Eight dialogues on business ethics : aspects of ethical behaviour in the corporate sector

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying meanings and assumptions of the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of ethical discourse that encaptulates corporate business ethics. Design/methodology/approach- This paper employes a form of the Socratic or dialogue approach to explore and comment on various aspects of ethical behaviour in the corporate sector. The eight dialogues are catelogued as: the business sector; the business ideology; business practices today; the new morality; internal aspects of the business culture; the interrelationship between the business and clients; the interrelationship between the business and the employee; and ethics in business. Post Script-Corporations have a social responsibility that emanates from the legal status they receive as an artificial entity with the same rights as other members of society. These new entities derive their sentient characteristics from those that inhabit the realm of the corporation. In this way the ethical behaviour is both a result of those within the corporation and the corporate culture.