Exploring ethical implications of personal relationships in dyadic business exchanges

Abstract

This paper explores the ethical implications of the existence of personal relationships in business exchanges. Firstly, this paper introduces personal relationship in business exchanges. Secondly, three normative theories of business ethics that are related to the issue of personal relationship are presented. Finally, this paper explores the ethical implications on personal relationships according to the three theories. The main recommendation of this paper is that an analysis of personal relationships using ethical theories is needed to formulate laws and regulate such relationships and ultimately eliminate their negative consequences on organisations’ profitability.