Summary: In this article, Claus Dierksmeier argues that business ethics must be reconnected to economic philosophy in order to provide helpful perspectives for the globalized economy.

Business decisions have always been made under conditions of uncertainty. Yet in recent years, the level of uncertainty has risen steeply, in lockstep with economic globalization. In the past, social conflicts could often be solved by purely legislative means. Today, however, corporate social responsibility can no longer be entrusted to the law alone.

The reason is simply that the limited scope of national jurisdiction faces a transnational traffic of goods, services, and persons. The more complex modern business relations grow, the less they can be brought under neat legal categories. Corporate activity over and beyond the law, i.e. moral leadership, is required.

Corporate moral leadership is by no means easy. A great many cultural, religious and political values demand the attention of modern-day executives, bringing more and more undefined variables into the management calculus. Add to this the overall post-modern vagueness in moral orientation, and confused, indecisive corporate ethics result. Acts of individual misdemeanor and corporate malfeasance are then only to be expected.

Moral critics from all walks of life are bashing the corporate world, and not seldom with due cause. Managers, however, cannot personally investigate whose critiques merit concern. They lack the time and ressources to discern what part of all the anti-corporate noise stems from serious ethical problems or foreshadows future difficulties, and what is nothing but the usual anti-capitalist din. Nor can they delay investment and involvement until answers manifest.

This is where academic business ethics comes into the picture, or, at least, where it ought to. Management needs help in screening the many challenges to their “license to operate”. ‘Business ethics as usual’ fails, however, in this regard – for several reasons:

One, business ethics as usual is reactive, not proactive. Classical business ethics textbooks teach about the errors of the past. Seldom do they encourage speculation about what might wreak havoc in the future.

Two, classical business ethics is case-based rather than principle-oriented. Case-to-case comparisons make sense, however, only in stable socio-cultural and legal contexts, but much less in today’s ever-changing global economy.

Three, customary business ethics individualizes moral responsibility by focusing on questions of character (e.g., on part of the “whistle blower”). However, today’s moral challenges demand intelligent structures rather than personal heroism; systemic problems need systemic solutions.

Four, traditional business ethics favors conditional premises (“If you want to avoid bad press, don’t cook the books!”). Proactive management, however, needs unconditional adherence to values, regardless of vicissitudes and transient disadvantages.

Five, the economic sector is a major force for societal change, as it educates people and societies through practice. Being eclectic in nature, and cut off from foundational philosophical discourses about the good, ‘business ethics as usual’ cannot anticipate the optimal direction of societal change.

Without a concise vision of the future economy and without coherent ideas about the amelioration of human life or the creation of more humane societies, customary business ethics offers no real bearing for long-sighted corporate policies.

Customary business ethics has inherited this visionary deficit from conventional economic wisdom. What is needed, instead, is a disinterested critique of the prevalent economic ideology, lest outdated conceptions stand in the way of innovative solutions. Such critique is the ordinary task of economic philosophy.

This is why, in business education and public policy, we need to take recourse to economic philosophy. Taking up the argumentative thread where business ethics leaves it, i.e. with an investigation into the nature and the qualitative goals of economic activity, economic philosophy reconnects the business world with our overall concern for the good life. Thus it not only tackles the problems of today, it also assists in anticipating what awaits the business world tomorrow.

Claus Dierksmeier is professor for political and economic philosophy at Stonehill College, in Easton (Boston), Mass., USA.
He adds: “I wish to thank my research assistant Amanda Bosson for helping me smooth out my Teutonic English”.

Prof. Dr. Claus Dierksmeier,
Philosophy Department, Stonehill College,
320 Washington St., Easton, MA 02357, USA,
Email: cdierksmeier@stonehill.edu