Zusammenfassung
This paper addresses the question of why business ethics did not become a standard part of research and academic education in German-speaking countries until now. It traces this trend back to experiences of the dictatorship prior to World War II. Until the 1980s, Max Weber's concept of value-free scientific statements dominated the discipline. Since the mid-1980s, several positions and concepts of business ethics have been suggested, all of which failed to garner the acceptance of business ethics. Therefore, an alternative, analytical concept of business ethics is developed which separates between logical, empirical and normative dimensions of ethical problems.
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Auszug
Business Ethics in Germany: Problems, Concepts, and Functions/Unternehmensethik in Deutschland. Probleme, Konzepte Und Funktionen
1. Motivation of the paper
In Germany, business administration ("Betriebswirtschaftslehre") has become an important discipline in academics and practice. Within the last thirty years, the number of students at universities1 has increased from 30,000 to 160,000 in this discipline (Küpper 2007: 514ff.). The labour market for their graduates seems to be very attractive. The importance of the economy in Germany, Europe and a globalised world has been the driving force behind this development.In contrast to Anglo-American countries, business ethics does not usually form part of curricula in business administration. Until now, the curricula of German universities have been standardised to a high degree. They include lectures on management functions such as production, marketing, accounting, etc., but not on business ethics. However, ethical problems are obviously relevant in the German economy and German society. After World War II the conflict between socialistic and free market economic concepts dominated the political (and to some degree the academic) discussion until 1989. Since the middle of the 1990s, however, several scandals in US American and German firms such as Enron, VW and Siemens have demonstrated the necessity of business ethics. Corporate governance systems began to be debated in practice and academics. Different boards, installed by government and by big companies, elaborated codes of (ethical) conduct for firms.In this paper I will analyse the background of this discrepancy between the importance of business ethics in German practice on the one hand and its underrepresentation in academic education on the other. Several reasons for this development are given in section 2. Since the mid-1980s of the last century, several concepts of business ethics were developed in Germany. Their basic ideas are reflected in part 3 whereby I will analyse why they have not yet found prominence in standard curricula. Subsequently, part 4 develops an alternative concept of business ethics, which better coincides with the patterns of research and education in German business administration.2....Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
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