Business Ethics

by

Laura Spence

• LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0225

Introduction

Business ethics is the study of the moral rules and perspectives in use in organizations, particularly market actors. With roots in both applied moral philosophy and the study of social issues in management and business, it is a diverse and interdisciplinary field offering rich perspectives on how, why, and whether businesses, other organizations, and individuals operate in ethical and social terms. Additionally, business ethics incorporates the macro perspective of how business systems, structures, economies, and policy do or should organize in support of ethical practice. Business ethics research can be found across a range of disciplines. While the majority of work remains in outlets explicitly called “business ethics,” important research is also published elsewhere. Importantly, there is a good deal of crossover with neighboring subjects such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility, organizational responsibility, and corporate citizenship (for more information see Oxford Bibliographies in Management articles “Organizational Responsibility” by Stephanie R.Klein and “Approaches to Social Responsibility” by Kellie C. Liket and Pursey P.M.A.R. Heugens). In the contributions selected here, a driving requirement has been that business ethics remain center stage. This means that the ethical component of each article or book in question needs to be clearly articulated and attended to. In this business ethics bibliography, the approach taken has been to acknowledge the origins and foundation of business ethics and, importantly, to make visible some areas of research which are evolving to be critically important for the future. The future is necessarily guided by the past, and the earlier themes highlighted here remain pertinent and continue to develop and mature. It is an exciting time for business ethics, and as this bibliography shows, there is a great deal that this discipline has to offer to global critical problems. Indeed, the rise of the recognition of the practical relevance of business ethics is evident in the bibliography. Additionally, while the English-language field of the early years was overwhelmingly dominated by North American voices and North American interests, that has changed; now issues of global concern are firmly on the agenda, and contributors from around the world are far more familiar in the debates, though there remain structural barriers to the important diversity of contributions that the complex field arguably needs to be relevant and innovative. The approach taken here has been to actively seek to include diverse contributors of all kinds. The subjects covered can be divided into theory (ethical theory and stakeholder theory); themes (perennial themes, convergence, and new technology); and perspectives (organizational form, disciplinary viewpoints and the ‘Global South), ending with reference to the place of business ethics in the grand challenges as an indicator of the important practical impact of business ethics as a subject.

General Overview of Business Ethics

Business ethics is multifaceted, and offering a comprehensive overview is a challenge, not least because of the territorial differences in approach among, countries, regions, and language families. United States perspectives were the first to be articulated in the English language, with the first academic journals of business ethics beginning in the early 1980s; this purview is discussed in detail in De George 1987. The subject of ethical practice is of course timeless and thus business ethics was not born in the later twentieth century, but as Enderle 1996 argues, it was then that it was named as such and captured as a fledgling academic discipline. With ethical theory (initially notably utilitarianism, Kantianism, virtue theory, and social contract theory) as the frameworks on which most research hung, the link to practical relevance has not always been very clear, with the possible exception of stakeholder theory. Much of the early work of business ethics focused on ethical decision-making in large corporations, responses to scandals such as bribery and corruption, and tax avoidance or formulations of ‘good’ ethics, including codes of conduct and philanthropy. An international view of business ethics asked whether a global approach to ethics can be formulated (i.e., whether business ethics standards and expectations converge globally). Business ethics moved into mainstream management as a vast amount of research sought, arguably, to seek acceptance of business ethics as a management subject by drawing a link between ethical practice (or social performance) of business and financial performance. Such arguments and debates continue, and so too do discussions of the place of normative theory in business ethics (Moriarty 2008) and the necessity or otherwise of practice-based relevance and empirically informed research. As the field of business ethics has grown, the understanding of nuance and difference has expanded. In contemporary research, business ethics is far more engaged with different kinds of organizations and regions, and finer-grained perspectives on business ethics in different functional areas. As business ethics turns to emerging themes and looks to the future (Spence 2022) there is a fresh energy in business ethics, determinedly more relevant to tackling global challenges such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, much more aware of the context of developing and emerging economies, and more welcoming of alternative thinking, such as ethical theory from the Global South and critical perspectives. The works in this section offer different takes on an overview of business ethics research.

• De George, Richard T. “The Status of Business Ethics: Past and Future.” Journal of Business Ethics 6 (1987): 201–211.

  DOI: 10.1007/BF00382865

  This article by statesman of US business ethics Richard De George was one of the first to stake out the areas of business ethics. The article focuses on business ethics’ US origins in religion and political unrest, pointing to the need to look to wider business ethics teaching, interdisciplinary work, multinationals, European developments, and “international issues” as the field developed.

• Enderle, Georges. “Towards Business Ethics as an Academic Discipline.” Business Ethics Quarterly 6.1 (1996): 43–65.

  DOI: 10.2307/3857240

  Georges Enderle took an international lens to understanding business ethics as an academic discipline in this article, in which he draws on his understanding of different European languages and countries, as well as Asian perspectives, to complement and contrast with the dominant US view of the time.

• Moriarty, Jeffrey. “Business Ethics: An Overview.” Philosophy Compass 3.5 (2008): 956–972.

  DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00172.x

  In this useful article Jeffrey Moriarty argues robustly for business ethics as a subject which requires a normative perspective and captures some of the key advances in selected themes of employee rights and obligations, globalization, sales and marketing, and role morality. The article thus offers an overview from the viewpoint of moral theory applied to business ethics, while putting the discussion in context.

• Spence, Laura J. “Radical, Relevant, Reflective and Brilliant: Towards the Future of Business Ethics.” Journal of Business Ethics 180.3 (2022): 829–834.

  DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05238-3

  This article is an editorial of the 40-year anniversary issue of the Journal of Business Ethics and takes the opportunity to draw on past research in business ethics from a global viewpoint, calling for future business ethics to develop in a way which is more radical in approach, practically relevant, reflective of the role and impact of the researcher, and of outstanding quality.