Business Ethics and Corporate Governance

CHAPTER 2

Concepts and Theories of Business Ethics

INTRODUCTION

We have already seen in the introductory chapter that the word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethikos meaning character or custom. Today we use the word ethos in a different connotation meaning a characteristic, or attitude of a group of people, culture and so on. When we talk of ‘business ethos’, we mean the attitude, culture and the manner of doing business of the business community. Philosophers generally distinguish ‘ethics’ from ‘morality’. To them while ‘morality’ refers to human conduct and values, ‘ethics’ refers to the study of human character or behaviour in relation to moral values, that is, the study of what is morally right or morally wrong. In ordinary parlance, ...