CHALLENGES TO BUSINESS ETHICS

Starting with a brief analysis of various popular meanings of ethical behavior (empathy, religious faith law, and traditional customs), the author defines ethics as moral philosophy, and business ethics as a specialized branch of applied ethics, concerned with the moral issues in business. The second part rejects the academic challenge to business ethics, arguing that business ethics should and could he a well established academic discipline. The third part tries to reject the legalist challenge, considering the reasons why legal regulations cannot solve all the problems and dilemmas which confront business persons and organizations. The fourth part meets the media challenge, showing how media distort the public perception of business ethics, focusing almost exclusively on scandalous actions of big corporations. The fifth part analyzes the positivistic challenge, arguing that even though ethics cannot be a positive science it still is a valid rational analysis of ethical behavior in business. The final part rejects the ideological challenges, claiming that business ethics could and should justify its legitimate object of investigation, its methods, and its theoretical contributions to a better understanding of contemporary management, beyond the ideological confrontations.