Ethics for Management: being a leader and acting with integrity in an ever-changing world

How the diffusion of ethical values within an organisation brings positive results

Increasingly complex day-to-day decisions that impact not just the company you lead. Technical skills that seem insufficient for deciphering an increasingly interconnected world. The awareness that choices also have significant consequences for society and the environment. In this context, it seems necessary to develop leadership that is also supported by sound philosophical foundations. In particular, ethics plays a crucial role in supporting managerial choices and addressing moral dilemmas and complex developments. In today’s business environment, in which organisations are called upon to respond not only to economic challenges, ethics can become an indispensable compass for navigating uncertain waters. For this reason, within the Executive Course in Philosophy for Management, the fourth module - Ethics for Management, led by Prof. Alessio Salviato, PhD in Business Ethics and Legal Studies at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, represents a fundamental element. We explored with him how leadership based on ethical values and moral awareness can be developed.

What are the main areas or business contexts where ethics becomes a guide?

The ethical discourse concerns the entire organisation, because each business area has to confront certain questions: what is the right thing to do? What are the values that guide our actions? How do we decide when these values conflict? It is clear that ethics is central in the departments of human resources, sustainability, or diversity and inclusion, but it is equally relevant in other areas: sales, manufacturing, finance, and marketing. Let me give you a few examples: questions of product safety, quality control during production, transparency of economic and financial information or how to communicate and advertise are all ethical issues.

Is business ethics just a question of sustainability or can it do more? Which conflicts can it help to resolve in your company?

Ethics is not just a matter of sustainability because it is much more than the impact of a company on society. Ethics comes up every time we have to make decisions. And isn’t the company a place where individuals make decisions and act? Ethics, therefore, is already constitutively internal to doing business. Of course, there is good or bad ethics. The company should integrate ethical reasoning into its core business, reflecting on what it does and trying to justify its decisions on the basis of reasons acceptable to all. You can't build reputation and trust without ethical discourse.

Doing the right thing in a company is never easy, because there are often economic and justice-related values that conflict with each other, and there is a highly competitive environment that makes it difficult to act in the right way. There are two criteria that can guide the resolution of moral conflicts: the specific circumstances of each case and the industry sector of reference. Ethical decisions are always contextual, and require you to weigh up each element in play, generating different solutions to the same problem depending on the context. And then, some industries have values in their identity that are more important than others: the pharmaceutical industry, for example, should prioritise public health and the safety of its products, even at the cost of sacrificing part of its profits.  

What are the most pressing ethical challenges facing managers in the age of digitalisation and globalisation?

The rapid development of artificial intelligence and its increasing use in companies pose complex ethical problems. Algorithms have been shown to discriminate against already marginalised minorities, violate user privacy, and produce inaccurate or false information. And then there is the question of attributing responsibility: when an algorithm commits an illegal act or harms someone, who should be responsible? Can we attribute a mens rea to artificial intelligence? The lack of transparency about what happens inside AI complicates things.

A second phenomenon that managers have to deal with today is the change in global geopolitical relations. Some argue that the era of globalisation is over - and this is also triggered by recent conflicts - and a new phase of de-globalisation has begun. Companies need to understand what role they want to play in the world: for example, whether they want to continue operating in countries in conflict, or whether they want to maintain supply chains in rival countries. Furthermore, individual States could ask “their” companies to defend state interests. In the United States, for example, the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) is forcing some firms to disrupt economic relations considered problematic for national security, even to the detriment of the firm’s productivity and financial value. Managers, therefore, must also integrate a geopolitical strategy into their corporate strategy. 

Sustainability, AI and geopolitics are challenges that require strong ethics

The Executive Course in Philosophy for Management is therefore a unique opportunity for those who wish to enrich their managerial vision, learning to combine organisational effectiveness with ethical responsibility. Through the programme's rigorous and practical approach, participants will be able to develop ethical leadership that generates value for the company, employees and society as a whole.