Conceptual Frameworks of Business Ethics

Abstract

Abstract-The following paper gives an account of the paradigmatic diversity of concepts and approaches applied in business ethics programs. Business ethics is introduced as a part of an interdisciplinary project of inquiry into the regulative foundations of business activity. Business ethics issues are classified with regard to interpersonal, organizational, and systemic contexts of business activity. Business ethics research programs are typically characterized by an a priori scale of moral reasoning, with the emphasis on criticism and complex approaches to moral problems that are independent of the problems of social responsibility. Due to the complexity of moral problems in business, there is a need for a special conceptual framework of ethical reflection and argumentation. The paper differentiates between the basic philosophical frameworks of moral reasoning that are typically applied in business, such as Utilitarianism, Deontology, and Virtue Ethics. These are evaluated in a comparative perspective. Different views on the ways of bringing ethics to business are introduced in terms of the distinction between two basic approaches -that of the moralists and of the institutionalists.