286 CONCLUSION
is best achieved may be said to constitute the ‘internal’ morality of busi-
ness. In a liberal capitalist system the internal ethics of business include the
prerequisites of an effective market, including the norms of open competi-
tion, commutative justice and transactional honesty. In this system profit is
an integral part of the game but it is not the purpose of the game. Profit
maximizing is justified only within the suppositions of a system designed to
maximize global output, and that means real, honest, fair, and voluntary com-
petition. That is an internal and distinctive core of business ethics in a market
economy.
Recognition of an ethics internal to business is vital for the proper assess-
ment of different forms of generic HRM. However, any account of business
ethics must also involve recognition of ‘external’ ethical considerations and
the moral requirement to behave humanely and decently towards people in
the course of business, as in other spheres. Many of these external ethical
considerations arise from the fact that business involves people and that peo-
ple have certain rights, such as the moral right to be treated with respect
as human beings, that is beings with the capacity to suffer, the ability to
choose for themselves, and to have the chance to live a meaningful life. These
moral imperatives may in general be equated with the human rights that all
organizations ought to respect. As such, they may be viewed as considerations
external to business which both limit and extend the moral legitimacy of
business activity. Thus, human rights limitations on business identify those
things that businesses may not do in the otherwise legitimate pursuit of profit
in the process of wealth creation. On the other hand, human rights exten-
sions to internal business ethics concern those goals that business ought to
adopt in addition to the generation of wealth. A great deal of business ethics
can be conceptualized as working out the specific obligations of businesses
with respect to the human rights of those involved in and affected by busi-
ness activity, and working out how compliance with these obligations is best
achieved.
This broad conception of business ethics, distinguishing its internal and
external aspects and incorporating moral debate about the proper scope and
mode of business regulation, may seem rather grandiose to those who con-
sider that the main issue in business ethics is simply how to get business
people to ‘walk the talk’ and ‘do the right thing’. It will certainly appear
somewhat rarefied to the ordinary HR managers grappling with the mix
of conflicting pressures and humdrum routine that characterize their daily
work. It is, however, only by looking at everyday moral dilemmas in the
context of business ethics that real progress can be made in articulating and
responding to the normative questions that arise in HRM. For this reason,
much of this book concerns the social and political legitimation of economic
systems and the role that business institutions and organizations play within
them.