Human capital - a business ethics perspective

Purpose: The subject of the article is the problem of object-oriented treatment of human resources. In the author’s opinion, despite the relatively long period of widespread respect for ethical requirements addressed to business entities, the issue of an instrumental, object-oriented approach to personnel employed in companies has not been satisfactorily resolved. The purpose of the article is to show that recourse to the assumptions of the feminist concept of ethics of care provides an opportunity to overcome the instrumental, subordinated to utilitarian goals approach to the issue of social responsibility in the field of human resource management. Design/methodology/approach: The author accepts the approach of cultural constructivism. The subject of the research is axiological assumptions applied to the issue of human resources, and the research method used is a critical analysis of scientific discourses in the field of economics and economic ethics. Findings: The author has shown that to facilitate change through an individual-focused approach to human resource management, it is essential to recognise and effectively eliminate the error of conflating economic ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the axiological framework of economics, which prioritises material utility. Harnessing the potential of the concept of ethics of care can be helpful in this regard. Originality/value: The value of the text is in proposing a - different from the traditional - account of human capital issues and in demonstrating how to overcome the axiological crisis in economics and economic ethics.