As a common saying goes “Hell is paved with good intentions”, though Kant would disagree. In real world we may be morally responsible for more than one’s intentions. Moral agents need to navigate between Scylla of “objective” and Charybdis of “subjective” theories of moral responsibility; the resultant theory shall be called a theory of realistic obligation. It takes into account both subjective intentions and objective results of moral action. Since human beings are both intentional entities and physical objects, neglect of either objective or subjective factors leads to implausible consequences. In practical domains, such as business ethics, moral value needs to be assigned in part to our subjective intentions and in part to objective results of our actions. This allows for moral condemnation of inefficiency and balancing acts of efficiency versus deontic constraints.

Within this article, we propose to treat the importance of establishing committees of ethics (of research) in social work organizations. We refer here to the ethical analysis of individualized service plans and intervention strategies that case managers apply to beneficiaries, the central ethical problem being represented by the analysis of conditions of ethical acceptability of social intervention. The ethical evaluation of services should consider the principles of beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence and justice, as treated by Beauchamp and Childress (2001), as a variant of the principles stipulated in the Belmont report (1979). The paper has argumentative character, the central premise being that intervention in social work is a form of action research and thus it should be based on the same rules of research on human subjects. The second premise is that social intervention changes the quality of life of the beneficiary, and this change requires ethical evaluation in order to analyze the conditions in which ethics is perceived and accepted as defining part of the social intervention. Customizations will refer to informed consent as a tool of implementing autonomy of the beneficiary.

The objective of my paper, which stands as a very short introduction of a wider research work of mine, is to trace the ethical and moral preconditions for leadership as they may emerge through Aristotle’s works and his view on virtue ethics. I suggest the understanding of leadership not only under its conventional concepts, but as the power of an individual to wield control and management within its own administrative circumstances. The pursuit of the moral preconditions drives us to respective arguments about the individual who is under the management of leadership. My intention is not to reply to the question whether a form of leadership could or should be virtuous, moral or ethical, but to point down the complexity of morality in the case of leadership and in the sense that we accept for a degree of morality to exist in a milieu of leadership. Under this, emerges the question about the degree of morality in each circumstance of leadership. A person who plays the role of a leader either is virtuous or not and he should be ethical within his milieu of action: however, it is under question the feasibility of virtue in leadership or the degree of it (the kind of virtue desirable at any circumstance). The present work, traces the moral issues in an aspect of business ethics, without assuming that they were a major theoretical objective by Aristotle. However, I am of the opinion, that his work may offer us a wide spectrum of problematic for the field of the kind.

A theoretical reflection about organizational philosophy of Neomanagement, which becomes the new paradigm of “anti-organizational leadership”, is characterized as a sacrificial system business, whose protagonist is the Neomanager, perpetrator and executor of mobbing hostile actions. Organizational paradigms reveal the occupational settings where staff is annihilated by established toxic work environments and unethical conduct in the company, with serious consequences for the working class and the company. Overview also reveals the need to raise public policies and launch a series of institutional measures in organizations based on the ethic of solidarity, so that they can fulfill its mission founded on high moral values and prevent and control this new disease emerging at the work place, causing the decay of the world of work.

In the history of philosophy ethics has an important place. Many ethical areas appeared under the name of Applied Ethics. Applied ethics examines the particular ethical issues of private and public life. Business ethics is one of the important branches of applied ethics. The subjects of business ethics are some ethical principles and moral problems that arise in a business environment. Therefore, business ethics can be described as an appeal to philosophical considerations in facing the ethical problems that confront business. Business ethics is related to people’s action in business arena. Business ethics is a philosophical study that includes both descriptive and normative standards and tells how people should act in business life. In this study, I will try to show the philosophical basis of business ethics. I believe that business ethics is a philosophical discipline. My aim is to show the relation between business ethics and virtue ethics; especially the application of Aristotelian virtue ethics to business ethics. In doing this, I use Aristotle’s virtues as the framework for business ethics.

