Bring Back Philosophy: The Roots of Both Business and Ethics

Abstract

Managers face increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous situations that are more and more challenging to navigate. Ethical decision-making has become particularly complicated considering that codes, frameworks and protocols have proven deficient in resolving moral dilemmas. Managers’ unpreparedness to handle such challenges reflects the ineffectiveness of business ethics education, calling for new approaches towards training managers. This article makes a case for transforming business ethics education by taking it back to its roots. This implies the re-incorporation of its foundational discipline: philosophy. Philosophy offers a rigorous approach for decision-making, which helps managers face the unknown. It helps them analyse situations from different perspectives, reconsider how things are done and examine the underlying premises of their thinking. It can strengthen one of the most central managerial competencies: the ability to reason, especially ethically. As the foundational discipline of business, ethics and their intersect, philosophy is uniquely positioned to elevate business ethics education for managers at all levels. It can help current and future managers to reflect more deeply and critically on the ethical issues they face.

Introduction

Though it has become common practice to teach business ethics to managers and management students (Small, 2004), it remains uncommon practice to embed philosophy into business programmes; it is rarely taught as a standalone subject and is largely omitted from ethics courses. Indeed, what we see in ethics programmes has ‘little to do with philosophy’ (Ledoux, 2012, p. 15). Instead, there seems to be a ‘takeover of a philosophical discipline by non-philosophers’ (Seele, 2016, p. 86) causing concern that business ethics is becoming anti-philosophical (Hühn, 2015). Moreover, Ghoshal (2005) believes that management is plagued with false underlying premises, whereas Sandberg and Tsoukas (2011) argue that ‘most management theories are unable to capture the logic of practice because they are developed within the framework of scientific rationality’ (p. 338). Business ethics is not exempt from any of this: ‘the assumptions that underpin a particular way of understanding and teaching business ethics will actually prevent us from understanding some issues as moral matters’ (Trezise & Biesta, 2009, p. 46). All this contributes to the growing criticisms and concerns about business ethics education (e.g., Podolny, 2009; Woiceshyn, 1992) and encourages us to think about better ways to teach this field.

As a way to address conjectures and false assumptions in ethical decision-making, this article makes a case for bringing philosophy back to business. Many advocate for a philosophical approach towards the ethical development of managers (e.g., Collins & Latemore, 2002; Faldetta et al., 2022; Friedland, 2015; Goldman, 2009; Morris, 1997; Saarinen, 2008; Woiceshyn, 1992), and there certainly are many advantages to adopting such lens (Claes & Preston, 2009; Small, 2004). In fact, what philosophy can offer is distinct from all other disciplines (e.g., Fontrodona & Melé, 2002) because of how it relates to both ‘business’ and ‘ethics’. Though the objective of this article is not to provide an exhaustive list of reasons explaining how philosophy could contribute to managerial ethics, it highlights the discipline’s relevance and recommends philosophy as a potential remedy for some of the shortcomings of business ethics education.

The Link Between Philosophy and Business Ethics

Interestingly, philosophy has a unique relation to the fields of business, ethics and business ethics; ethics and management both stem from philosophy (Joullié, 2016; Luetge, 2013), as does the field of business ethics (Joullié & Spillane, 2016), yet—at the same time—business ethics is both a subset of ethics (Vogel, 1991) and a branch of management education (Trezise & Biesta, 2009). ‘Business schools thus find themselves in a rather awkward position: do they teach ethics as if it were just another vocational tool, like marketing or accounting? Or do they teach it in its true form, as an attempt to understand the nature and application of the greater good?’ (Friedland, 2009). We argue that the role of business ethics is not just to teach concepts, but to aid the ethical development of current or future managers; ‘do we want our students to know moral theory or to act morally?’ (Trezise & Biesta, 2009, p. 49). ‘Business ethics is more than the application of general ethical theories to cases or issues in business’ (De George, 1986, p. 423). ‘Inserting a few ethics courses into the curricula is likely to be ineffective’ (Woiceshyn, 1992, p. 80), and some are ‘concerned about the dangers of compartmentalization of business ethics’ (Morrell, 2004, p. 385). The field is often ‘instrumentalized’ in management (Ledoux, 2012) and the philosophical foundations of management and ethics are not properly taught (Windsor, 2015). Even though some disciplinary sub-themes such as logic and ethics might occasionally appear in business curricula (Small, 2004), these are just fragments of philosophy (Windsor, 2015) and ‘often miss a deeper philosophical reflection’ (Faldetta et al., 2022, p. 2). What is needed is a more comprehensive approach: full-fledged philosophy courses in business schools and management development programmes.

