What role does philosophy have in business? Plenty, according to the Norwegian Government's Petroleum Fund which has has just hired professional philosopher and author Henrik Syse to work out what to do with its $190 billion of investment capital. Some of the issues that the fund has had to confront include whether or not to hold shares in tobacco companies and the funding of arms companies like Lockheed and Raytheon.
Syse is right when he says investment is full of ethical issues. Consider for example the outcry from ethicists over Citigroup advising clients on how to profit from avian flu mutating and triggering a pandemic. The reality is business has a trust problem. That, combined with the appointment of Syse as corporate ethicist and the growing number of ethics-focused organisations and institutions suggests that business ethics is a growth industry. Chris MacDonald's business ethics blog gives some good insights into some of the ethics issues out there.
So what are some of the big ethics questions facing business now? Sure there are some obvious ones, but are there any sleepers?
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