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A Single Framework for Strategic and Ethical Behavior in the International Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Scott J. Reynolds
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Abstract:

Scholars have developed many theories of international strategy and many theories of international ethics. Separating strategy and ethics in this way, though, perpetuates a perception that profit and ethics are mutually exclusive. Accordingly, I offer a framework that links international strategy and international ethics. I suggest that at an abstract level the strategic concepts of integration and responsiveness and the ethical concepts of justice and caring are concerned with the same theoretical quandaries. Therefore, in any situation there are behaviors that are both integrative and just and/or both responsive and caring, and these behaviors are both strategic and ethical. To demonstrate the potential descriptive and prescriptive value of the framework, I descend the ladders of abstraction associated with these concepts and apply the framework to two business situations.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , July 2003 , pp. 361 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2003

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