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Reasoned Moral Agreement: Applying Discourse Ethics within Organizations

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  • Stansbury, Jason

Abstract

Whether at the executive or the line-management levels, businesspeople face moral decisions that cannot be easily resolved with reference to a shared ethos, whether because of diversity of ethea in the organization or its environment, or because the organization's ethos is inadequate for the problem at hand. These decisions are made more common by the changing norms of a pluralistic business environment, and require collective moral deliberation to be adequately resolved. Discourse ethics ideally characterizes the form of valid collective moral deliberation. I argue that accommodation for the limitations of actual discourse makes discourse ethics, conceived in terms of the rules of practical discourse, practical for realizing improvements in the openness and validity of moral decision-making over states in which these rules are flagrantly violated. These rules have normative implications at the organizational level for the integrity approach to corporate ethics programs, and at the individual level for ethical leadership.

Suggested Citation

  • Stansbury, Jason, 2009. "Reasoned Moral Agreement: Applying Discourse Ethics within Organizations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 33-56, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:19:y:2009:i:01:p:33-56_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Johannes Brinkmann, 2013. "Combining Risk and Responsibility Perspectives: First Steps," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(4), pages 567-583, February.
    2. Dr. Shiang-Min Meng, 2013. "The Application of Mengzi to Today’s Ethical Criteria for Maritime Leadership in Taiwan," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(5), pages 1227-1235, May.
    3. Christian Voegtlin, 2011. "Development of a Scale Measuring Discursive Responsible Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 57-73, January.
    4. Cynthia Stohl & Michael Etter & Scott Banghart & DaJung Woo, 2017. "Social Media Policies: Implications for Contemporary Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 413-436, May.
    5. Cedric E. Dawkins, 2021. "An Agonistic Notion of Political CSR: Melding Activism and Deliberation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 5-19, April.
    6. Christian Voegtlin & Moritz Patzer & Andreas Scherer, 2012. "Responsible Leadership in Global Business: A New Approach to Leadership and Its Multi-Level Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Martínez, Cecilia & Skeet, Ann Gregg & Sasia, Pedro M., 2021. "Managing organizational ethics: How ethics becomes pervasive within organizations," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 83-92.
    8. Mar Pérezts & Jean-Philippe Bouilloud & Vincent Gaulejac, 2011. "Serving Two Masters: The Contradictory Organization as an Ethical Challenge for Managerial Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 33-44, March.
    9. Richard Arend, 2013. "Ethics-focused dynamic capabilities: a small business perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 1-24, June.
    10. R. Edward Freeman & Jared Harris, 2009. "Creating Ties That Bind," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(4), pages 685-692, October.
    11. Montgomery Van Wart, 2014. "Contemporary Varieties of Ethical Leadership in Organizations," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(5), pages 27-45, September.
    12. William Rehg, 2023. "Business Firms as Moral Agents: A Kantian Response to the Corporate Autonomy Problem," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(4), pages 999-1009, April.
    13. Kristian Alm & Mark Brown, 2021. "John Rawls’ Concept of the Reasonable: A Study of Stakeholder Action and Reaction Between British Petroleum and the Victims of the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 621-637, September.

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