Code of Conduct for Private military and security companies (PMSCs) based upon principles of ethical self-regulation of this branch of industry has been elaborated and adopted recently by above 30 countries (initiative has been led by Switzerland and the USA). Alternatively, group of above 60 other countries (mainly from Non-aligned movement) elaborated draft of the new UN Convention on external rigid legally-binding regulation of the private military industries on behalf of the international community. Paper analyses and compares basic principles of both “ethical” and “legalist” models of regulation. Author, who was as the UN expert involved into elaboration of Convention, suggests in the paper new ways to combine mechanisms of social-ethical nature with binding mechanisms of international law aiming to reach a compromise and establish effective international oversight of the international community over such a dangerous branch of international businesses as private military and security companies.

This paper is an attempt to examine the most basic conflict in business that is ethics pitted against profit. Profit making is indisputably one of the reasons business enterprises are in business. Many business enterprises are in business basically to maximize profit. It is a known fact that profit is what keeps any business enterprise in business. But, when the only drive of a business enterprise is to make profit without regards to ethics, it may accelerate the attainment of its aim in the short run, but the business enterprise may lose in the long run. The aim of this paper is to show that ethics in business leads to profits and to be successful in the long run, a business enterprise needs to be driven by strong ethical values.

This paper examines the main views of Stoic ethics, with emphasis on the Stoic wise man (“σοφός”), with a view to establishing a model of moral leadership in the corporate world. We wish to show that the Stoic moral framework can serve as a basis of moral leadership that goes over and above that of transformational leadership and establishes a humanistic approach to the leader-follower relationship. Through the appropriation of reason, it creates an empowering environment that puts emphasis on the human dignity in an attempt to better serve the practical requirements of every organization. To this effect, we examine certain extracts from the Stoic philosophical tradition and identify those elements that would best fit the above approach. Our interest focuses on the Stoic wise man who possesses the moral makeup for a form of leadership that could be proved to be effective, since it is human dignity-oriented. Towards the end, some comparison is also drawn between the Stoic “σοφός” and the Aristotelian “φρόνιμος” in order to establish their approach to leadership and its significance for corporate governance and self-actualization.

This paper presents a concept of business ethics as a method of philosophical inquiry in business and economic. The proposes a concept of business ethics as developed in the book Responsibility, Ethics and Legitimacy of Corporations (by Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, 2009) where business ethics is defined as a fundamental philosophical concept of corporations in a globalized world. It is argued that business ethics should be conceived as a holistic concept that integrates different ethical theories in “Republican business ethics”, based on the idea of “the good life for and with the other in just institutions” with duty, care and concern for state, community and civil society. Business ethics is in this sense not only limited to national corporate citizenship, but it also includes an international dimension based on global responsibility in cosmopolitan business ethics.

It is widely believed that ethical obligation in business is owed to stockholders, who are the investors but in the practice of a profession such an ethical obligation is owed to clients or community. The apparent conflict in the nature of ethical obligation is clear but it is also true that both business and profession cannot be separated as for instance engineering and journalism are businesses or today even many educational institutions and medical facilities are businesses. It appears to be ethically important then to examine the conflict in the nature of ethical obligation as such and to elucidate the nature of conflict resolution in the light of virtue-based view of business. In this regard, an analysis of virtue-based approach to business and profession begins with the nature and practical applications of virtue ethics and goes on to propose and examine certain ethical reasons based on virtue-based analysis of real-life cases to spell out the revised view of business for compatibility of business and profession.

