On business ethics: values hierarchy and the role of research

Resumo

The traditional mistrust towards business managers is based on different scandals such as Enron or Worldcom. However, since the 60’s, a more social view of business starts to prevail. In this regard, business ethics play a paramount role in trying to conduct business activities ethically. But, the practice of ethics is not easy. Further researches are needed to attempt to approach the truth. This paper aims to contribute to the development of business ethics by looking into different aspects on ethics application such as values hierarchy and ethical actions assessment. We explain that managers would appreciate a ranking of ethical values and actions in order to behave ethically, and especially in a financial crisis context. Then we look into the feasibility to obtain this ranking, and question how empirical research could help.