Teropitka Business and Finance

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In the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century in countries with emerging Western tradition which eventually came to be called “applied ethics”. After three turns provided by the philosophy in the last century (linguistic, hermeneutical and pragmatic) was added a fourth, the torque applied and in this case, one of the areas of moral philosophy.
At that time, the problem of the moral foundations of what remained, the main topic of ethics, but next to it began to gain ground on the need for daily life, won in the process of justification, the need to design ethics applied to different spheres of social life that would lead to different applied ethics.
Philosophy began to take a new object of study: biotechnology, size of business organizations, economic activity, development of peoples, the practice of professions, the structure of the media, education in citizenship and other matters from everyday life looking for answers.
Adela Cortina, one of his work done on this subject, raises about the rise of the same … “applied ethics were born by an imperative of social reality that needed answers multidisciplinary morally pluralist societies” …
The answers to this social reality were coming primarily from the various governments, first in the U.S., later in Europe and then elsewhere. Ethics committees were formed of different types (local and national) to address biomedical questions, problems posed by the development of technologies to issues relating to good corporate governance, to the operations of the media, etc.. Their task is to develop and document containing recommendations and ethical guidelines, not legal standards design.
A second social instance from which demand the use of applied ethics, and assisting in its preparation, are experts in various social fields, as these, first, face problems for which solutions are not automatic and need to be considered with others and on the other hand, there are also very often, many-minded, who want to revitalize his business, or wish to be exercised with dignity and transparency.
From this desire (for excellence in business) arise committees of hospitals, businesses, various professional fields, the concern of some professional bodies to complement the one ethical code of conduct, the development of ethical codes, the call for ethical audit all with the aim of shaping the character of excellence of the activity, which is formed by values, principles and virtues, not the mere monitoring of laws.
In this regard Adela Cortina argues that: … “with all this is not evade legal obligations by ethical codes but develop a corporatist corporatist self-regulation from the expertise of specialists and also counting on ethical and representatives of those affected by exercise training: with” outsiders “in the art “…
Finally, public opinion is another of the bodies and claiming that simultaneously develops ethical responses to open questions. People demand to be respected in the various fields, various activities are at your service, since they are the ones that give meaning to the existence of the community, but also realizing that they must take responsibility and participate directly in different areas well as experts in the field or through public opinion.
The formation of applied ethics is a form of knowledge and irrevocable act, precisely because they were born at the behest of a single instance but by the demand of citizens, politicians, experts and ethical, but also must take into account that requirements have been born of social reality, now is not just philosophical disciplines, but are part of this reality, joining it in different ways.
From the characteristics of this period and the conditions to be created is the first arising applied ethics: bioethics, ethics and communication, economic and business ethics, development ethics, environmental ethics, professional ethics and a whole range of reflections ethical concerns about central phenomena in human life.

The Business Ethics, “business ethics” as one of the variations of applied ethics, appears strongly in the United States, although much of the European world as the preferred label “business ethics”, perhaps because American capitalism sees the company as a business-friendly and if you choose to shoot, while the European company invites people to understand as a human group that carries out a valuable task for society.

This idea of the new corporate ethic spread to Europe, Latin America and East, although some people were astonished at the idea of linking two terms as “ethics” and “enterprise”, forgetting that the founder of economic liberalism Adam Smith, a professor moral philosophy and believed the economy was an activity capable of generating greater freedom and greater happiness therefore it is not for betting on economic liberalism, but to remember that the industrial company did not come back to ethical values.

After the corruption scandals in North America (Watergate, Lockheed, Gulf Oil, etc.) and some other countries like Spain, the company points out that trust is a resource too low, when this is the union of the members of the same, as emblematic companies strengthen their surveillance of his own conduct, nor can we think that ethics is reduced to phenomena of corruption or longer important if they decrease or disappear, beyond fashion, ethics is imposed as a necessity .

Believing that the conception of business ethics is confined essentially to strict compliance with legal standards and adherence to international regulations, is a wrong thinking, because of this many companies stuck to manual detailing what employees may or may not do in specific areas but these areas in business ethics have been expanded, because not only cover the stock of a company on how to obey the law and treat their employees, but also determine the nature and quality of the relationship established with investors, customers, isolated, suppliers, community, environment and even future generations.

According to one specialist in this topic, Domenec Mele, in business ethics textbooks are three versions on the way action is related ethics and business:

* Limited Economism: supreme criterion is to maximize profits, but accepted as a constraint to meet the law and in some cases the social demands of the environment.

* Dualism rationalist introduces the need to justify every decision by ethical judgments are made based on some theory of rationalist ethics that define what is right.

* Moderate realism: human capacity to accept a moderate knowledge of reality.

In the first version is not intended to both incorporate ethics into business decisions and comply with what is legal or socially acceptable. Its limitation lies precisely to reduce morality to legality or social demands.

In the second version is resolved through ethical theories, ethical dilemmas, to say what is ethically acceptable and what should be rejected in essence this set of theories based on the idea that reason is aimed at finding or creating principles or values to act properly.

In the third and final classification is considered that the action affects the people involved in it from the perspective of human development, hence every action has an ethical component because every action helps or hurts those who receive its effects and first place on the holder. In this version of business ethics is not reduced as a policy instrument to resolve dilemmas and questionable situations, but appears as a guideline for any event.

The author acknowledges that in many manuals are frequently ethical approaches, theological, or from the virtues, but he distances himself from this classification because in his view, the key issue is not so much the opposition duties – consequences – virtues, but the way business is conceived and how it intends to integrate ethics into action.