Ethical Competence for Decision Makers and Organizations
Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos
Ethical issues are becoming increasingly important in business and marketing. Private organizations and companies sign contracts with clients and suppliers, hire people, establish themselves in unique circumstances, market products, etc. How this is done has a tremendous impact on how to succeed in business. Modern business today has a larger share of capital in intangibles such as brand and goodwill, and thus companies become more dependent on proper handling of moral issues in order to avoid scandals that could be very costly. Ethics is also important for the public sector. State and municipal agencies and organizations base their entire existence on principles. Actions that work against or that simply fail to comply with basic principles of government organizations can be disastrous for authority and devastating for workers and citizens.
The purpose of this project is neither to analyze why there are moral problems in business nor why these problems are important for the organizations involved, for customers, employees, shareholders and society. These issues have been addressed in depth previously and are well analyzed. We want this project to focus on if there is something concrete that can be done to take care of real moral problems in everyday business activities, and if so: what? Can we for example be better at dealing with moral issues? Can we learn to find solutions to moral problems that work well for all parties involved? And how would we efficiently and effectively go about acquiring such a capability?
