Business ethics research involves examining how ethical decisions are managed within a company.
There are many different types of business ethics research and there are many different ethical systems in the world. Ethics don’t necessarily help a company make more money, but it can promote company pride and maintain a sense of personal morality. Business ethics research often investigates how ethics is applied today, which is a descriptive type of research, but can also be used to examine the role ethics should play in business, which can be seen as a prescriptive form of research. Almost all researchers understand, to some extent, that behavior qualified as ethical depends on culture and society, therefore it is not necessarily a universal truth.
Among the different types of research on business ethics, one of the most important is research on macro-scale effects. While almost anyone can understand that operating a business that breaks the law or exploits human life is wrong, it can be more difficult to see how decisions made about running a business can affect people around the world. Deciding who to hire and from where, for example, can be considered an important ethical decision. Money can save or ruin lives, and unethical business practices can ruin entire areas.
Another type of research on business ethics involves examining how ethical decisions are managed within a company and in what contexts ethical norms can be violated. It has been shown that people who feel powerful tend to act in ways that even they themselves consider unethical. Likewise, people who do not feel responsible for their actions often violate their own moral standards. Companies can use research on when and why people act unethically to implement checks and balances in the decision-making process, making it harder for people to feel empowered to act unethically.
Research on business ethics is often divided into areas such as sales, marketing, and human resources, but all of these different types of research ask the same questions about ethics and morality, although they approach the topic from different perspectives. Even with every business area covered, only a perspective that looks at the company as a whole, from both an internal and external perspective, can truly say whether an action is ethical. No company can predict all possible outcomes of a potential decision, but companies can make a good faith effort to investigate and act in a manner that they believe is moral. One of the most important steps that business ethics research has taken is the widespread acceptance of the idea that ethics and good business are complementary and not incompatible values for a company.