Heidi von Weltzien Hoivik – författare

The role of consultants in business life has increased dramatically, along with the need for ethical guidelines for their behaviour. This text explores consultancy at many levels, in different fields and in different countries, including Eastern Europe. The focus is on the ethics of consultants be they in government, private enterprises, or are lobbying large organizations. The ethics of the client is not ignored either and recommendations are given as to how the client and consultant roles should function. An entire section of the book is dedicated to consultancy and ethics in Eastern Europe, where definitions are perhaps not as black-and-white as in Western Europe. Additionally, this volume explores the question of teaching business ethics to the next generation of business leaders. Ethics is a complicated, often very personal subject. This book gives readers an insight into just how difficult it can be to behave "properly" in today's consulting world.

The present volume in a series of books produced from European Business Eth­ ics Network (EBEN) conferences in Europe, is a compilation of plenary speeches and papers presented at the 1993 EBEN conference in Oslo, Norway. The theme of this year's conference was "The Use of Consultancy: Ethical Demands and Require­ ments" and there was a special focus on Eastern Europe. Of over 40 papers present­ ed at the conference from 165 participants representing 23 countries, we present here 20 selected by the editors as providing an overview of the latest thinking from both academicians and practitioners on the subject of ethics in consulting. Due to strict constraints on space in this volume, several valuable papers presented at the conference must be published elsewhere. We have also tried to maintain the unique flavor of the papers by authors whose mother tongue is not English. The consulting profession is booming in Europe, both in the West and in the for­ mer Communist Bloc countries. However, it has not previously been subjected to rigorous scrutiny from the ethical point of view. The conference planning commit­ tee thus sought to put the spotlight on the spreading phenomenon of buying and selling consultancy services within the European Union, within Europe and with the new Eastern Europe. The conference addressed several ethical challenges facing either the buyers or providers of consultancy services in both the private and public sectors.

This book provides a description and analysis of how the concept of business ethics has been received, adopted, adapted and developed in different countries in Europe. While a substantial Europe-wide dialogue about business ethics research and education has taken place since about 1990, especially as a result of the establishment of the European Business Ethics Network, implementation has varied by country, because Europe is a patchwork of cultures, value systems, political ideologies, intellectual traditions and business systems at different stages of development. Each country, particularly the former communist states, presents its own unique challenges. Yet there are also issues that are common to all or most countries, even if the ways they have been manifested and responded to have differed, depending on the countries’ institutional frameworks and traditions. This book explores the rich variety in business ethics research and education across a diverse range of European countries. Each chapter presents the expert view of individual business ethics scholars in the respective countries. Their perspectives and recollections are those of reflective professionals, and therefore unique, insightful, and bearing the mark of a deep conviction and personal engagement. This is the story of European business ethics told from within, which will be of great value to all business ethics scholars wishing to understand the development of their field.