Business Ethics as Practice: Ethics as the Everyday Business of Business

In recent years, a succession of corporate scandals has rocked the international business community. As a result, many companies have invested considerable time, money, and effort on the development of ethics management programs. However, in many cases, such programs are nothing more than insurance policies against corporate liability, designed merely to limit the fallout of scandals should they occur. In Business Ethics as Practice, Mollie Painter-Morland urges us to take business ethics seriously by reconsidering the role of ethics management within organizations. She redefines the typical seven-step ethics management program from within – challenging the reader to reconsider what is possible within each aspect of this process. In doing so, she draws on the insights of Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and numerous contemporary organizational theorists and sociologists to create the space for the emergence of a morally responsive corporate ethos.

About the Author

MOLLIE PAINTER-MORLAND is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at DePaul University, Chicago. She is also Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where she was, for many years, Director of the Centre for Business and Professional Ethics. In this capacity she acted as ethics management consultant to various business corporations and the South African government. In 2006, she was awarded an International Ethics Award by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) for her contributions to the ethics profession internationally.