Abstract Despite the fact that business people and
business students often cast doubt on the relevance of
universal moral principles in business, the rejection of
relativism is a precondition for business ethics to get off the
ground. This paper proposes an educational strategy to
overcome the philosophical confusions about relativism in
which business people and students are often trapped. First,
the paper provides some conceptual distinctions and clarifications
related to moral relativism, particularism, and
virtue ethics. More particularly, it revisits arguments
demonstrating that virtues in business are not in contradiction
with the relevance of universal principles, despite
the fact that virtue ethics is often identified with particular
relationships and contexts. It goes on to show how students
and managers, but also researchers, often mix up radically
different conceptions of moral relativism. It is also argued
that this confusion is in part created by the cross-cultural
management literature in which the methodological stance
of the value-freedom of the social sciences is, in a perplexingly
mistaken way, transformed into a rejection of all
normative discussion and a plea for relativism. The
remainder of the paper presents some tools that may be
helpful in steering people toward less simplistic views
about moral relativism and virtue ethics. It further argues
that it is equally important to spell out that moral universalism
can be understood in a humble way, without
implying either arrogant ethnocentrism or omniscience, as
part of an ongoing debate that progresses gradually