HABRI Central

Paying thorough attention to cynical action and integrity could result in a less naive approach to ethics and moral communication. This article discusses the issues of integrity and cynicism on a theoretical and on a more practical level. The first part confronts Habermas' approach of communicative action [see Habermas, J. Moral consciousness and communicative action. (1991)] with Sloterdijk's concept of cynical reason [see Sloterdijk, P. Critic of cynical action. (1983), 2]. The second part focuses on the constraints and possibilities of moral communication within a business context (food industry). Discussing the corporate integrity approach of Kaptein and Wempe [see Kaptein, M., Wempe, J. The balanced company. A theory of corporate integrity. (2002)] provide this focus. Their approach can be considered as a valuable contribution to the question of how to deal with (dilemmas of) conflicting interests, open discussion, fairness, and strategic decision-making in the context of stakeholder dialogue. It is concluded that Kaptein and Wempe seem to overstretch the concept of corporate integrity by their inclination to make it an all-purpose remedy for corporate dilemmas.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Accountability
2. Agriculture
3. Communication
4. Constraints
5. Employees
6. Ethics
7. Food industry
8. Management
9. morality
10. peer-reviewed
11. Social psychology and social anthropology