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What Ethics Is Not

business ethics Graphics courtesy of MediumOpens in new window

It has been argued by some social scientists that there is a natural tendency to overlay our wants, needs, and beliefs on an ethical issue, only to obfuscate the facts and undermine an ethical line of reasoning.

Perhaps the best way to understand ethics is to understand what it is not. Two of the biggest challenges to identifying ethical standards relate to questions about what the standards should be based on and how we apply those standards in specific situations.

Experts on ethics agree that the identification of ethical standards can be very difficult, but they have reached some agreement on what ethics is not.

At the same time, these areas of agreement suggest why it may be challenging to obtain consensus across countries and regions as to “what is ethical?”

The following five-point excerpt from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara UniversityOpens in new window offers a look at what ethics is not.

  • Ethics is not the same as feelings. Feelings provide important information for our ethical choices. Some people have highly developed habits that make them feel bad when they do something wrong, but many people feel good even though they are doing something wrong.

    And often our feelings will tell us it is uncomfortable to do the right thing if it is hard.
  • Ethics is not following the law. A good system of law does incorporate many ethical standards, but law can deviate from what is ethical. Law can become ethically corrupt, as some totalitarian regimes have made it. Law can be a function of power alone and designed to serve the interests of narrow groups. Law may have a difficult time designing or enforcing standards in some important areas, and may be slow to address new problems.
  • Ethics is not following culturally accepted norms. Some cultures are quite ethical, but others become corrupt—or blind to certain ethical concerns (as the United States was to slavery before the Civil War). “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” is not a satisfactory ethical standard.
  • Ethics is not science. Social and natural science can provide important data to help us make better ethical choices. But science alone does not tell us what we ought to do. Science may provide an explanation for what humans are like. But ethics provides reasons for how humans ought to act. And just because something is scientifically or technologically possible, it may not be ethical to do it.
So, what is business ethics?

Business ethics is the application of general ethical ideas to business behavior. Business ethicsOpens in new window is not a special set of ethical ideas different from ethics in general and applicable to business.

  • If dishonesty is considered to be unethical and immoral, then anyone in business who is dishonest with stakeholders—employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, or competitors—is acting unethically and immorally.
  • If protecting others from harm is considered to be ethical, then an organization that recalls a dangerously defective product is acting in an ethical way.

To be considered ethical, business must draw its ideas about what is proper behavior from the same sources as everyone else in society. Business should not try to make up its own definitions of what is right and wrong.

Employees and leaders may believe at times that they are permitted or even encouraged to apply special or weaker ethical rules to business situations, but society does not condone or permit such an exception.

See also:
  1. De George, R. T. (1993). Competing with integrity in internal business. New York, NY: London, England: Macmillan, Collier; and Solomon, R. C. (1991).
  2. Brinkmann, J., & Sims, R. R. (2001). Stakeholder-sensitive business ethics teaching. Teaching Business Ethics, 5(2), 171 – 193.
  3. Schmidt, D. (2008, October). Isn’t business ethics an oxymoron? Inc.; Holder, F. L. (2014, February). Is “business ethics” An oxymoron? FTI Journal.; Mayer, D. (2015, May 23). Is “business ethics” An oxymoron?.
  4. McDonald, G., & Zepp, R. (1990). What should be done? A practical approach to business ethics. Management Decision, 28(1), 9 – 13. P. 9.
  5. Kirrane, D. E. (1990, November). Managing values: A systematic approach to business ethics. Training and Development Journal, 44 (11), 53 – 60.
  6. MacDonald, C. Four myths about business ethics; Zwilling, M. (2013). 7 myths about ethics which will hurt your business.
  7. Stone, C. D. (1975). Where the law ends. New York, NY: Harper.
  8. Taiwo, B. (2019). Why ethical problems occur in business.
  9. Arnold, D. G., Beauchamp, T. I., & Bowie, N. (2012). Ethical theory and business (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; Hartman, L., P., DesJardins, J., & MacDonald, C. (2017). Business ethics: Decision-making for personal integrity and social responsibility (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  10. Boatright, J.R., & Smith, J. D. (2016). Ethics and the conduct of business (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
  11. Solomon, R. C. (1992). Ethics and excellence: Cooperation and integrity in business. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, p. xxiii.
  12. Alzola, M. (2015). Virtuous persons and virtuous actions in business ethics and organizational research. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(3), 287 – 318.
  13. Weaver, G., Trevino, L., & Agle, B. (2005). Somebody I look up to: Ethical role models in organizations. Organizational Dynamics, 34(4), 313 – 330.
  14. Uhl-Bien, M., & Carsten, M. (2007). Being ethical when the boss is not. Organizational Dynamics, 36(2), 187 – 2001.
  15. Johnson, C. E. (2005). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE.
  16. Johnson, C. E. (2006). Best practices in ethical leadership, 2007. In J. Conger & R. Riggio (Eds.), The practice of leadership: Developing the next generation of leaders (pp. 150 – 171). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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