IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/buseth/v31y2022i4p1185-1192.html

Justifying ethical values: A purposive ethics for managers

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Spillane
  • Jean‐Etienne Joullié

Abstract

This essay addresses the question of how managers justify ethical values. Traditionally, ethical values have been justified by appeals to intuition expressed injunctively and judged to be obligatory. This tradition has led to ethical relativism and a widespread scepticism about the possibility of basing ethics on reasoning. There are, however, alternative strategies for ethical justification in which conclusions are derived deductively from purposive propositions. This essay revisits the notion of reason, purpose and ethical justification in management to outline a purposive ethics for managers. The implications for management practice and relevance for management researchers of such an ethics are presented and defended.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Spillane & Jean‐Etienne Joullié, 2022. "Justifying ethical values: A purposive ethics for managers," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 1185-1192, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:31:y:2022:i:4:p:1185-1192
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12460
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12460
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/beer.12460?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pablo Cardona & Carlos Rey, 2022. "Management by Missions," Springer Books, Springer, edition 2, number 978-3-030-83780-8, October.
    2. Andrew West, 2008. "Sartrean Existentialism and Ethical Decision-Making in Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 15-25, August.
    3. Pablo Cardona & Carlos Rey, 2008. "Mission management tools," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Management by Missions, chapter 8, pages 124-144, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Christine Doran, 2016. "Managerialism: An Ideology and its Evolution," International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, ToKnowPress, vol. 5(1), pages 81-97.
    5. Gabriel Abend, 2014. "The Moral Background: An Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10263, December.
    6. repec:isv:jouijm:v:5:y:2015:i:1:p:81-97 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer, 2006. "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 71-88, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter E. Mudrack, 2026. "Ethical Implications of the Authoritarian Personality," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 1038-1051, April.
    2. Wassim J. Aloulou & Eidah A. Algarni & Veland Ramadani & Mathew (Mat) Hughes, 2023. "Passionate to be a social entrepreneur in Saudi Arabia: A moderated mediation analysis of social entrepreneurial intention," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 698-712, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter G. Dominick & Dimitra Iordanoglou & Gregory Prastacos & Richard R. Reilly, 2021. "Espoused Values of the “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For”: Essential Themes and Implementation Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 69-88, September.
    2. Ivan Malbasic & Carlos Rey & Nikolina Posaric, 2018. "Congruence Between Personal And Organizational Mission: The Role Of Balanced Organizational Values," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 27(2), pages 545-563, december.
    3. Vitaliy Roud & Thomas Wolfgang Thurner, 2018. "The Influence of State‐Ownership on Eco‐Innovations in Russian Manufacturing Firms," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(5), pages 1213-1227, October.
    4. Andrew Lynn, 2022. "Ethics, Economics, and the Specter of Naturalism: The Enduring Relevance of the Harmony Doctrine School of Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 661-673, July.
    5. Irene Chu & Mai Chi Vu, 2022. "The Nature of the Self, Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 245-262, September.
    6. Islam, Muhammad Azizul & Deegan, Craig & Haque, Shamima, 2021. "Corporate human rights performance and moral power: A study of retail MNCs’ supply chains in Bangladesh," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Antonio Martos-Pedrero & David Jiménez-Castillo & Francisco Joaquín Cortés-García, 2022. "Examining drivers and outcomes of corporate social responsibility in agri-food firms," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(3), pages 79-86.
    8. Samia Moumade & Aurélie Hemonnet-Goujot & Pierre Valette-Florence, 2023. "Speaking up in Brand Activism : The Impact of Perceived Brand Legitimacy on Consumer Behavior," Post-Print hal-04160966, HAL.
    9. Andersen, Sophie Esmann & Johansen, Trine Susanne, 2021. "Corporate citizenship: Challenging the corporate centricity in corporate marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 686-699.
    10. Nuria Toledano & Tetsuya Horie, 2025. "Responsible Entrepreneurship Through Public Eyes: A Qualitative Exploration of Moral and Sustainable Expectations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-23, September.
    11. Veronica Devenin & Constanza Bianchi, 2018. "Soccer fields? What for? Effectiveness of corporate social responsibility initiatives in the mining industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 866-879, September.
    12. Yuan-Shuh Lii & May-Ching Ding & Chih-Huang Lin, 2018. "Fair or Unfair: The Moderating Effect of Sustainable CSR Practices on Anticipatory Justice Following Service Failure Recovery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, December.
    13. Jon Reast & François Maon & Adam Lindgreen & Joëlle Vanhamme, 2013. "Legitimacy-Seeking Organizational Strategies in Controversial Industries: A Case Study Analysis and a Bidimensional Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 139-153, November.
    14. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    15. Gordon Liu & Catherine Liston-Heyes & Wai-Wai Ko, 2010. "Employee Participation in Cause-Related Marketing Strategies: A Study of Management Perceptions from British Consumer Service Industries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 195-210, March.
    16. Gagalyuk, Taras & Chatalova, Lioudmila & Kalyuzhnyy, Oleksandr & Ostapchuk, Igor, 2021. "Broadening the scope of instrumental motivations for CSR disclosure: An illustration for agroholdings in transition economies," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 717-737.
    17. Scherer, Andreas, 2013. "Legitimacy Strategies in a Globalized World: Organizing for Complex and Heterogeneous Environments," Papers 566, World Trade Institute.
    18. J. Mahadeo & V. Oogarah-Hanuman & T. Soobaroyen, 2011. "A Longitudinal Study of Corporate Social Disclosures in a Developing Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(4), pages 545-558, December.
    19. Giorgia Miotto & Marc Polo López & Josep Rom Rodríguez, 2019. "Gender Equality and UN Sustainable Development Goals: Priorities and Correlations in the Top Business Schools’ Communication and Legitimation Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Andrew Crane & Sarah Glozer, 2016. "Researching Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: Themes, Opportunities and Challenges," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(7), pages 1223-1252, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:31:y:2022:i:4:p:1185-1192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26946424 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.