Business ethics being part of the larger social ethics, always been affected by the ethics of the epoch. At different epochs of the world, people, especially the elites of the world, were blind to ethics and morality which were obviously unethical to the succeeding epoch.
History of business, thus, is tainted by and through the history of slavery history of colonialism and later by the history of cold war. The current discourse of business ethics is the ethical discourse of the post-colonialism and post-world wars.
The need for business ethics in the current epoch had begun gaining attention since 1970s. Historically, firms started highlighting their ethical stature since the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the world witnessed serious economic and natural disasters because of unethical business practices.
The Bhopal disaster and the fall of Enron are instances of the major disasters triggered by bad corporate ethics. It should be noted that the idea of business ethics caught the attention of academics, media and business firms by the end of the overt Cold War. Cold Wars, seen through pages of history were fought through and fought for American business firms abroad.
Ideologically, promotion of firms owned by American nationals were presented as if it were freedom and the local resistance against the excess of American firms were labelled communist upraising sponsored by the Soviet Block. .Further, even legitimate criticism against unethical practice of the firms was presented as if it were infringement into the 'freedom' of the entrepreneurs by activists backed by communist totalitarians. This scuttled the discourse of business ethics both at media and academics.
Overt violence by business firms has decreased to a great extent in the democratic and media affluent world of the day, though it has not ceased to exist. The war in Iraq is one of the recent examples of overt violence by corporations. Evidence is the rise in the amount of and usage and actions of private security firms. Private security was all but replacing military personnel for movement security, and the basis for the increase in them was the money that the firms received directly or indirectly from governments and the amount they paid their employees.
History of business, thus, is tainted by and through the history of slavery history of colonialism and later by the history of cold war. The current discourse of business ethics is the ethical discourse of the post-colonialism and post-world wars.
The need for business ethics in the current epoch had begun gaining attention since 1970s. Historically, firms started highlighting their ethical stature since the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the world witnessed serious economic and natural disasters because of unethical business practices.
The Bhopal disaster and the fall of Enron are instances of the major disasters triggered by bad corporate ethics. It should be noted that the idea of business ethics caught the attention of academics, media and business firms by the end of the overt Cold War. Cold Wars, seen through pages of history were fought through and fought for American business firms abroad.
Ideologically, promotion of firms owned by American nationals were presented as if it were freedom and the local resistance against the excess of American firms were labelled communist upraising sponsored by the Soviet Block. .Further, even legitimate criticism against unethical practice of the firms was presented as if it were infringement into the 'freedom' of the entrepreneurs by activists backed by communist totalitarians. This scuttled the discourse of business ethics both at media and academics.
Overt violence by business firms has decreased to a great extent in the democratic and media affluent world of the day, though it has not ceased to exist. The war in Iraq is one of the recent examples of overt violence by corporations. Evidence is the rise in the amount of and usage and actions of private security firms. Private security was all but replacing military personnel for movement security, and the basis for the increase in them was the money that the firms received directly or indirectly from governments and the amount they paid their employees.