The nature of business social ethics in heterodox epistemological worldviews
The model of general system is a process-orientation of learning dynamics in and across complexly interrelated orders. Within such a general system model is found the specific field of unified, that is organic and endogenously circularly inter-related embedding between economy, finance, and the business world-systems. Business social ethics or socio-business ethicality is a problem of epistemological genre. It glues the circularly inter-related sub-systems and their representative behavioral preferences and variables in an explanatory way. Formulation of the emergent analytics in comparative perspectives between mainstream and Islamic economic, finance and business world-systems according to their distinct moral and ethical episteme is the objective of this paper. The true epistemological direction to the systemic understanding of socio-business ethicality is opened up for conceptual and applied investigation. The comparative study of morality and ethics that characterizes social ethicality of the embedded organizational and business world with human and social consciousness in it belongs to the generalized epistemological premise of unity of knowledge as mentioned above. But this methodological approach takes up a distinctive character in the Islamic worldview from the moral and ethical understanding in mainstream business ethical theory. The emergent methodology is thereby of a heterodox Epistemological nature. The Islamic heterodox difference, which is of a significant nature, replaces the rationalistic individual behavioral aggregation of ethical preferences into social business ethicality, is a utilitarian model. In it lateral aggregation fails to explain the interactive, integrative and evolutionary learning nature of social ethicality that the Islamic episteme of oneness establishes. Business and organization get embedded in ethics as generic forces derived from the episteme of oneness of knowledge. Thereby, ethics derived from epistemic oneness plays its role throughout the social structure of such institutions. Individual ethics and social ethics are causally interrelated in social reconstruction of business and organization by evolutionary learning according to epistemic oneness. This universal epistemic worldview remains in action in ethical-social reconstruction. An extensive review of the literature is critically studied both for mainstream and Islamic cases against the emergent moral reconstruction of the social ethicality of business and organization. It is found that the epistemological approach of unity of knowledge explains social ethicality of business organization in terms of the resulting extensively systemic worldview. Such a perspective is not usually understood in traditional theory of business ethics. Consequently, the theory of business social ethics remains deficient of its otherwise systemic meaning. Social business conveys the overarching ethics in business and organizational behavior. The focus and objective of this paper is to develop the Islamic heterodox epistemological theory of social ethics and point out its inner dynamics and potential application. This task is carried out in contrast between the mainstream and prevailing Islamic heterodox perspectives of theory, comprehension, and conduct of business ethics on epistemic grounds.