Modern Business and the Doctrine of the Mean
ISBN: 978-1-78743-205-5, eISBN: 978-1-78743-204-8
Publication date: 6 October 2017
Abstract
Within both Western and Eastern traditions of virtue ethics, there is a Doctrine of the Mean, suggesting that errors may lie either in excess or in deficiency. The need to avoid both excess and deficiency in the allocation of finite resources is a concern in many sorts of business decisions, some with ethical implications. One finite resource is the resource of attention, and ethical problems can arise from failures to attend to important things. Both Aristotle and classical Confucianism accept the importance of paying attention to circumstances rather than following fixed rules or blindly maximising value. For organisations to give appropriate attention to different things requires suitable intra-organisational reporting and communication. Then there is still need for awareness that resources are finite, and for activity that is sustainable, highlighting the related idea of harmony, especially salient in the Confucian tradition.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The author has benefited from relevant discussions with Howard Harris, Geoff Moore, Roderick O’Brien, from comments and discussion of the paper at the 2016 Conference of the International Society for Business, Economics and Ethics, and from comments and suggestions made by an anonymous referee for this journal.
Citation
Provis, C. (2017), "Modern Business and the Doctrine of the Mean", Ethics in the Global South (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 18), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 115-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620170000018005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited