Discourse Theory and Business Ethics. The Case of Bankers' Conceptualizations of Customers

Within discourse theory, language is seen as constitutive of reality. Furthermore, facts and values are viewed as inseparable. This has consequences for business ethics. In this paper the relationship between discourse theory and business ethics is discussed. Both the descriptive and prescriptive as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2001-06, Vol.31 (4), p.299-319
Main Author: de Graaf, Gjalt
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied ethics
Bankers
Banking
Banking ethics
Banking industry
Banks
Business ethics
Codes
Customer relations
Customers
Descriptive ethics
Discourse analysis
Discourse ethics
Employees
Ethics
Language
Retail banking
Sociology of work
Stockholders
Studies
Values
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:Within discourse theory, language is seen as constitutive of reality. Furthermore, facts and values are viewed as inseparable. This has consequences for business ethics. In this paper the relationship between discourse theory and business ethics is discussed. Both the descriptive and prescriptive aspects of business ethics are taken into account. Furthermore, an example of an empirical study is presented. A discourse analysis is concluded to answer the questions of how bankers in Holland conceptualize and thus treat their customers and whether there are differences between the largest three banks. The article contains the description of five different discourses on customers within the banks.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1023/A:1010772910497