Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-dkgms Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T09:01:18.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Normative And Empirical Business Ethics: Separation, Marriage Of Convenience, Or Marriage Of Necessity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Gary R. Weaver  and
Linda Klebe Trevino
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper outlines three conceptions of the relationship between normative and empirical business ethics, views we refer to as parallel, symbiotic, and integrative. Parallelism rejects efforts to link normative and empirical inquiry, for both conceptual and practical reasons. The symbiotic position supports a practical relationship in which normative and/or empirical business ethics rely on each other for guidance in setting agenda or in applying the results of their conceptually and methodologically distinct inquiries. Theoretical integration countenances a deeper merging of prima facie distinct forms of inquiry, involving alterations or combinations of theory, metatheoretical assumptions, and methodology. This paper explicates these positions, summarizes arguments for and against each, and considers their implications for the future of business ethics research.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1994 , pp. 129 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, K. R., 1980. The Concept of Corporate Strategy, 2nd ed. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin.Google Scholar
Arvey, R. D., Davis, G. A. and Nelson, S. M., 1984. Use of Discipline in an Organization: A Field Study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69 (3): 448–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, G. A., 1991. Outcomes of Punishment Incidents: The Role of Subordinate Perceptions, Individual Differences, and Leader Behavior. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Barley, S. R., Meyer, G. W., and Gash, D. C., 1988. Cultures of Culture: Academics, Practitioners, and the Pragmatics of Normative Control. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33: 24–60.Google Scholar
Baron, R. A., 1990. Countering the Effects of Destructive Criticism: The Relative Efficacy of Four Interventions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75: 235–245.Google Scholar
Baum, J. F. and Youngblood, S. A., 1975. Impact of an Organizational Control Policy on Absenteeism, Performance, and Satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60: 688–694.Google Scholar
Bellah, R., 1983. The Ethical Aims of Social Inquiry. In Haan, N.Bellah, R.Rabinow, P. and Sullivan, W. (eds.) Social Science as Moral Inquiry. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 360–82.Google Scholar
Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., and Tipton, S. M., 1984. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., and Tipton, S. M., 1991. The Good Society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Bentham, J., 1789. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Burns, J. H. and Hart, H. L. A., eds. London: University of London, The Athlone Press, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, P. & Luckman, T., 1967. The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Brady, F. N. & Hatch, M. J., 1992. General Causal Models in Business Ethics: An Essay on Colliding Research Traditions. Journal of Business Ethics, 11: 307–315.Google Scholar
Burrell, G. & Morgan, G., 1979. Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Carroll, L., 1939. What the Tortoise Said to Achilles. In the Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Etzioni, A., 1989. Toward Deontological Social Sciences. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 19: 145–156.Google Scholar
Fleming, J., 1987. A Survey and Critique of Business Ethics Research, 1986. In Frederick, W. (ed.) Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, 9: 1–24. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., & Gilbert, D. R., 1988. Corporate strategy and the Search for Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Giddens, A., 1984. The Constitution of Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gioia, D. A. & Pitré, E., 1990. Multiparadigm Perspectives on Theory Building. Academy of Management Review, 15 (4): 584–602.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. & Bies, R., 1992. Establishing the Role of Empirical Studies of Organizational Justice in Philosophical Inquiries into Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 11: 433–444.Google Scholar
Hume, D., 1748. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.Google Scholar
Jackson, N. and Carter, C., 1991. In Defense of Paradigm Incommensurability. Organization Studies, 12 (1): 109–127.Google Scholar
Kahn, W. A., 1990. Toward an Agenda for Business Ethics Research. Academy of Management Review, 15: 311–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerlinger, F. N., 1986. Foundations of Behavioral Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L., 1969. Stage and Sequence: The Cognitive-developmental Approach to Socialization. In Goslin, D. A., ed., Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research. Chicago: Rand McNally, 347–380.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L., 1976. Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive-development Approach. In Lickona, T., ed., Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S., 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S., 1990. Dubbing and Redubbing: The Vulnerability of Rigid Designation, in Savage, C. W. (ed.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, XIV: Scientific Theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L., 1981. A Problem-solving Approach to Scientific Progress. In Hacking, I., ed., Scientific Revolutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maclntyre, A., 1984. Does Applied Ethics Rest On A Mistake? The Monist, 67: 498–513.Google Scholar
Moore, G. E., 1903. Principia Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mulligan, T. M., 1987. The Two Cultures in Business Education. Academy of Management Review, 12: 593–599.Google Scholar
Nicholson, N., 1976. Management Sanctions and Absence Control. Human Relations, 19: 139–151.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P., Todor, W., and Skov, R., 1982. Effects of Leader Contingent and Noncontingent Reward and Punishment Behaviors on Subordinate Performance and Satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 25: 810–821.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A., 1990. Moral Realism and Social Science. In French, P. A., Uehling, T. E., & Wettstein, H. K. (eds.), Midwest Studies in Philosophy Vol. XV: The Philosophy of the Human Sciences. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Sievers, B., 1983. Believing in Social Science: The Ethics and Epistemology of Public Opinion Research. In Haan, N.Bellah, R.Rabinow, P. and Sullivan, W. (eds.) Social Science as Moral Inquiry. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 320–42.Google Scholar
Sullivan, W. M., 1983. Beyond Policy Science: The Social Sciences as Moral Sciences. In Haan, N.Bellah, R.Rabinow, P. and Sullivan, W. (eds.) Social Science as Moral Inquiry. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 297–319.Google Scholar
Trevino, L. K., 1986. Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-situation Interactionist Model. Academy of Management Review, 11: 601–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trevino, L. K., and Weaver, G. R., this journal. Business ETHICS/BUSINESS Ethics: One Field or Two? Business Ethics Quarterly.Google Scholar
Victor, B. and Cullen, J., 1988. The Organizational Bases of Ethical Work Climates. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33: 101–125.Google Scholar
Weaver, G. R. & Gioia, D. G., 1994. Paradigms Lost: Incommensurability vs. Structurationist Inquiry. Organization Studies.Google Scholar
Weber, M., 1949. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.Google Scholar