This riff thus separates one's personal ethics from the ethics that govern their actions at work. Therefore, when one is faced with an ethical dilemma in the workplace, they can easily approach it from a non-ethical point-of-view, which in turn leads to corporation and the previously mentioned scandals.
Feminist theory, on the other hand, has traditionally approached the realm of business ethics with the argument that females are as capable as men in performing in the corporate world. Thus, such arguments as breaking the glass ceiling and placing females in executive positions have been the focus of feminists when it comes to business ethics. In other words, the focus of feminist has been on creating an ethics of equality in the workplace, or showing that females are also capable of possessing these so called masculine traits. However, this approach, although having made great strides in terms of getting females in leadership roles in the workplace, has done nothing to solve the ethical issue that causes the previously mentioned scandals.
Virginia Held's theory, however, can be applied to the field of business ethics as a means of solving this problem of the separation between the...
According to Held's argument, one should recognize such feminine traits as caring, love and family as being important traits and thus deserving of being brought into the workplace environment. If the corporate culture became, according to Held, more feminine, then the individual would remain part of the job, as would their personal ethics. In such a situation, when faced with an ethical dilemma, the individual's personal ethics would control their resolution of the dilemma.
Bibliography
Bates, Ulku, Pomeroy, Sarah, and Virginia Held. (2004): Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
Ferrell, O.C. (2006): Business Ethics. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Haber, Joram and Mark S. Halfon. (1998): Norms and Values: Essays on the Work of Virginia Held. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Held, Virginia. (2007): Ethics of Care: Personal, Political and Global. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
Held, Virginia. (1993): Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
