The reappearance of ethical concems reflects the profound disquiet in our societies in the wake of the triumph of instrumental rationality, with its tendency of making human beings into manipulatable objects. This perversion of rationality finds its expression particularly in companies, in spite of the fact that they are attempting to integrate a concem for ethics into their functioning at this time. It can be observed that, in doing this, their goal is most frequently to develop a strong consensus around the ideais from which they take their inspiration, both from their members and from the social body as a whole. We must ask what are the real ethical issues that confront modem organizations. To this end, the ethics of conviction, of responsability and of discussion are reviewed here. A fourth form of ethics, the ethics of finitude are considered. Can organizations make a place for this ethics? The question is in any case worth asking.
ethical issues; rationality; modern organizations; responsabilities