Why Business Ethics is Considered “Oxymoron”?

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines incongruous or contradictory terms. Oxymorons or called as oxymora are literary figures of speech usually composed of a pair of neighbouring contradictory words (often within a sentence). However this is not always the case. The Webster Dictionary defines oxymoron as "a combination of contradictory or incongruous words".

By oxymoron, we mean the bringing together of two apparently contradictory concepts such as cheerful pessimist or deafening silence.

       The question 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.

       An oxymoron is the juxtaposition of two apparently contradictory words or concepts. The very contradiction that is inherent in Business Ethics is an indication of the challenge that individuals who work for organisations face when they have to take decisions that involves conflicts of interest. Aim of business and ethics are contradictory and incompatible (apparently). Business ethics put values in conflict according to Trevino and Nelson on 2007. The global concept of business is fundamentally based on the principle of competation for limited resources. That means the practice of maximizing one's gains at the expense of others. The outcome is the creation of a hierarchy of those who have and those who have not. Therefore the aim is "to eliminate" the others in orders in order to obtain more. As said Mielton Friedman "The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits".