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What's the matter with business ethics?
1Faculty of Management, University of Toronto.
Harvard Business Review
|April 8, 1993
Summary
Business ethics is evolving to address managers' real-world dilemmas. New approaches acknowledge mixed motives, offering practical guidance beyond simplistic "ethics pays" or purely altruistic/self-interested views.
Area of Science:
- Business Ethics
- Management Studies
Background:
- Traditional business ethics often failed to provide practical guidance for managers.
- Early approaches like "ethics pays" were unrealistic, as ethics and interests can conflict.
- Scholarly views on manager motivation were limited to purely altruistic or self-interested, ignoring mixed motives.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the evolution of business ethics as a discipline.
- To highlight the gap between academic theory and managerial practice in ethics.
- To introduce emerging concepts in business ethics that address complex managerial realities.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the historical development of business ethics.
- Critique of existing theoretical frameworks in business ethics.
- Identification of emerging ethical concepts and their practical implications.
Main Results:
- Business ethics has struggled to provide actionable advice to managers.
- The field is shifting towards acknowledging the complexity of managerial motives.
- New concepts like moderation, pragmatism, and minimalism are emerging.
Conclusions:
- Business ethics is becoming more practical and relevant to managers.
- The discipline is increasingly recognizing the reality of mixed motives in decision-making.
- Emerging ethical frameworks offer more realistic guidance for navigating moral dilemmas.