13. Forms of Self-Governance – Behavioural Business Ethics and Governance Ethics

This chapter analyses the results of different approaches of behavioural psychology and neuroeconomics to behavioural business ethics and their possible integration into an ethics of governance. At first it examines similarities and differences of different explanatory models of moral behaviour (orthodox economics, philosophical ethics, psychology, social neuroscience) and discusses the corresponding assumptions of Governance Ethics. The brief outline shows that a uniform explanatory model of moral behaviour cannot be expected in the foreseeable future, but rather an increase in the complexity of the explanatory factors taken into account by the individual approaches. After examining the assumptions of behavioural psychology and social neuroscience on moral behavior in more detail, the chapter sketches some possible fields of application for applied business ethics and refers to the role Governance Ethics can play in this context. The Governance Ethics locates the research themes and fields of behavioural business ethics in the area of the mechanisms of self-governance. It is argued that behavioural business ethics involves the attachment of mechanisms of moral self-commitment and external commitment to a self-stabilizing recursive loop. Both attachment forms can draw on both motivational and structural parameters. This idea is illustrated by the example of the values management system. The chapter closes by pointing out research fields for behavioural business ethics from the point of view of Governance Ethics.