Abstract
This essay was written for the 1984 General Motors Intercollegiate Business Understanding Program. It consists of three sections, each responding to a separate issue posed by General Motors. The opinions expressed are not those of the General Motors management.
The first section attempts to document, through the use of Harvard Business Review articles, a shift in the notion of managerial responsibility from a narrowly focused role responsibility to a more widely focused moral responsibility.
The second section explicates the different conceptions of Justice behind the United States and West German economic systems. It gives examples of the consequences of the different conceptions both in methods of policy formation and results.
The third section deals with business ethics in international contexts. It argues that law is by itself inadequate in the regulation of business activity and must be supplemented by public discussion, which employs the traditional methods of moral reasoning.
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John Davis Feldmann, John Kelsay, and Hugh E. Brown III are or have been graduate students in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Their essay, written under the direction of James F. Childress, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Ethics, won first prize in the 1984 General Motors Intercollegiate Business Understanding Program.
John D. Feldmann, currently writing a dissertation on justice and tax reform, holds a law degree from the University of Virginia. He has practiced business law, served as a Vice-President of a banking corporation, and worked for the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.
John Kelsay, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., holds a Ph.D. in Religious Ethics from the University of Virginia and has been serving as an Instructor there. His dissertation dealt with ethics and society in Islam.
Hugh E. Brown III, now preparing for the Episcopal ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary, holds an M.A. in Religious Ethics from the University of Virginia. Prior to entering graduate school, he had experience in business as a supervisor for an AT&T affiliate.
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Feldmann, J.D., Kelsay, J. & Brown, H.E. Responsibility and moral reasoning: A study in Business Ethics. J Bus Ethics 5, 93–117 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382751
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382751