Business Ethics: Four Spheres of Executive Responsibility.

The article presents information on business ethics as they relate to the responsibilities of executives. Four different spheres of morality are discussed. The commitments of private life consists of duties and responsibilities that are stated as abstract and universal principals such as the keeping of promises or telling the truth. The commitments of economic agents comprise of the job of executives as economists and corporate attorneys serving in the best interests of shareholders. Commitments as company leaders concerns the use of power by managers in helping to direct the lives of employees, seen as members of an organization. Responsibilities beyond a firm's boundaries deal with ethical decisions that exist outside of a firm's stated purpose, such as the ethics of a drug produced by a pharmaceutical company.