Philosophy as an Approach to Business Ethics

However, not everyone agrees that business ethics should pursue a philosophical direction; this ‘return to the roots’ may be perceived as ‘too theoretical’ and an unnecessary trade-off for theory instead of practice (Collins & Latemore, 2002). Perhaps managers would not get much done if they started thinking instead of acting: ‘to be philosophical when we should be ‘efficient’ or practical would be self-destructive’ (Segal, 2005, p. 10). Additionally, engaging with philosophy is rather difficult, unpleasant and leaves people feeling confused (Bolten, 2001). It can even seem as though management and philosophy have contradictory objectives: ‘the raison d’être of management is performance while philosophy pursues the truth’ (Ledoux, 2012, p. 17). No wonder managers tend to demonstrate little interest towards philosophy (Deslandes, 2016). Yet, Goldman (2009) attests that students recognize the value of philosophy once they engage in a course on the matter. Despite some scepticism, there appears to be a ‘philosophy boom in management’ (Claes & Preston, 2009, p. 69) and an emerging field of ‘philosophy of management’ (e.g., Small, 2004). There is an entire journal devoted to the matter and, within that Philosophy of Management journal, ethics is the most popular subset of philosophy (Erkal & Vandekerckhove, 2021). Scholars continue to defend philosophical approaches towards business ethics (e.g., Berkey, 2022), and Seele (2016) goes as far as recommending to start of a new field called ‘philosophical business ethics’. Such an idea could certainly benefit managers in numerous ways.

One of the main benefits of philosophy is its ability to support the ethical development and decision-making of current and future managers. It encourages them to question their usual way of doing things and to put their practices into perspective by understanding ‘the frameworks in which we carry out our day-to-day activities in the workplace’ (Segal, 2005, p. 21). It is a tool that can be beneficial at all levels of management, from junior positions requiring micro decision-making to C-level positions defining large-scale repercussions such as a company’s direction. ‘Philosophy helps managers make decisions when confronted with dilemmas’ (Ledoux, 2012, p. 15) and can clarify ethical assumptions ignored or misunderstood by students and managers (De George, 1986). It is thought-provoking (Goldman, 2009) and ‘seeks to strengthen the art of thinking and the instrument of reason in managers’ (Saarinen, 2008, p. 5). Since it has become very complex to navigate ethical decision-making in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous conditions (Gerras, 2010), managers can turn to philosophy to confront the unknown (Saarinen, 2008). It serves as a tool for rigour when numbers are not available (Auger, 2021), making it especially relevant to managers who need to consider uncountable variables—so high in the multitude that they cannot be computed into a simplistic formula or framework for ethical decision-making. ‘Philosophical reflection can help managers understand that, contrary to what some organizations’ ethical charters or codes of conducts might lead them to believe, there are often no clear-cut answers to the many ethical problems they face’ (Ledoux, 2012, p. 16). Furthermore, it pushes people to think outside of themselves; ‘one of the great benefits of philosophy thus comes from the attempt to enter the mindset of another person or age’ (Collins & Latemore, 2002, p. 56). This is helpful for managers in particular who, in a globalized world, need to consider increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds and value sets in their ethical decision-making (Ledoux, 2012).

