Abstract
The paper discusses the role that ethics theory might play in business ethics teaching. It is noted that little attention is devoted to the explanation and application of ethics theory in business ethics textbooks, which suggests that ethics theory is held in low esteem by business ethics educators. This relative disregard has been justified by some critics on the basis of the limited usefulness of ethics theory to business ethics pedagogy. Notwithstanding these criticisms, the paper argues that ethics theory can play an important role in business ethics teaching which conforms to a speculative agenda. A speculative agenda is described, and a contribution that ethics theory can make to it is explained. This constitutes a form of immanent critique, which enables putative statements of business ethicality to be subjected to critique against the cultural values upon which their credibility rests. Ethics theory is offered as a mediating resource to facilitate such critique. Some criteria that the presentation of ethics theory needs to meet if it is to fulfill this speculative agenda are also outlined.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A normative impasse of this nature has been theorized in a broader philosophical context in various ways. For instance, Habermas (1974/1963, 1987/1968) has referred to the apparent unfeasibility of a critical-emancipatory social theory in an intellectual climate in which positivist and hermeneutic forms of knowledge seem to occupy all the available space. Meanwhile, MacIntyre (1985/1981) refers to as the “Failure of the Enlightenment Project” to secure apodictic ethical truth, and a consequent belief that a relativistic “emotivism” offers the only way to think about ethics. Whilst emphasizing the significance of the normative impasses, though, these philosophers also offer responses to it. For both Habermas and MacIntyre’s, the appropriate response lies in a form of immanent critique. Habermas (1984/1981, 1987/1981, 1990/1983) thus envisages a processual model of normative legitimization, in which discourse amongst communicatively motivated actors permits the ethical commitments that circulate within a shared “lifeworld” to be interrogated and negotiated. Meanwhile, part of MacIntyre’s (1985/1981; 1988) resolution to the normative impasse involves teasing out, through processes of imaginative engagement, shared values that infuse a particular tradition.
It has even been suggested (Singer 1995) that utilitarians have no grounds for restricting evaluation to humans and that animals should also be included in a utilitarian’s constituency of ethical relevance.
References
Aristotle (2009/circa 323BC). The Nicomachean ethics (L. Brown, Ed., D. Ross, Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beauchamp, T. L., & Bowie, N. E. (2004). Ethical theory and business. Upper Saddle River: Pearsom.
Browne, C. (2008). The end of immanent critique? European Journal of Social Theory, 11(1), 5–24.
Burbidge, J. W. (2006). The logic of Hegel’s logic. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.
Calhoun, C. (1995). Critical social theory. Malden: Blackwell.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2010). Business ethics (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Engelbrecht, S. (2012). Radical business ethics: A critical and postmetaphysical manifesto. Business Ethics: A European Review, 21(4), 339–352.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine, September 13.
Fryer, M. (2011). Ethics and organizational leadership: Developing a normative model. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fryer, M. (2015). Ethics theory and business practice. London: Sage.
Griseri, P., & Seppala, N. (2010). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Andover: Cengage.
Gustafson, A. (2010). Rorty, Caputo and business ethics without metaphysics: Ethical theories as normative narratives. Business Ethics: A European Review, 19(2), 140–153.
Habermas, J. (1974/1963). Theory and practice (J. Viertal, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1975/1973). Legitimation crisis (T. McCarthy, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1979/1976). Communication and the evolution of society (T. McCarthy, Trans.). London: Heinemann.
Habermas, J. (1984/1981). The theory of communicative action, volume one: Reason and the rationalisation of society (T. McCarthy, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1987/1968). Knowledge and human interests (J.J. Shapiro, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity.
Habermas, J. (1987/1981). The theory of communicative action, volume two: Lifeworld and system: A critique of functionalist reason (T. McCarthy, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1990/1983). Moral consciousness and communicative action (C. Lenhardt & S Weber Nicholsen, Trans.). Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1975/1830). Hegel’s logic (W. Wallace, Trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1977/1807). Phenomenology of spirit (A.V. Miller, Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1991/1821). Elements of the philosophy of right (A.W. Wood, Ed., H.B. Nisbet, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hooker, J. (2004). The case against business ethics education: A study in bad arguments. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 1(1), 75–88.
Horkheimer, M. (2004/1947). Eclipse of reason. London: Continuum.
Houlgate, S. (2013). Hegel’s phenomenology of spirit. London: Bloomsbury.
Jones, C., Parker, M., & ten Bos, R. (2005). For business ethics. London: Routledge.
Kaler, J. (1999). What’s the good of ethical theory? Business Ethics: A European Review, 8(4), 206–213.
Legge, K. (1998). Is HRM ethical? Can HRM be ethical? In M. Parker (Ed.), Ethics and organizations (pp. 150–172). London: Sage.
MacIntyre, A. (1985/1981). After virtue. London: Duckworth.
MacIntyre, A. (1988). Whose justice? Which rationality?. London: Duckworth.
Mellahi, K., Morrell, K., & Wood, G. (2010). The ethical business: Challenges and controversies (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Mcmillan.
Nietzsche, F. (2003/1887). The genealogy of morals. New York: Dover.
Nietzsche, F. (2006/1886). Beyond good and evil: Prelude to a philosophy of the future. In K. A. Pearson & D. Large (Eds.), The Nietzsche reader (pp. 311–361). Malden: Blackwell.
Painter-Moreland, M., & ten Bos, R. (2011). Business ethics and continental philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parker, M. (1998a). Business ethics and social theory: Postmodernizing the ethical. British Journal of Management 9 (Special Issue), S27–S36.
Parker, M. (1998b). Ethics and Organizations. London: Sage.
Parker, M. (2002). Against management. Cambridge: Polity.
Rorty, R. (2006). Is philosophy relevant to applied ethics? Business Ethics Quarterly, 16(3), 369–380.
Sabia, D. (2010). Defending immanent critique. Political Theory, 38(5), 684–711.
Sartre, J-P. (2003/1943). Being and nothingness (H.E. Barnes, Trans.). Oxford: Routledge.
Singer, P. (1995). Animal liberation (2nd ed.). London: Pimlico.
Solomon, R. C. (1992). Ethics and excellence: Cooperation and integrity in business. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sternberg, E. (2000). Just business: Business ethics in action (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Treviño, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2004). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. Hoboken: Wiley.
White, R. (1994/1988). The return of the master: An interpretation of Nietzsche’s genealogy of morals. In R. Schacht (Ed.), Nietzsche, genealogy, morality (pp. 63–75). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fryer, M. A Role for Ethics Theory in Speculative Business Ethics Teaching. J Bus Ethics 138, 79–90 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2592-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2592-6