Abstract
Given a huge variety of international relations in the age of globalization, business ethics needs to take them seriously in a differentiated way with great sensitivity and sophisticated understanding. This essay proposes to structure the field of business ethics by distinguishing three levels of analysis and four types of international relations. It builds on Richard T. De George’s pioneering work as an early leader in the field of business ethics. It is hoped that such differentiation may help to better identify the ethical responsibilities of all actors in business and the economy. The first part explains the extended three-level conception of business ethics with four types of international relations. The second part shows De George’s contribution to substantiate this conceptual framework. And the third part discusses the significance of this framework for better ways of securing human rights in international relations.
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Notes
The University of Notre Dame established the endowed chair of “international business ethics” with the donation of Arthur and Mary O’Neil (Chicago) in 1992 and appointed me first as visiting professor and then as tenured faculty.
The international discussion on business ethics has also influenced the very term of business ethics. Because it can be misunderstood in a narrow sense as the ethics of business organizations, the term “business and economic ethics,” which clearly includes all three levels of analysis, has been coined and is now being adopted internationally (see Rossouw and Stückelberger 2011).
For this semantic simplification De George was later criticized by Marvin Brown who elaborated a rich concept of integrity in Corporate Integrity: Rethinking Organizational Ethics and Leadership (Brown 2005).
Similar to De George and others, I dealt with moral rights and business ethics already in the 1980s, particularly in my habilitation in business ethics on the moral right to a minimal standard of living in the national and international context (Enderle 1987). However, I discussed the obligations to fulfill this right only from the micro- (individual and family) and macro- (state and developed countries) perspective, but not from the meso- (enterprise) perspective.
Another indication of this widespread ignorance is the fact that the English translation Business and Economic Ethics: The Ethics of Economic Systems (2006) of Arthur Rich’s masterwork Wirtschaftsethik I and II (1984 and 1990) was barely noticed in the United States.
Other actors at the meso-level to explore in terms of international relations are: professional associations, trade unions, consumer associations, sports confederations, charities, research institutes, military formations, cultural, religious, and other civil society organizations.
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In Honor of Richard T. De George
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Enderle, G. Exploring and Conceptualizing International Business Ethics. J Bus Ethics 127, 723–735 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2182-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2182-z