Business Ethics - Professionalism in the Consulting Industry

Business Ethics - Professionalism in consulting-------------------------------------------------

Loewenstein’s argument regarding the incapability of the principal-agent problem to tackle the issue of conflicts of interest relies on the assumption that personal and professional interests exist independently of each other. This separation however is flawed as it attempts to view conflicts of interest in a too simplistic manner, where conflicts of interests only refer to those between the personal and professional interests of oneself and not the interests of the agent versus the interests of the principal. In my response to this commentary I shall argue that personal and professional interests should be analysed as intrinsically interdependent and that although professionalism reflects a moral code by which individuals should apply, it attempts to address the issue of conflicts of interests in a too simplistic manner, rendering professional interests as a mere ethical ideology rather than an intrinsic part of one’s own interests.

Loewenstein’s argument relies on the belief of the separation of the personal and the professional however when analysing ethical morality, separating what is good in a personal sphere from what is right in a professional one undermines any belief in universal ethical codes. If one believes in moral universalism, that is, the existence of a common set of ethical principals independent of culture, religion, nationality or any other difference, one cannot detach the personal from the professional in assessing the morality of one’s actions. Of course morality thus depends on the set of ethical codes we agree to be universal. If we follow this understanding of morality then it concurs that principals and agents would share a common set of ethical codes in their assessment of their actions. Loewenstein’s comments thus seem to stem more from the moral relativism argument stating that ‘morality is determined by the standards of a person’s...