frameworks developed by moral philosophers. In this paper, we discuss some of the salient differences between these two approaches, and suggest some ways in which business ethicists could benefit from taking a more “political philosophy” approach to these questions. Throughout, we underline the importance of seeking greater compatibility among the principles used in normative theorizing about markets, regulations, corporate governance, and business practices.

Business Ethics for Better Behavior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Brennan ◽  
William English ◽  
John Hasnas ◽  
Peter Jaworski
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Business Professionals ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Ethical Performance ◽  
Wrong Thing ◽  
Simple Action

Business Ethics for Better Behavior concisely answers the three most pressing ethical questions business professionals face: 1. What makes business practices right or wrong? 2. Why do normal, decent businesspeople of goodwill sometimes do the wrong thing? 3. How can we use the answer to these questions to get ourselves, our coworkers, our bosses, and our employees to behave better? Bad behavior in business rarely results from bad will. Most people mean well much of the time. But most of us are vulnerable. We all fall into moral traps, usually without even noticing. Business Ethics for Better Behavior teaches business professionals, students, and other readers how to become aware of those traps, how to avoid them, and how to dig their way out if they fall in. It integrates the best work in psychology, economics, management theory, and normative philosophy into a simple action plan for ensuring the best ethical performance at all levels of business practice. This is a book anyone in business, from an entry-level employee to CEO, can use.

An Extreme Example?

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-365
Author(s):  
Peter Gratton ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Nichomachean Ethics ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Business Ethicist ◽  
Nazi Era

With Eichmann in Jerusalem, we have, I would admit, a most unlikely case study for use in a business ethics classroom. The story of Eichmann is already some sixty years old, and his activities in his career as a Nazi were far beyond the pale of even the most egregious cases found in the typical business ethics case books. No doubt, there is some truth to the fact that introducing Eichmann’s story into an applied ethics class would inevitably depict an unseemly analogy between the practices of latter day corporations and the bureaucracy of the Nazi era. My argument here, though, is that the story of Adolf Eichmann, as depicted in Hannah Arendt’s well-known Eichmann in Jerusalem, offers a philosophically cogent account of judgment and ethical decision-making that future business managers and employees would do well to heed. Indeed, Eichmann in Jerusalem, originally a series of press accounts for New Yorker magazine, deserves consideration alongside the Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, and other classic ethics texts in a business ethics syllabus. This is not to say that Arendt’s work is uncontroversial; there are serious questions to be raised about both her depiction of Eichmann and her conclusions about “the banality of evil.” Nevertheless, her account of ethics, which, with its account of ethical duties and its case study of Eichmann’s character, shows both its Aristotelian and Kantian influences, is a warning to readers who would conflate morality with state laws and their duties with the needs of superiors. In short, I argue that, despite her well-known critique of modern large scale economies and her general avoidance of discussions of post-industrial corporations, Arendt may be a business ethicist of the first order.

Liverpool Merchants in 19th-Century Niger Delta

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 310-340
Author(s):  
Nimi Wariboko
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Ethics ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Christian Missions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract How does religion or worldview affect business practices and ethics? This tradition of inquiry goes back, at least, to Max Weber who, in the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, explored the impact of theological suppositions on capitalist economic development. But the connection can also go the other way. So the focus of inquiry can become: How does business ethics or practices affect ethics in a given nation or corporation? This paper inquires into how the political and economic conditions created and sustained by nineteenth-century trading community in the Niger Delta influenced religious practices or ethics of Christian missionaries. This approach to mission study is necessary not only because we want to further understand the work of Christian missions and also to tease out the effect of business ethics on religious ethics, but also because Christian missionaries came to the Niger Delta in the nineteenth century behind foreign merchants.

scholarly journals Business Ethics and Ethics Education in American Business Programs

Competitio ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-200
Author(s):  
John D. Keiser
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
American Business ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Teaching Ethics ◽  
Ethical Business ◽  
Business Programs ◽  
The Difference

This essay presents an overview of what American business programs cover in their curricula regarding ethics and the reasons behind teaching ethics-related material to business students. Topics for the paperinclude; requirements for having ethics in the curricula, broad perspectives of what constitutes ethical business practices, and the difference between professional ethics and business ethics. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: M14, A20

scholarly journals Examination of the Role of Business Ethics with Google Trends

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-38
Author(s):  
Lívia Benita Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Scientific Discussion ◽  
Google Books ◽  
Exponential Trend

Ethics has existed in religion and philosophy for thousands of years and has been applied to business activities in the same way ethical values and norms have been applied to everyday life. This article summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the study of business ethics as the form of applied ethics, which studies morals, ethical principles and problems in the business environment. The main goal of the study is to analyze business ethics from the point of view of integration of general morals and ethical norms to business, a combination of key signs of the right (good) or wrong behavior while doing business, determined on the basis of expected behavior approved by the society. The study of the role of business ethics in the corporate sector of the economy allowed to determine the most general principles of business ethics, namely awareness, caring, compliance, consideration, fairness, honesty, implementation, integrity, integration, loyalty, responsibility, and trustworthiness. The methodological basis of the research is analytical, statistical and comparative methods based on the use of Google Trends. In general, in Google Books, the use of the term business ethics shows an exponential trend. The findings show that the highest search frequency of business ethics is in the “all” category, after that in the “business and industry” category, then in the “science” category, finally in the “law and government” category. On average, the highest interest frequency was in 2004 in all examined categories. The author has proved that a third-degree polynomial downward trend can be fitted to each time series. The analysis of this concept on a geographical basis showed that the interest frequency of the principles of business ethics was most significant in South and Central East Africa, in South and Southeast Asia, over and above in the Caribbean. Keywords: business ethics, principles of business ethics, Google Trends, Google Books Ngram Viewer, time series analysis.

