Business Ethics: Towards an Ethical Management of Social Responsibility

Today, business is a clear example of the new protagonism of civil society, of a new distribution of responsibility for the public sphere, as shown by the direct call for its current involvement in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In other words, business is increasing its capacity to act, and with it its social responsibility, understood as the need to be accountable to society for its actions. At the same time, however, the concept of social responsibility has not yet adapted to these new demands; on the contrary, it seems to be losing its ability to generate trust in the company. Today, it is, so to speak, “under suspicion”. So much so that we hear many voices in business theory and practice advocating its abandonment, dragging the concept of business ethics with it. This is not the position of a discursive conception of business ethics, responsible for analyzing the conditions or assumptions underlying the credibility or social legitimacy of the company, the trust it deserves.