It has been astonishing news that even Federal Bank Presidents do consult advisors in ethics – apparently to avoid running the risk of losing their positions for the same reasons they initially got it: Because their pedecessors' losing their way had become public. And what is more, ethics consultancy is said to be common practice in business management. Obviously it is meant to be a deliberate self-restriction. That sounds reconciling. And interesting, too, for what, may we ask, kind of person is an ethics advisor like? Unfortunately, the author still depends on speculations without support, as he has not yet had the opportunity to observe either the consultants nor their influence.
To begin with, ethics means reflecting what makes an action (or, more basally, a decision) good or bad. It is more abstract than a moral judgment which deals with a manifest action/decision under concrete conditions. Are we to imagine the ethics consultant enters the lavishly furnished management office flight and just in time leads a Socratic dialogue about the good life shortly before the client signs a paper? Do machine wheels or computers come to a halt, because the workers or the operative section wait desperately for the management to finish reflections? This is rather improbable. So what is business ethics all about? After all, the author must confess he doubts that ethical considerations are deeply felt, since on his way up the client has not missed them before. Ancient Rome's usage to whisper that ‚Memento mori' (Remember you are mortal) in the Emperor's ear seems to be old-fashioned, for the Modern Emperor will plainly reply ‚Non ignoro' (Just for the sake of that) and plunder the buffet one more time. To put it more technically: The client in ethics is not intrinsically motivated, but he must be extrinsically persuaded. For instance by pointing out he will lose his highly paid position if he additionally piles up too many similarly lucrative benefits. This means: Business ethics is not beyond imagination – but not as an indivdual effort to do something good (at best business managers try to do something well), but as a hint to the only punishing instance accepted by non-philosphers or non-theologists. The author is talking about all those people whose opinion might become important because it is now irrelevant: Public opinion.
So it is not about relieving managers they have made the right decisions. In fact, ethics can only explain why we can never be sure about that; instead, it is about the way managers are regarded by totally anonymous people. How important that is will become obvious as soon as public opinion starts another discussion round about fair salaries - and at the latest, as soon as TV cameras makes pictures of unemployed workers outside a company building. To put it differently: Whatever calls itself business ethics is identical with PR consultants.
And since we have come to understand that PR itself is ethically dubious, too, PR is killing too birds with one stone: It improves both the client's and the consultant's images. Woe be to that PR agency which declines such a win-win-opportunity and refuses to call itself a think tank for applied ethics.
Is it right, then, to talk about a new phase of management culture? The answer is clear: maybe. The label consultant is, an exception to the rule, correct, because advice is no obligation. At worst the client is free to tell the protesting consultant to shut up. Especially when business consciousness, public opinion, starts to examine, the criticized manager still has the option to shift responsibility to his incompetent advisor. And this way the Lost Son might return: responsibility.
One question remains to be answered: who works as an ethics consultant? Well, it should be someone who keeps a safe distance from ordinary management, but does not content himself with vowing he abhors unbridled capitalism, because his post-communist conscience bugs him. Economs and psychologists are for the first reason out of the question, romantic sociologists and pedagogs for the second. It is a classical field for theologists, philosophers and philologists, as for any unemployed.
And how are ethics consultant ethically to be judged? The author is uncertain, because he is still searching for an adequate advisor who can give him some clues.
To begin with, ethics means reflecting what makes an action (or, more basally, a decision) good or bad. It is more abstract than a moral judgment which deals with a manifest action/decision under concrete conditions. Are we to imagine the ethics consultant enters the lavishly furnished management office flight and just in time leads a Socratic dialogue about the good life shortly before the client signs a paper? Do machine wheels or computers come to a halt, because the workers or the operative section wait desperately for the management to finish reflections? This is rather improbable. So what is business ethics all about? After all, the author must confess he doubts that ethical considerations are deeply felt, since on his way up the client has not missed them before. Ancient Rome's usage to whisper that ‚Memento mori' (Remember you are mortal) in the Emperor's ear seems to be old-fashioned, for the Modern Emperor will plainly reply ‚Non ignoro' (Just for the sake of that) and plunder the buffet one more time. To put it more technically: The client in ethics is not intrinsically motivated, but he must be extrinsically persuaded. For instance by pointing out he will lose his highly paid position if he additionally piles up too many similarly lucrative benefits. This means: Business ethics is not beyond imagination – but not as an indivdual effort to do something good (at best business managers try to do something well), but as a hint to the only punishing instance accepted by non-philosphers or non-theologists. The author is talking about all those people whose opinion might become important because it is now irrelevant: Public opinion.
So it is not about relieving managers they have made the right decisions. In fact, ethics can only explain why we can never be sure about that; instead, it is about the way managers are regarded by totally anonymous people. How important that is will become obvious as soon as public opinion starts another discussion round about fair salaries - and at the latest, as soon as TV cameras makes pictures of unemployed workers outside a company building. To put it differently: Whatever calls itself business ethics is identical with PR consultants.
And since we have come to understand that PR itself is ethically dubious, too, PR is killing too birds with one stone: It improves both the client's and the consultant's images. Woe be to that PR agency which declines such a win-win-opportunity and refuses to call itself a think tank for applied ethics.
Is it right, then, to talk about a new phase of management culture? The answer is clear: maybe. The label consultant is, an exception to the rule, correct, because advice is no obligation. At worst the client is free to tell the protesting consultant to shut up. Especially when business consciousness, public opinion, starts to examine, the criticized manager still has the option to shift responsibility to his incompetent advisor. And this way the Lost Son might return: responsibility.
One question remains to be answered: who works as an ethics consultant? Well, it should be someone who keeps a safe distance from ordinary management, but does not content himself with vowing he abhors unbridled capitalism, because his post-communist conscience bugs him. Economs and psychologists are for the first reason out of the question, romantic sociologists and pedagogs for the second. It is a classical field for theologists, philosophers and philologists, as for any unemployed.
And how are ethics consultant ethically to be judged? The author is uncertain, because he is still searching for an adequate advisor who can give him some clues.
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