{"id":44,"date":"2013-11-07T17:59:27","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T16:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/?p=44"},"modified":"2015-04-08T16:49:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T15:49:50","slug":"do-we-need-to-discuss-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/2013\/11\/07\/do-we-need-to-discuss-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk About Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IESE<\/a>We kick-off with this entry\u00a0our new blog dedicated to matters relating to business ethics<\/strong> and the professional and social context in which executives and businesses function.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Some may ask themselves, \u201cBut why do we need to talk about ethics<\/strong>? Isn\u2019t the concept a bit pass\u00e9?\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, if you look at academia, you could find arguments supporting this critical stance. After all, \u201ccorporate social responsibility\u201d and other similar concepts have replaced \u201cbusiness ethics.\u201d<\/strong> In addition, recently concepts such as \u201csustainability\u201d and \u201csustainable development\u201d have become more common. It would seem as if the expression \u201cbusiness ethics\u201d has a moralizing tone<\/strong> that is unappealing, compared to these other more scientifically manageable and politically correct concepts.<\/p>\n

In addition, if we take a look at the business world, at least in Europe, it is more common to find directors of social responsibility than of business ethics<\/strong>. Furthermore companies publish reports on social responsibility, more and more often referring to them as sustainability reports.<\/p>\n

However, with just a glance at the front page of the newspaper, much of what we read is related to ethics, or more precisely, the lack thereof: fines and penalties for misconduct, espionage and information leaks, corruption scandals between politicians and public officials\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"20111014<\/a>When I speak to people, the issues that worry them the most about work are usually in essence related to ethics<\/strong>. Many are fed-up because they have felt compelled to act against their conscience<\/strong>, because they are caught between conflicting loyalties that they don\u2019t know how to overcome, or because they are lacking support from their superiors or company to express their concerns and deal with these problems.<\/p>\n

So it is not sustainability or social responsibility that keeps people up at night, but rather ethics.\u00a0<\/strong>For this reason, at IESE we don\u2019t shy away from speaking about ethics. While the Business Ethics Department has been an important part of the school for many years, given the subject\u2019s pervasive nature, we ensure that it has a place in many other courses and programs as well. After all, ethics is one of the pillars of the school in its mission to train leaders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Certainly it is possible to discuss social responsibility without dealing with ethics<\/strong>. The motivations for doing so might be various others: concerns about image and reputation, market position, financial interests or legal restrictions<\/strong>. Sustainability, however, risks becoming void to the point of converting self-perpetuation into its sole purpose. However, we can all come-up with examples of companies and activities that have lasted through time \u2013 and as such can be considered sustainable \u2013 yet are anything but ethical.<\/b><\/p>\n

For this reason, it is critical to think about ethics as one more criteria to guide companies\u2019 actions<\/strong>. Beyond being one more criteria, however, it is the<\/i> criteria<\/strong> where we find the raison d\u2019\u00eatre, and as such, it gives meaning to our deepest actions<\/strong>.\u00a0If we forget about ethics, we become a bit more superficial.<\/p>\n

A poem by T.S. Elliot comes to mind, \u201cWhere is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge. Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?\u201d We might rephrase, saying instead, \u201cWhere are the ethics we have lost in social responsibility?\u00a0 Where is the social responsibility that we have lost in sustainability?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We kick-off with this entry\u00a0our new blog dedicated to matters relating to business ethics and the professional and social context in which executives and businesses function. Some may ask themselves, \u201cBut why do we need to talk about ethics? Isn\u2019t the concept a bit pass\u00e9?\u201d Indeed, if you look at academia, you could find arguments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":867,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-ethics","megacategoria-mc-business-ethics-and-corporate-social-responsibility"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}