This essay addresses the question of how managers justify ethical values. Traditionally, ethical values have been justified by appeals to intuition expressed injunctively and judged to be obligatory. This tradition has led to ethical relativism and a widespread scepticism about the possibility of basing ethics on reasoning. There are, however, alternative strategies for ethical justification in which conclusions are derived deductively from purposive propositions. This essay revisits the notion of reason, purpose and ethical justification in management to outline a purposive ethics for managers. The implications for management practice and relevance for management researchers of such an ethics are presented and defended.

中文翻译：

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证明道德价值观：管理者的目的性道德

本文探讨了管理者如何证明道德价值观的问题。传统上，伦理价值是通过诉诸直觉来证明的，这种直觉是强制性的，并被认为是强制性的。这一传统导致了伦理相对主义和对将伦理建立在推理基础上的可能性的普遍怀疑。然而，还有一些伦理论证的替代策略，其中结论是从有目的的命题中演绎得出的。本文重新审视了管理中的理性、目的和伦理正当性的概念，为管理者勾勒出一种有目的的伦理。提出并捍卫了这种伦理对管理实践的影响和对管理研究人员的相关性。