business ethics
In concept, business ethics is
the applied ethics discipline that addresses the moral features of commercial
activity. In practice, however, a dizzying array of projects is pursued under
its rubric. Programs of legal compliance, empirical studies into the moral
beliefs and attitudes of business people, a panoply of best-practices claims
(in the name of their moral merit or their contribution to business success),
arguments for (or against) mandatory worker participation in management, and
attempts at applying traditional ethical theories, theories of justice, or
theories of the state to firms or to the functional areas of business are all
advanced as contributions to business ethics—even and especially in its
academic literature. These projects vary considerably and often seem to have
little in common other than the conviction, held by those who pursue them, that
whatever each is pursuing is business
ethics.
