Business ethics as personal ethics

Abstract

Business ethics is a major issue for most, if not all companies. This paper attempts a clarification of the composite of forces and influences involved in the business ethics world. Its performance is then assessed, resulting in a relative failure of the huge efforts of the business world in recent decades, as the public doubts the moral sincerity of managers. The diagnostics of this credibility disease points to a flawed trust on the mechanic and judicial approach to ethics, preferring rules and measurements to character and intentions. The solution presented is the use of a virtue-based ethics, returning to the personal elements of morality.