Abstract
How is ethical theory used in contemporary teaching in business ethics? To answer this question, we undertook a survey of twenty-five of the leading business ethics texts. Our purpose was to examine the ways in which normative moral theory is introduced and applied to cases and issues. We focused especially on the authors' views of the conflicts and tensions posed by basic theoretical debates. How can these theories be made useful if fundamental tensions are acknowledged? Our analysis resulted in a typology, presented here, of the ways in which normative theory, and the difficulties within it, are handled in business ethics texts. We conclude that there is a serious lack of clarity about how to apply the theories to cases and a persistent unwillingness to grapple with tensions between theories of ethical reasoning. These deficiencies hamper teaching and ethical decision-making.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barry, Vincent: 1986, Moral Issues in Business 3d ed. (Wadsworth, Belmont, California).
Beauchamp, Tom L. and Norman E. Bowie, eds. 1983, 1988, Ethical Theory and Business 2nd and 3rd ed. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Behrman, Jack N.: 1988, Essays on Ethics in Business and the Professions (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Bowie, Norman: 1982, Business Ethics (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Cavanagh, Gerald and Arthur McGovern: 1988, Ethical Dilemmas in the Modern Corporation (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
DeGeorge, Richard T.: 1982, 1986, Business Ehtics 1st and 2nd ed. (Macmillan, New York).
Desjardins, Joseph R. and John J. McCall: 1985, Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics (Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California).
Donaldson, Thomas: 1982, Corporations and Morality (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Donaldson, Thomas: 1984, Case Studies in Business Ethics (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Donaldson, Thomas and Patricia, Werhane: 1983, 1988, Ethical Issues in Business: A Philosophical Approach. 2nd and 3rd ed. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Evans, William: 1981, Management Ethics (Kluwer Nijhoff, Boston).
Freeman, R. Edward and Daniel R. Gilbert, Jr.: 1988, Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Glenn, James R., Jr.: 1986, Ethics in Decision-Making (John Wiley, New York).
Goodpaster, Kenneth, John Matthews, and Laura Nash: 1985, Persons and Policies (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Hoffman, Michael and Jennifer Mills Moore: 1984, Business Ethics (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Hosmer, Larue T.: 1987, The Ethics of Management (Irwin, Homewood, Illinois).
McCoy, Charles: 1985, Management of Values (Pitman, Boston).
Pastin, Mark: 1986, The Hard Problems of Management (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco).
Paul, Karen, ed.: 1987, Business Environment and Business Ethics (Ballinger, Cambridge, Massachusetts).
Regan, Tom, ed.: 1984, Just Business (Random House, New York).
Snoeyenbos, Milton, Robert Almeder, and James Humber, eds.: 1983, Business Ethics (Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y.).
Stevens, Paul: 1979, Business Ethics (Paulist Press, New York).
Tuleja, Tad: 1985, Beyond The Bottom Line (Penguin Books, New York).
Velasquez, Manuel G.: 1988, Business Ethics 2nd ed. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Ronald M. Green is the John Phillips Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion, Dartmouth College. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Business Ethics at Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, where he is responsible for courses on business ethics. Professor Green has written many articles in theoretical and applied ethics. He is the author of three books, Population Growth and Justice (Scholars Press, 1975), Religious Reason (Oxford University Press, 1978), and Religion and Moral Reason (Oxford University Press, 1988).
Robbin Derry is a Rockefeller Fellow at The Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics at Dartmouth College and an MBA and PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research interests include field studies of ethical conflicts in organizations and moral reasoning among managers. She has authored several articles on managerial ethical decision-making.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Derry, R., Green, R.M. Ethical theory in business ethics: A critical assessment. J Bus Ethics 8, 521–533 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382928
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382928