The literature on management identifies three models for the relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders, as well as the corporation’s goals: the shareholder model of corporate governance, the employee governance model and the stakeholder model. One can identify in current business practice a further model of corporate governance, which may be entitled “the controlling shareholder model”. The goal of this paper is to show that these models are grounded in long-standing philosophical ideas. The philosophical basis of the shareholder model is to be traced to John Locke’s theory of private property; Karl Marx’s approach underlies the employee governance model; the stakeholder model reflects the Aristotelian theory of the golden mean; and the controlling shareholder model expresses Thomas Hobbes’s conception of the sovereign power. We wish to argue that recognizing these philosophical ideas at the basis of the models of corporate governance would facilitate the analysis of the difficulties inherent to these models. We also maintain that this recognition is instrumental in forming a normative position concerning the meaning of corporate governance to present-day society.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a global trend, also in the advertising industry. The purpose of this paper is to show what consumers think about CSR-related advertising and if it changes their buying behavior. An online survey was sent to the target group. It included questions about sustainability in general and questions concerning five different commercials of Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Vodafone, Volkswagen and Suzuki. Some questions had their focus on CSR activities and some on the product. The findings of this study indicate that credibility is most important for a good CSR media campaign. Another result is that the majority of the respondents don’t trust a company more because of a special advertisement, but that they want to find out more about the company and its social commitment on the internet, if the commercial is touching in this way.

Business ethics relates to the whole gamut of corporate governance and encompasses applied or professional considerations of the morality of human and organizational conduct. As in general ethics, corporate ethics proceeds from certain principles that define what constitutes morality in business dealings. There are a myriad of business ethical principles, all of which are said to erupt from three prime documents around the world, namely: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Principles of Corporate Governance (1999); the Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance (CACG) Principles for Corporate Governance (1999); and either the first or second King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (Institute of Directors of South Africa [IOD], 1994, 2002). But a critical assessment of these documents and ruling moral trends in the discipline reveal that they are short of an essential connection with a fundamental philosophy of man. This lacuna tends to alienate people from its core values, objectives and benefits. This paper shall chart African ontological presuppositions for business ethics, to establish its essential link with humanity.

Хозяйственный этос - это ценностно-нормативные представления о хозяйственной деятельности субъектов хозяйствования, благодаря ему хозяйственная деятельность наполняется смыслом. Для осмысления путей развития стран Запада и Востока большое значение приобрели выводы М. Вебера о противодействии традиционной духовности и религиозно-культурных систем этих стран развитию там капитализма западного типа. В отличие от западной модели демократии, с ее ударением на защите индивидуума от давления общества и государства, Восточные модели делают акцент на самоограничении личности, стремлении контролировать ее порывы, встраивать их в систему общественных и государственных интересов. Каждый народ обладает уникальной культурой и характером, которые оказывают влияние на особенности предпринимательства. Своеобразие жизни людей разных стран выводит на первый план какую-то одну генетическую составляющую организации в хозяйственной культуре: рынок и конкуренцию на Западе, общину и артель в России, дхармические обязательства отдельных профессиональных групп в рамках кастовой системы в Индии, идею фирмы как большой семьи и модификацию самурайской этики в Японии. Большинство хозяйственных культур Востока традиционны, в них инновации приживаются не столь быстро, этому искусству следует обучать. Неправомерно отождествлять демократию исключительно с индивидуальной свободой и с экономическим либерализмом. Исследователи все чаще сходятся во мнении: как основанный на индивидуализме и частном интересе “чистый либерализм”, так и строящийся на одном коллективизме “чистый социализм” являются крайностями для современных условий. Научный подход основан на одновременном развитии обоих принципов, их взаимодополняемости.

На основе обобщения теоретико-методических подходов обосновано определение корпоративного управления как системы, которая является базовой составляющей общей системы управления предприятием и базируется на холистической концепции менеджмента, что позволяет рассматривать предприятие как условную сферу единой системы предприятие-рынок. Oпределены нравственные принципы и конкурентные преимущества корпоративного подхода к управлению предприятием. Обоснована необходимость перехода современных предприятий на инновационный путь развития, выбора управленческой концепции, фундаментальным принципом которой является формирование деловой этики и корпоративной культуры с целью повышения эффективности бизнес-процессов. Определенно, что целевым устремлением корпоративного управления является стоимость бизнеса, этическая и социальная ответственность перед клиентами, сотрудниками, владельцами бизнеса и обществом в целом.

