Ethics and management. On terms of application of ought-statements

Authors:

• Przemysław Zbigniew Rotengruber

Abstract

The research issues are based on the hypothesis that business ethics needs to be supported by evidence of different kinds. On the one hand, ethical claim to validity is in doubt as long as it is does not find (epistemological) justification. On the other hand, business ethics is seen by its representatives as applied knowledge, that is to say, reflection useful in terms of organization and behavior. Therefore, some of them focus their attention on patterns of culture. These researches believe that culture embraces norms to be respected ultimately by market participants. These norms are taken as (potential) solution of the main ethical problems of the sphere of human activity. At the same time cultural patterns may negatively influence the development of political and economic life. That concept intends that culture is determined by the logic of values (different from the logic of reality used in describing social facts) which combines heterogenic sets of norm and directives into historical integrity. In the presented concept the stability of values is determined by its taking hold in culture. It leads to the conclusion that knowledge of cultural patterns is the precondition for effective research on the field of social (and economic) theory.