Other than ethical development, the exact contributions of philosophy-based business ethics programmes are not yet fully understood. ‘The trouble is, deans who experiment with new courses can influence rankings only in the long run’ (Podolny, 2009, p. 64), and there is a lack of studies explaining the impact of such business ethics programmes. Some suggest that they could aid the development of managerial competencies such as critical thinking (Small, 2004), introspection, empathy, conceptualization and questioning competencies (Davoine & Schumacher, 2009). It ‘supports people’s development of their own personal philosophies and empowers them to reach their highest human aspirations and ideals’ (Brendel, 2014). Philosophy can also shed light on the meaning of business vocabulary employed in management contexts (De George, 1986) and, overall, ‘philosophical skills, an understanding of philosophical principles or exposure to philosophical discussion can contribute to improved management practice’ (Platts & Harris, 2011, p. 19). Yet the exact impact depends on a variety of factors such as the pedagogical methods employed (Ledoux, 2012), the type of management audience being addressed (Claes & Preston, 2009) and the kind of philosophy that is embedded into the programme.

How Philosophy Can Be Incorporated into Business Ethics

All kinds of philosophical paradigms and theories exist (Faldetta et al., 2022), and there are many ways to incorporate philosophy into business ethics. Often, scholars draw ideas from specific philosophers who concretely pronounce themselves on a select range of business ethics topics (Blok, 2021). For example, Deslandes (2012) looks at the Socratic care-of-self ethic, Trezise and Biesta (2009) draw from Levinas, Small (2004) looks at Plato’s Theory of Justice and Fontrodona and Melé (2002) draw from Aquinas and Pope John Paul II. Many support teaching the ideas of ancient philosophers (e.g., Brendel, 2014), especially as a way to ‘build on the shoulders’ of giants. Why start from scratch or reinvent the wheel, if some of history’s top thinkers have already laid out the foundations for most ethical matters?

Another approach towards embedding philosophy into business ethics is through thinking tools or methods which we will here call ‘philosophizing’. Philosophizing is a mode of inquiry (Beltramini, 2018). It is ‘reflecting, questioning and recognizing presuppositions that are governing one’s life, one’s work and one’s society’ (Collins & Latemore, 2002, p. 57). Philosophizing is considered indispensable to the practice of management (Segal & Bruce, 2017). Friedland (2015) outlines four philosophical forms of investigation: (i) deduction, (ii) induction, (iii) grounding prescriptive claims and ideals and (iv) conceptual clarification and interpretive exposition. On the other hand, Nash (1981) suggests ‘a set of 12 questions that draw on traditional philosophical frameworks but that avoid the level of abstraction normally associated with formal moral reasoning’. Others yet propose Levinassian approaches to teaching business ethics (Trezise & Biesta, 2009). Most commonly, however, professors and academics endorse the Socratic Dialogue Method as a greatly beneficial ‘philosophizing’ tool for business ethics (Bolten, 2001; Morrell, 2004).

Other than the teaching of philosophical ideas and the practice of philosophizing, there are many other ways of incorporating philosophy into business ethics. A historical approach can be implemented to understand the evolution of thought and how society has come to think as it thinks (Small, 2004) or investigative methods can be used to dissect words and their meaning (De George, 1986). There are countless ways to accord a place for philosophy in business ethics and to make it a tool or method for the ethical development of managers.

Conclusion

To summarize, philosophy is not only the history and origin of management, ethics and business ethics; it can also become the future of these three fields. It has the potential to elevate business ethics by allowing managers and management students to comprehend the underlying ideas and principles of ethical decision-making. Philosophy lays the foundations for management, ethics and their intersect and, thus, we believe that business ethics programmes are called to be philosophical. Adam Smith himself was a philosopher (Hühn, 2015) and by understanding his mind—and that of countless other philosophers—we can educate managers to think more deeply, critically and, most of all, ethically.

Though other disciplines, such as sociology (Brinkmann, 2019) or anthropology (Beltramini, 2018), can also be incorporated into business ethics, none of these fields can replace the value brought by philosophy. Philosophy’s unique relation to business ethics—and the fact that it is ‘mother of all knowledge’ (Friedland, 2012)—leads us to believe that it could contribute in an idiosyncratic manner. It is a response to failing approaches towards the ethical development of managers and should be considered as a critical component of business ethics programmes. These are some of the reasons why business ethics should go back to its roots and reintroduce philosophy.