Integrating Ethics All the Way Through: The Issue of Moral Agency Reconsidered

Journal of Business Ethics · 2006 · Volume 66 · Issue 2

Abstract

Integrating “ethics all the way through” an organization suggests that the issue of moral agency and the corporation be reconsidered. Is the corporation a moral agent in some sense or is it no more than the people who are a part of the organization? Views which stress the role of the individual lose sight of the whole corporate entity, and views which think of the corporation as a collective lose sight of the individual. A view which rejects both these alternatives sees the corporation as a type of community where there is a dynamic tension between the corporation as a whole and the individuals who are part of the organization. This view has implications relative to the focus of efforts to integrate ethics throughout an organization.

Keywords

Business Ethic, Moral Responsibility, Moral Agency, Corporate Responsibility, Moral Evaluation

Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.