Title: The complex ethics of management science

Authors: Patrice Cailleba

Addresses: Management Department, PSB-Paris School of Business, 2:59 rue Nationale, 75013, Paris

Abstract: Ethics does not exist per se. It is forever in the making and remains embedded in a context that links it to reality. Because management science is about action and decision-making, it offers a prime field for ethics to be put into practice. Based on Morin's complex ethics, this article aims to show that there is a consubstantial link between complex ethics and management science. To do so, we shed light on the works of the pioneers of management science (Fayol, Follet and Taylor), to examine how ethical complexity characterises management science from the beginning. Moreover, we discuss Freund's three dialogics (command/obedience, friend/foe and private/public) that characterise politics and thus organisations. We show how they also irrigate management sciences and define the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to humanity through the question of responsibility.

Keywords: complex ethics; artificial intelligence; Fayol; Follet; Taylor; Morin.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2025.147235

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2025 Vol.18 No.3, pp.387 - 404

Received: 20 Dec 2023
Accepted: 27 Dec 2023
Published online: 14 Jul 2025 *

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