Business ethics is increasingly paid attention to in the public debate.
The rapid changes in business conditions, due to changing institutions,
changing markets and new means of communication in business, call for a
renewal of the discussion of ethics and morality in business life. Among
many other things, the questions of equality of race, religion and
gender, of environmental conditions for sustainable industrial growth
and the necessity to supply meaningful jobs for the young generation
call for eth- ical consideration as an integrated part of the
decision-making processes in business and society. The number of
corporations and firms and of public bodies, that have written ethical
codes and other instituted means of enhancing corporate ethics, is
increasing. Business schools all around the world include business
ethics in their curriculum. In this development scholars from different
academic fields have con- tributions to make. The interest in business
ethics is not restricted to ethi- cists and economists. Also researchers
from other areas, like sociology, of its history and theology, join in
the efforts. As an academic discipline own, if it is to be regarded as
such, business ethics is a remarkably crea- tive arena for exchange of
ideas from different comers of the learned world. It is now our task to
develop this sometimes confusing blend into a useful resource for the
further moralising debate.