Decolonising Business Ethics from Eurocentric Philosophy and Advancing Radical Perspectives on Pluriversal African Business Ethics

This chapter argues that decolonisation of business ethics from Eurocentric praxis is central to the advancement of African business ethics. This twin project draws its theoretical foundation from the work of Mazrui (The seven biases of eurocentrism: A diagnostic introduction. In Kanth RK (ed.), The challenge of eurocentrism: Global perspectives, policy, and prospects (edited). Palgrave, 2009) and methodological foundation from the empirical works of Kolk and Rivera-Santos (Bus Soc, 57(3), 415–436, 2018) and Frederick (2007). Kolk and Rivera-Santos (Bus Soc, 57(3), 415–436, 2018) attempt to locate business management research on Africa by doing a systematic review of articles from key international journals from 2010 onwards, whereas Frederick’s (2007) content analysis of Business Ethics: A European Review journal articles from 1998 to 2006 reveals a Eurocentric bias. There are attempts to Africanise European business ethics and African knowledge about business ethics, but this remains within the narrow silo of colonial ethnography of local practices. Africanisation of business ethics is an attempt to translate Eurocentric business ethics and its practices into African condition. Therefore, it is important to locate and advance African business ethics by decolonising business ethics from Eurocentric approaches. The question of African business ethics needs to be critically articulated as an agenda by taking problems, prospects and possibilities in terms of its language, philosophy and methodology.