Ethics & Consciousness in Organizations: A Conceptual Hierarchical Model

The authors posit that one should not take a binary approach to business ethics because there are gradations. They propose that firms may be classified according to the following metric: Level I: The Totally Unethical Organization; Level II: The Legalistic Unethical Organization; Level III: The Superficially Ethical Organization; Level IV: The Ethical Organization; and Level V: The Totally Ethical Organization/Fully Conscious Capitalism. Firms at the lowest level of ethics are only concerned about profits and not getting caught. Firms at the highest level are advocates of conscious capitalism. Conscious business leaders aim to use capitalism to "elevate humanity" by serving all stakeholders and making the world a better place.