Abstract
Apart from their responsibility to serve the goals of their organization, employees also have a personal and professional responsibility to work ethically. Ideally, these responsibilities of employee, professional and person coexist in harmony, but in practice they can also be at odds with one another.
As members of a profession with a collective professional morality, professionals are expected to follow their own moral judgement about how to work. They have professional moral autonomy. This independent capacity to judge should be considered as their moral capital. If companies create free space for internal ethical debate and dialogue, this professional moral capital can improve the corporate moral climate and lead to business-ethical gains. In companies that create such space, the voice of potential whistle-blowers will be taken seriously, and the risk that problems of many hands occur might diminish. Business ethics should, thus, acknowledge the importance of the personal and professional moral responsibility of employees in business.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Davis (1988: 51) wrote: “The literature of business ethics contains remarkably little about professions (though many business ethics problems involve professionals).” This is still the case today. The editors of this book hope that this chapter will go some way to redressing the balance.
- 2.
There is some debate in professional ethics about whether being a manager should be understood as an occupation or a profession. See, among others, Donaldson (2000).
- 3.
See Chap. 3 by work and employment sociologist Mok (2011), which describes what an occupation is and how an occupation and a firm relate to each other from a sociology of work perspective. Mok argues that occupations have to do with “sharing work” while firms are involved in “division of labor”: sharing work connects people (of the same profession) with each other, while division of labor separates people (2011: 64). A job exists within a company or organization, a profession in the wider context of society.
- 4.
This means that a professional code differs substantially from a company’s code of conduct. The rules, norms and values of a professional code are often the result of a democratic decision-making process within the profession. With a company code of conduct, this is not necessarily the case. See Von Weltzien Høivik, (2002: 8–9) for an insightful comparison of the two types of code and the differences in the implicit message they contain.
- 5.
We have chosen to gloss over the distinction between occupations and professions here. Although this distinction is often made in the literature, it is less relevant to this chapter. Professions are characterized by greater professional autonomy: more freedom but also the responsibility of judging for themselves what a high standard of work is and an intrinsic motivation to perform their work to that standard.
- 6.
- 7.
See also Chap. 3 on the role of discretion.
- 8.
See also Chap. 3 on the relationship between freedom and morality.
- 9.
“[B]usiness managers … have, as part of their job, the maintenance of sufficient moral free space for other professionals to achieve their professional ends” “Professional managers need to protect professional values in order to promote a healthy corporate culture.” (Donaldson, 2000: 91). Compare also “The ultimate goal is to foster an organizational culture that not only guarantees individuals greater respect for professional ethical values, but provides them with space, freedom and power to act morally” (Von Weltzien Høivik, 2002: 3).
- 10.
For example, in their recruitment policy, companies can choose to select people not only on the basis of their knowledge and skills but also their (ethical) personal qualities, including virtues. Companies whose selection policies look for people of integrity who are willing to take personal responsibility will build “moral capital” within their own organization (Fahlquist, 2015: 206).
References
Davis, M. (1988). The special role of professionals in business ethics. Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 7(2), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.5840/bpej1988726
Davis, M. (1996). Professional autonomy: A framework for empirical research. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(4), 441–460. https://doi.org/10.2307/3857498
Donaldson, T. (2000). Are business managers ‘professionals’? Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(1), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.2307/3857697
Fahlquist, J. N. (2015). Responsibility as a virtue and the problem of many hands. In Moral responsibility and the problem of many hands (pp. 187–208). Routledge.
Kole, J. J. (2007). Professionele idealen vanuit ethisch perspectief. Inleiding. In J. J. Kole & D. de Ruyter (Eds.), Werkzame idealen. Ethische reflecties op professionaliteit (pp. 1–10). Van Gorcum.
Kole, J. (2009). Bronnen en bouwstenen van interprofessionele beroepsethiek. In J. Kole & D. de Ruyter (Eds.), Code en karakter. Beroepsethiek in jeugdzorg, onderwijs en recht (pp. 21–34). SWP.
Mok, A. L. (2011). Arbeid, bedrijf en maatschappij (5e herziene druk). Noordhoff.
Taylor, C. (1992). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Harvard University Press.
van de Poel, I. (2015). The problem of many hands. In Moral responsibility and the problem of many hands (pp. 50–92). Routledge.
von Weltzien Høivik, H. (2002). Professional ethics – A managerial opportunity in emerging organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 39(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016363429915
Acknowledgements
Translated with help of Roosmarijn Minnema and Taalcentrum-VU.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kole, J. (2023). “And What Do You Think, as a Professional?”: On Personal and Professional Responsibility in Business. In: Dubbink, W., Deijl, W.v.d. (eds) Business Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37932-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37932-1_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-37931-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37932-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)