Business ethics in the Slovenian economy

Abstract

While taking into account the main concepts of business ethics, the author underlines the importance of the ethical issues in the transition period, identifies the perceived unethical behavior in the Slovenian economy as well as the main approaches to business ethics enhancement in Slovenia. Especially, the attempts to improve business ethical behavior by establishing ethical codes are analysed. This includes the Ethical Code of the Slovenian Managers’ Association, the Code of the Professional Ethics of the Accountants and the Code of the Professional Ethics of the Controllers in Slovenia, as well as some other ethical codes. The courses, workshops and seminars in the field of the business ethics are surveyed as well as the problems in teaching business ethics and empirically researching the field in Slovenia. The role of the media in enhancing business ethics in the country is analysed too. The last part of the article is dedicated to the identification of the prevailing values and attitudes of the Slovenian top managers and of the younger Slovenian managers. Differences and similarities are shown the respect to the results of some foreign research findings. Finally, there are a few conclusions regarding the needed future actions for further enhancement of business ethical behavior in Slovenia.

Keywords

• business ethics
• values and attitudes
• Slovenia