Interview : The business ethics, by Geert Demuijnck

Is it really possible to speak of research in the field of business ethics? Some might think that research in the field of business ethics and, more broadly, in philosophy, boils down to studying or presenting the ideas of classic authors. In fact, papers on business ethics refer quite rarely to classic texts, but, like any research article, they try to answer a specific question. All the same, the notion of business ethics encompasses all kinds of issues, which can lead to confusion. This is reflected in the research. First, in the specialised journals, there are two types of papers, well separated methodologically but complementary. On one hand, there are articles of a positive nature, which, for example, attempt to analyse (describe, explain) the way in which companies and their managers view their responsibilities to their stakeholders, how they put into place a strategy of corporate social responsibility, what the constraints or difficulties are, perhaps the conflicts with economic goals, and so on. This work is of a sociological or economic nature. On the other hand, there are normative studies, which attempt to judge the behaviour of companies and their management from an ethical point of view. These studies are of a philosophical nature and fall into the field of applied ethics. And the field encompasses several sub-fields, from the ethics of individual behaviour and decisions in companies to the morally debatable aspects of certain market regulations. From the normative point of view, we see easily that the behaviour of a single professional can be evaluated. But can you evaluate a whole company? Ethics does nothing but analyse tirelessly, rationally, and critically the moral intuitions that we all have spontaneously in observing decisions and behaviour. For example, a person can be morally outraged by the bonuses traders get, by the salaries of soccer players, by certain commercial practices, or by the tuition charged by a business school. In some cases, our intuitions are confirmed by rational analysis, but in others it turns out they were just stupid prejudices. The moral judgments of large corporations are legion. But it's not easy to determine if these hasty judgments are well founded, and this for several reasons. First, you have to take into account the responsibilities shouldered by individuals, authorities, and private institutions such as companies. Some, such as Milton Friedman or André Comte-Sponville, tend to minimise or even deny any social responsibility that can be attributed to a company, except for its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. They are certainly right to stress that it is nonsense to defend a hypertrophied notion of corporate social responsibility, first because companies have to compete, and then because they are already subject to substantial legal constraints. Still, it is reductive to deny the existence of any social responsibility beyond that required by law. In an article forthcoming in the Journal of Business Ethics, I attempt to identify, in the French context, the circumstances in which and the degree to which companies can legitimately be held to account, in part, for the persistence of certain forms of discrimination, even if they are in perfect compliance with the law. A final complication is clarifying the breakdown of responsibilities, from the ethical rather than the legal point of view, in a collective whole such as a company. How is research into ethics useful for a company? It is, to be sure, part of the mission of school such as EDHEC to train future managers, in addition to the technical skills demanded by the labour market, to examine the ethics and values that will inform their decisions. Otherwise, it would be pure hypocrisy for EDHEC to highlight its values. I'm leaving aside the tough question of the best way to stimulate this examination: studying professional codes of conduct, case studies, applying theories and defending particular points of view in class, studying research articles, and so on. But it is just as certainly part of the mission of business schools to contribute to research in the field of ethics. First, because a suitable examination of these issues is founded on interdisciplinary expertise that is found in business schools rather than in departments of philosophy. But also insofar as research in ethics may be of interest to business. In saying that, I do not mean to advocate an instrumentalisation of ethics, on the contrary. First, empirical research on corporate behaviour and strategy in terms of social responsibility can contribute to the business case for ethics: proof that exemplary behaviour, from an ethical point of view, can pay. If research contributes to the awareness that the opposition of ethical values and economic results is not as great as it first appears it is immediately useful. Paradoxically, it is also useful when it shows that, from a financial as well as ethical point of view, some corporate social responsibility practices lead to nothing. But not even normative research is without its usefulness. The clarification of responsibilities, especially of the limits of responsibility, is itself beneficial. It is necessary to distinguish between the responsibility toward stakeholders that a company agrees to take on, upon reflection, and responsibilities foisted on it, sometimes mistakenly, by the court of public opinion. Clarifying this normative context will make responses to possible criticism more relevant. In addition, as I have often participated in discussions with the ethicists in large French companies, I have seen that the companies that engage seriously in this kind of thought are more frequently on the lookout for economically non-prohibitive means of closing the gap between the official discourse of their companies and the sometimes less glorious realities they may accept responsibility for. Which, as a result, reduces ethics risk. Of course, research is far from being the only factor that influences behaviour: first, nothing guarantees that it is always possible to deliver solid economic performance while abiding by ethical principles. When it is impossible to close this gap, managers are not exempt from responsibility. On the contrary. But research will not provide a miracle solution. Where there is in fact room to manoeuvre, examples of companies that have managed to combine economic success and a social or environmental contribution, such as those presented in recent years at the World Forum Lille, can also influence managerial choices.