Philosophic reflection on the modern ethical orientations and transformations of the Russian business allows us to distinguish its dominating value meanings, which considerably impact formation and development of the basic values. These transformations and developments may be divided further and seen as leading trends: practical-pragmatic trend related to maximization of the income; manipulative trend which employs techniques to influence consumers to increase sales and socio-ethical trend, which is oriented to recognition of consumer’s personal values in Kantian aspect. The abovementioned trends manifest themselves in marketing business technologies which define the strategy of “market making” of Russian business. When using practical-pragmatic and manipulative trends, the codes of marketing business technologies are transformed into the value markers of the life meaning system of consumers which forces them to continuous and extensive consumption of material values. This is the way the worldview is formed which we define as “worldview of intensive material consumer orientation”. Its peculiarity consists in dehumanization of basic life meanings of a personality and elimination of moral values from cognitive system. Mechanisms to neutralize such transformations can be formed only within the frameworks of socio-ethical trend and which is oriented to recognition of consumer’s personal values.

Το κύριο θέμα της εργασίας είναι να συζητηθεί η επίδραση που ασκεί η παγκόσμια οικονομική κρίση στο χώρο της “επιχειρησιακής ηθικής”. Θα παρουσιαστούν οι τρεις βασικές ηθικές θεωρίες που δεσπόζουν στο χώρο της “επιχειρησιακής ηθικής” με σκοπό την αποσαφήνιση των ηθικών ερωτημάτων που αφορούν τον κλάδο της ηθικής που φέρει τον τίτλο “επιχειρησιακή ηθική”, δεδομένου ότι ο ίδιος ο όρος “επιχειρησιακή ηθική” είναι πολύ δύσκολο να οριστεί με σαφήνεια. Επιπλέον θα συζητηθούν οι αλλαγές που επισυμβαίνουν στο χώρο της “επιχειρησιακής ηθικής” ως απόρροια της οικονομικής κρίσης καθώς και η ευθύνη που φέρουν οι επιχειρήσεις για τη δημιουργία της οικονομικής κρίσης. Ακόμη θα παρουσιαστούν κάποια ηθικά ζητήματα που προκύπτουν από τη θέση της Ελλάδας στην παγκόσμια οικονομική κρίση και εμπίπτουν στον κλάδο της “επιχειρησιακής ηθικής”. Τέλος το κύριο μέλημα αυτής της εργασίας είναι η επισήμανση των διαφόρων ηθικών ζητημάτων που προκύπτουν από την οικονομική κρίση και την αλληλεπίδρασή της με το χώρο της “επιχειρησιακής ηθικής” και όχι η ανάλυση του όρου “επιχειρησιακή ηθική” ή η επισκόπηση της παγκόσμιας οικονομικής κρίσης, καθώς κάτι τέτοιο θα ξεπερνούσε κατά πολύ τον περιορισμένο χώρο τούτης της εργασίας.

Ποιος ο ορισμός της επιχείρησης; Τι εκπροσωπεί μία επιχείρηση; Τίθεται θέμα συμπεριφοράς και δεοντολογίας εντός της σύγχρονης επιχείρησης; Ποια τα όρια της δεοντολογίας αυτής; Είναι αντικειμενική; Ποιοι οι άξονές της (προϋποθέσεις) της; Αυτά και διάφορα άλλα ερωτήματα αποτελούν την προβληματική για το θέμα της επιχειρησιακής ηθικής. Σκοπός, λοιπόν, της παρούσης, δεν είναι τόσο οι απαντήσεις, όσο ο προβληματισμός για την ηθική και την δεοντολογία στην σύγχρονη επιχείρηση. Με όπλα την φαντασία και την περιέργεια, οι σύγχρονες επιχειρήσεις καθορίζουν την δική τους δεοντολογία, τον δικό τους άγραφο νόμο λειτουργίας, ο οποίος δεν αναφέρεται πουθενά στα καταστατικά, εν τούτοις υπάρχει για να κατευθύνει την συμπεριφορά των ανθρώπων εντός της.