Taking Care of Business: Caring in Competitive Corporate Structures

Abstract

“Exactly how can a kindly ethic like caring be highly practical and compatible with standard business practice despite being aimed so high above the bottom line?” In a highly practical, down-to-earth tone this chapter addresses doubts about the application of care to business by suggesting that in fact care ethics does not pose the usual conflict between doing ethics and doing business found in other moral approaches. Care theory views caring and seeking profit as overlapping parts of the same sort of activity: using skills to act competently and even excellently in what businesses do. The chapter offers a practical, accessible means for converting care theory into a usable resource—an ethical “tool box” for fixing personnel problems and conflicts in the office setting as well as more thoughtful business decision making.