Abstract:
In this article we develop a conceptualization of business ethics as practice. Starting
from the view that the ethics that organizations display in practice will have been forged
through an ongoing process of debate and contestation over moral choices, we examine
ethics in relation to the ambiguous, unpredictable, and subjective contexts of managerial
action. Furthermore, we examine how discursively constituted practice relates to
managerial subjectivity and the possibilities of managers being moral agents. The
article concludes by discussing how the ‘ethics as practice’ approach that we expound
provides theoretical resources for studying the different ways that ethics manifest
themselves in organizations as well as providing a practical application of ethics in
organizations that goes beyond moralistic and legalistic approaches.
