Basic ethical principles applied to service industries

Abstract

This article provides a general framework for ethics in service industries. The argument is that the four ethical principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability can have significance as basic ethical principles that are guiding ideas of business ethics in service industries. In particular, ethical principles are important in the industries of health care and other services that deal directly with human beings. Indeed, ethical principles are important for treating customers, users and consumers of service industries firms, but they also apply to other stakeholders of the service firm. This article shows that the basic ethical principles do not only apply at the individual level, but also get their significance at the organisational level. Thus, the ethical ideas of autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability are very important in order to propose an ethical framework for value-driven management of service industries firms. They are important as the foundation of justice and responsibility in service industry organisations.