BUSINESS ETHICS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Business Ethics personal experience

Business Ethics personal experience

Business Ethics

The concept of business ethics flourished since the second half of the twentieth century. It is clear that this concept resonates exponentially as and when it develops. Shell, Backlash liberalized world trade, or true concept at the heart of the concerns of legal and business? Approach to a concept with blurred.

Ethics is a broad concept. In ancient philosophy ethics were discussed under the heading of morality. Considered in the Middle Ages by Saint Thomas Aquinas in particular, it appeared more precisely as a science of morality with the work of Descartes. Finally, it is Kant that will lay the foundations of ethics as it is now considered a study on "the conditions of possibility of morality", based on concepts such as that duty. Also, we can define ethics as largely the pursuit of well in the act of man.

Business ethics has the specificity to be part of what one could call "applied ethics", which includes our considerations on modern social issues, trade, and environment. More specifically, business ethics raises the question of moral principles in the economic and social as well as the duties imposed on those traders.

We tend to distinguish between two approaches to business ethics. The first, Anglo-Saxon, is normative (through the concepts of morality), it is the concepts of "Business Ethics". The second is the so-called "European" and is a more practical and positive ethics, are the notions of "Real Ethic". In fact we may consider that these two approaches are not exclusive but complementary, despite the criticism they may have another go.

The trend in recent decades has been to integrate these concepts ever in business. Normative way, through legislation (e.g. through the sanction of insider trading, bribes, accounting rules, executive compensation, discrimination, respect for privacy, the penalty of barriers to competition etc).

But in practical terms, the companies themselves have made the finding of this need for business ethics, through the rules of professional conduct, or the ethical charters found in a number of companies. Since the 80's, many large companies have developed "Compliance Officers" guiding ethical and other functions that find the evolution of the concept of business ethics in parallel development of economic affairs.

Theoretical issues raised by business ethics

What repository to adopt? We may consider that as business ethics is rooted in a science of morality it will not necessarily be viewed from an objective reference.

Indeed, business ethics, and ethical as "applied" asks the repository, because it invites subjectivity, as it is seen through the eyes of the employee, the company, the state, or society as a whole. To address this problem, some believe that business ethics must be considered with the aim of reconciling these potential conflicts of interest.

Two approaches can address the issues raised by business ethics: that which is to translate the theories of the social contract in the economic environment, and that which leads us to consider that there are a number of ethical behavior that ...