Title: Business ethics: myth or reality, tool or essence?

Authors: Wanda D'hanis

Addresses: Nike Consult - Management & Reflektie, Korte Lozanastraat 32, B 2019, Antwerp, Belgium

Abstract: Ethics is easily confused with ideology or religious conviction. But nothing is more distinguishable than religion, morality and law. Similarly distinguishable is theoretical from practical reasoning, which, according to Kant, equals moral deliberation on the quality. Moral awareness is as inherent to economic dealings as to all other human occupations. The law of economics is that of human life itself. As people are organisational beings, according to Aristotle, every organisation has a moral scope. Hopefully, the culture of a company will become the fundament in which the knowledge and actions of intelligent people thrive, and that critically evaluates itself as Habermas states. In Hegelian tradition, this means that culture is a person|s objective search for himself. Values are linked to qualities, which does not mean that all qualities are ethical values. A continuous dialogue is necessary to ensure the creation of the moral fundament.

Keywords: culture; dialogue; ethics; human actions; organisation; people; values.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2000.002834

International Journal of Technology Management, 2000 Vol.19 No.6, pp.576-582

Published online: 07 Jul 2003 *

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