Revisiting ethics in strategic management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges faced by corporations in incorporating ethics into their strategic management processes.

Design/methodological approach – The research is based on a survey of the issues and the literature published in Europe, North America and Asia.

Findings – Findings indicate a definite gap between the implementation of strategy and the moral and ethical obligations of corporations. Given the decline in business ethics and recent corporate scandals it is proposed that ethics be brought back to the forefront of strategic management and integrated into the strategic management process.

Research limitations/implications – The paper serves as a instrument for debate and future research in that the ethical issues faced by corporations will continue to gather momentum as will the issues faced by traditional strategists.

Originality/value – This paper allows researchers and practitioners to gain an understanding of the issues and shortcomings in strategy and ethical integration, which allows for future research.

Awarded:
Emerald Outstanding paper Awards, 2012. Winner of the Best Paper award in its class: Corporate Governance. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/literati/awards.htm