Contextualizing Business Ethics: Anomie and Social Life
探讨商业伦理如何反映当代社会的道德不确定性，分析现代主义与后现代主义两种主题，并以企业伦理准则为例说明组织实践中的共识困境。
The objective of this paper is to explore how the current interest in Business Ethics can be located within an analysis of contemporary society which takes into account the prevalence of moral uncertainty along with the concomitant desire to (re)establish some form of normative order. As such, Business Ethics may be seen as a socially constructed "field" of study which reflects broader changes and controversies within society. Yet as a body of knowledge, Business Ethics articulates epistemological doubts. Two distinctive themes in Business Ethics discourse are considered-the modernist/rationalist and the postmodemist/relativist. It is argued that in different ways, each can be seen as both an expression of, and a reaction to, the increasing incidence of anomie in society. The implications for organizational practices are then considered through the example of Corporate Codes of Ethics and the problem of establishing consensus where the grounds for any claim to moral authority are problematic.