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Business and Society, the Society and Business, and, What Is It Like to Be a Rat?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2025

Christopher Wong Michaelson Open the ORCID record for Christopher Wong Michaelson [Opens in a new window]
Christopher Wong Michaelson*
Affiliation:
University of St. Thomas, USA
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Abstract

This essay reconsiders the possibility and prospects for the relationship between business ethics scholarship and the world of business practice. More specifically, to a field that often considers the question, “What should be the role of business in society?” it poses the question, “What should be the role of the Society for Business Ethics in business?” My intent is not to solve the related epistemological question of whether we have to “be one to know one.” It is, however, to encourage scholars to leave our laboratories more often to engage with the work and world of those we study. To that end, the essay poses a series of questions for us – individual scholars, members of the Society, and the Society itself – to consider about our relationship with business. It concludes with a postscript response to one of those questions: When, if ever, should the Society make public statements?

Keywords

theory-practice gapepistemologyimpartialitycave allegoryengaged scholarship

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 2025 , pp. 124 - 140
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics

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