Fahrlässigkeit – ein weisser Fleck in der Unternehmensethik

Much inappropriate ethical behavior arises through misconduct, whose ethical questionability is either not at all or only insufficiently represented in the consciousness of the actors. From a business ethics perspective, such misconduct can be described as 'negligence'. Through the connection with the concept of errors in human factors research, the concept of 'negligence' is expanded compared to the legal view by shifting the perspective from avoiding guilt to assuming corporate ethical responsibility. A lack of responsibility manifests itself in 'mistakes', all of which characterize negligent behavior. This article integrates the mistakes into a process model of ethical decision-making. To avoid mistakes, an in-house 'error culture' is proposed, in which mistakes are seen as a learning opportunity for operational improvement.