Bioethics

2013 ◽  
pp. 198-237
Author(s):  
Jorge E. Monzon
Keyword(s):  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Health Care Settings ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Evolution Of Morality ◽  
Simple Program ◽  
The World

Bioethics, or ethics of life, is the study of the human moral behavior in the fields of life sciences and healthcare. As a branch of applied ethics, bioethics integrates studies in the areas of biology, medicine, ecology, and social, human, and legal issues. In this chapter, the evolution of morality along history is briefly described. The different disciplines of ethics, with emphasis on the accepted principles of biomedical ethics in modern times, are presented. Additionally, the merging of moral dilemmas to current multidisciplinary teams of biologists and engineers performing in health care settings is analyzed. Moreover, the contents of a simple program of bioethics education are outlined, calling attention to the evaluation of the moral development of biomedical engineers. At the end of the chapter, a list of societies and organizations of bioethics around the world is intended to guide the interested reader further into the field of Bioethics.

scholarly journals International Financial Institutions and the Challenges of Global Business Ethics

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Henry Kerich
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Global Business ◽  
Business World ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The People ◽  
Global Business Ethics

<p>Business ethics are moral principles and doctrines that determine behavior in the business world. Although the purpose of every business is to earn profits, it also ought to pay a major role in society by ensuring fair practices. Instead of fairness and equality, greed has taken over the present business scenario leading to unethical business practices. World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been criticized for harsh imposition of austerity measures on member borrower countries. IMF programs are connected with adverse social action like reduced investment in public health and education in the recipient countries resulting in ethical violation and lack of corporate social responsibility to the communities served. A number of World Bank financed projects have social and environmental effects for the people in the affected areas resulting in ethical issues criticism. The IMF and World Bank have also been criticized for violation of ethical issues of equity and fair play.</p>

Expanding a Music Therapy Business Using AMTA’s Aspirational Code of Ethics

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
Meredith Roman Pizzi
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Music Therapists ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
Therapy Services ◽  
Trust Law

Abstract While all music therapists look to the Code of Ethics as a guiding document, music therapists who are self-employed or managing teams rely heavily on this document to create sound business and administrative policies. This article articulates how the 2019 Code of Ethics informs the music therapy entrepreneur or manager to make thoughtful, accountable, and ethical decisions, decreases confusion about specific business practices, and addresses significant concerns related to aspects of the previous AMTA Code of Ethics that were in conflict with federal anti-trust regulations in the United States, including the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. To address the legal and ethical issues inherent in expanding a service business, a discussion guided by the 2019 Code of Ethics and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (2009) model is provided as a way to think through potential ethical dilemmas when considering subcontracting music therapy services.

International Business Ethics

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. De George
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
International Business ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Business ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Ozone Level ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
International Business Ethics ◽  
Ethical Norms

International business ethics, as the term implies, cannot be national in character, anymore than international law can be national in character. Yet the analogy to law is as misleading as it is enlightening. For although we can speak of American, German or Japanese law, it is odd to speak of American, German or Japanese ethics. The reason is that ethics is usually thought to be universal. Hence there is simply ethics, not national ethics. Despite this, there is a sense that can be given to American business ethics or German business ethics. American business ethics does not refer to American as opposed to German ethics, but rather to the approach taken by those who do business ethics in the United States. What characterizes the American approach is not that it uses a special ethics or a national ethics, but that it is concerned with certain problems that are embedded in the American socio-economic-political system and faced by American business. German or Japanese business ethics differs from American business ethics in the cases and topics it deals with, in the different set of background institutions it takes for granted or investigates, and in the different culture, history, and social setting in which business operates.The same is true of what is often called international business ethics insofar as we can distinguish American, German, Japanese approaches to it. International business ethics might refer simply to the comparison of business practices and their ethical evaluation in different countries; it might investigate whether there are in fact ethical norms commonly recognized in all countries that should govern international business and economic transactions, and if there are variations in ethical norms, whether multinational firms are bound by the ethical norms of their mother country, by the ethical norms of their host countries, by either, by both, or by neither. International business ethics might involve broad issues about the economic inequality of nations, the justice of the present international economic order, the ethical status and justifiability of such organizations as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and of their structures and practices, as well as the ethical dimensions of international debt, and the claimed economic dependence of some countries on others, or such global issues as the role of industry in the depletion of the ozone level.

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