Secularising business ethics

Since the 1970s, a discursive formation has arisen around the timeless concern that is commonly labelled "business ethics" today. Often dismissively characterised as an oxymoronic expression, business ethics is also an odd beast from the perspective of the broader history of ideas. Moral criticism of business practice particularly in the US during the 1960s and 70s has led to the development of new theories, notions and standards of moral reasoning in a business setting that claim particularly to be based in (secular) reason, not received religious (i.e. traditionally moral) values. This paper investigates the origins of this approach to the moral aspect of decision-making in a business setting, one which is quite different to that which previously prevailed in commercial education and practice, particularly in terms of its increasing divorce since the 1970s from institutional religious understandings.