FOCUS:A Comparison of Business Ethics in North America and Continental Europe

Abstract

The author of this major study compares the significantly different approaches to business ethics on both sides of the Atlantic and considers what they have to learn from each other. He has considerable experience of business ethics in both Europe and North America, having taught and researched the subject at the University of St Gallen in his native Switzerland before his appointment as Professor of International Business Ethics in the College of Business Administration, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA. Professor Enderle was also the founding Honorary Treasurer of the European Business Ethics Network and is an Associate Editor of this Review.

Practice and politics: Ethics and social responsibility in SMEs in the European Union

“…focusing on the 'rules of the game' (Enderle, 1996). This means that conditions are created for an implicit form of CSR (Matten & Moon, 2008) and has been suggested as a peculiarly European approach (Matten & Moon, 2005) compared to a US version of CSR, which is explicit in terms of corporate policies.…”

The Global Survey of Business Ethics as Field of Training, Teaching and Research: Objectives and Methodology

“…De George (1987), Van Luijk (1990), and Enderle (1996) published articles that analysed the development of the field of Business Ethics in North America and Europe. Cowton and Dunfee (1995) did a survey that also included Asia, but their survey was merely focused on ''internationalizing the business ethics curriculum'', and their survey sample was restricted to interviews with 40 persons from Business Schools in the USA, UK and Asia.…”

European Business Ethics agenda based on a Delphi analysis

“…However, the misunderstanding comes from both the term used and the country-effect for understanding. In this regard, Enderle [9] states that in Europe, the preferred issues are those related to the macro level, and only by using indirect analysis are the ethical gaps included. Then, ethics and corporate or Business Ethics actions are facing gaps, particularly considering legality.…”

“…In their rationale, they take into account some of the issues that are found at the micro level, especially from psychological rather than philosophical perspectives. Only recently have European research and experts clearly included the meso issues [9]. Recently, meso analysis has become very important in Europe.…”

“…However, it is possible (at least from a moral perspective) to agree that Business Ethics should take into account three different levels: micro (or individual), meso (or the organizational level), and macro (or the system view). In this line, Enderle [9] proposes answering three questions to analyze moral problems in economic areas: what is done, what can be done, and what should be done. It has been proposed to use these three perspectives (person, organization, and system) with the aim to establish a complete analysis in which personal dilemmas, corporate social responsibility, and the ethical implications of the socio-economic system are analyzed and interconnected to obtain a complete moral perspective of Business Ethics.…”