Framework for Ethically Aware Businesses: The Integrity Management Model

Abstract

Worldwide conferences on business ethics and the assortment of corresponding literature show the need for ethical standards for companies. This need has its origin in three phenomena. These phenomena are a) economical, b) ethical and c) both economical and ethical. The first one a) refers to the growing pressure from governmental or non governmental organisations for companies to establish systems or mechanisms, which guarantee righteous behaviour towards stakeholders. The most prominent examples are the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines or the worldwide ecological movement. It therefore pays for companies to be “ethical”; ethics is one strategic means amongst others. Ad b) a genuinely ethical role for ethical standards is the present day lack of orientation of people and companies. The (post-) modern world of possibilities leaves them alone to deal with difficult decisions. There was no sufficient substitution for the lost “safety” of the fixed value-schemes of authoritarian ethics (e.g. religion). Modern ethics is not ready to provide individuals with values and norms, which are always and everywhere valid. But it can provide methods of ethical reasoning, which lead to legitimate decisions; and it can offer orientation with the emphasis on the common good and collective justice. A both economical and ethical driver for standards is the intention to learn how to deal with ethical dilemmas. Ad (c) ethical dilemmas can often be reduced to a conflict of stakeholder interests — in particular mostly the interests of stakeholder or investors and those with “expensive” claims. These conflicts have an ethical dimension as those claims may be legitimate and should therefore be fulfilled just because of their legitimacy. The economical dimension is the consideration that it might be cheaper to fulfil these claims immediately instead of potentially being confronted later with legal action and incur a loss of reputation.¹