Why Business Ethics is Considered “Oxymoron”??

Business ethics, it has been claimed, is an oxymoron (Collins 1994). By an oxymoron, we mean the bringing together of two apparently contradictory concepts, such as in ‘a cheerful pessimist’ or ‘a deafening silence’.

An oxymoron is a phrase in which the parts are contradictory or incongruous in one of several ways. Frequently, at least one of the words in an oxymoron is not used literally or has multiple meanings, and the apparent self-contradiction arises from this.

Business ethics is considered oxymoron. Usually the biggest question on everyone's mind is how a businessman can be ethical at the same time. But, all businesses have to care about ethics all the time. They need to take good care of their managers and employees. There are some of the unethical activities such as fraud and defalcations which is against company policies.

The questions determine if Business Ethic can be an oxymoron is very relevant because these two areas seem to be very incompatible. Indeed if we have a look to their respective definitions they do not work together first. Succeeding in business is largely about advancing our own private interests, aggressively competing against other people, beating them out for the same prize, and having unlimited ambition for money, position, and power. The moral life by contrast, focuses on our duties to hurt anyone (deliberately or accidentally), to place other people's interest ahead of our own when it's called for, and always to treat others with the dignity and respect they deserve.