Implications of business ethics for quality management

In the academic world research in the fields of quality management and business ethics are often separated. One reason for this is that the origins are very different; business ethics stemming from philosophy while quality management has developed from management studies. With the present developments in both fields there are strong reasons to link the disciplines. In both quality management and business ethics it is common practice to discuss issues of responsibility. Does this imply that both disciplines are reflecting the same topics? This article is an attempt to clarify the links between quality management and business ethics in order to show what quality management can learn from insights out of the field of business ethics.