Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

The ethics we find in companies contains the same elements as the ethics in the socio-economic context in which they operate. The aspirations and ethical levels of companies operating in certain countries differ substantially from those of companies operating in other areas, where the defence of the environment, social welfare, human rights, cooperation, assistance are expected and offered to a lower degree, or are not requested or protected at all. The new globalised, networked economy, based on the coordinated management of knowledge, sets evolutionary trends in motion that raise the level of ethicality, but simultaneously generates a braking effect on the ethical contents of corporate behaviour.

Keywords

• global markets
• corporate social responsibility
• ethics
• transparency
• economic and legislative asymmetries