Expanding Workers’ ‘Moral Space’: A Liberal Critique of Corporate Capitalism

This paper assesses employees’ moral agency within corporate capitalism from a politically liberal standpoint. While political liberalism has spelt out its key institutional implications at state level, it has neglected moral agency at work, assuming that a rights-based state that secures freedom of contract, free choice of occupation and a free labour market within a fair context would protect it sufficiently. Yet two features of corporate capitalism constrain employees’ moral agency: the relation of authority that forms part of the work contract and organisations’ fragmented decision-making processes. Both seem at odds with the liberal ideal of allowing people to live by their own conception of the good. Consequently, this paper examines whether political liberalism should recommend greater safeguards for protecting workers’ moral agency. It proposes a criterion for assessing corporate capitalism: the ‘moral space’ defined as the socially shaped opportunities for action that can be enacted or endorsed from a comprehensive perspective. It argues that liberals should favour arrangements that widen workers’ moral space and suggests institutional designs that may achieve this while remaining within liberal boundaries.     

Positioning Business Ethics in Relation to Management and Political Philosophy

This paper attempts to mediate between the extremes of a managerial conception of business ethics which subordinates it to management and a political conception which subordinates it to political philosophy. The mediated position arrived at sees the central focus of business ethics in the intersection of micro-managerial concerns with macro-political ones provided by the task of determining morally optimum forms of business. Involvement with the macro rules out subordination to management while, conversely, involvement with the micro rules out subordination to political philosophy. Moreover, such is the (increasing) social importance of business, that business ethics can have at least co-equal explanatory status with political philosophy as a discipline.     

The ethics of psychoactive ads

Many of today's ads work by arousing the viewer's emotions. Although emotion-arousing ads are widely used and are commonly thought to be effective, their careless use produces a side-effect: the psychoactive ad. A psychoactive ad is any emotion-arousing ad that can cause a meaningful, well-defined group of viewers to feel extremely anxious, to feel hostile toward others, or to feel a loss of self-esteem. We argue that, because some ill-conceived psychoactive ads can cause harm, ethical issues must arise during their production. Current pretesting methods cannot identify the potentially psychoactive ads; therefore, we offer some tentative guidelines for reducing the number of viewers harmed by psychoactive ads.No professional, be he doctor, lawyer, or manager, can promise that he will indeed do good for his client. All he can do is try. But he can promise that he will not knowingly do harm.... Peter F. Drucker, Management ... [C]oncern for consumer welfare includes an obligation to critically evaluate all marketing techniques that have indeterminant psychological effects. Spence and Moinpour, 1972, p. 43 Dr. Michael R. Hyman is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Houston — Clear Lake. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, Institute for Management Science, Academy of Marketing Science, Southern Marketing Association, and World Future Society. His work has appeared in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Business Horizons, and several AMA national proceedings. His current research interests include foundations research and philosophical analyses in marketing. Dr. Richard Tansey is an Instructor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin — Green Bay. He has his Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, at Austin, Texas. He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of West Florida. He minored in philosophy of history and psycho-history while earning his Ph.D. He received a Woodrow Wilson graduate fellowship in philosophy in 1971–1972. His work has appeared in Business Horizons.     

Economy suspended: the possibilities of a Badiouian business ethics

In the philosophy of Alain Badiou, ethics can only arise in relation to an evental truth procedure that breaks from the economic logic of a situation. Further, because for Badiou there cannot be economic truths per se – rather, economic matters must be understood in their relation to one or more truths in the domain of love, art, science or politics – a Badiouian business ethics would look entirely distinct from any ethics that simply places limits on certain kinds of economic activity. Although Slavoj ?i?ek, among others, has suggested that this marks an essential weakness in Badiou's economic/political theory, it may actually be the greatest strength of his position. Within a capitalist system, a Badiouian business ethics would then be a question of mobilizing economic resources in order to serve the ongoing construction of a truth procedure. For a business to be considered ethical on Badiou's terms, it must break – and continue to break – from the dominant logic of capitalism and its merely economic pursuit of profit maximization.     

The crisis of American business

This paper is a response to the preceding papers. It is maintained that American business is failing to live up to its obligations to society. One reason for this is acceptance of what De George calls the Myth of Amoral Business. Businessmen believe that morality is either not applicable to business or that business has a special morality of its own. Several arguments are advanced to show why this is not true. A second reason business is failing to fulfill its obligations is that egoism seems to be an essential feature of capitalism. Harrington believes that this should be changed, but that attempts to change it are bringing about a more collectivist society. Kirk sees no need for change because he believes capitalism the best possible economic system. It is argued in reply that they are both mistaken because their analyses are based on outmoded ideologies which impede rather than aid us in solving problems caused by the irresponsibility of business. Gene G. James is Professor of Philosophy at Memphis State University. He is Managing Editor of The Southern Journal of Philosophy. He is the author of a number of articles on ethics and political philosophy, and is co-author of a logic text.     

“舍己”能“断离”吗？自我牺牲型领导对员工工作疏离感的跨层次影响

巨变时代，员工工作疏离感的消极体验所带来的负面效应不可小觑，领导者如何降低员工的工作疏离感成为学术界与实践界关注的热点。文章整合社会交换理论与社会信息处理理论，以322名员工为样本，基于组织集体主义视角揭示了自我牺牲型领导对员工工作疏离感的跨层次影响机制。研究结果表明：自我牺牲型领导对员工工作疏离感有显著的跨层次负向作用，上下级关系中介了自我牺牲型领导对工作疏离感的作用；组织集体主义不仅跨层次中介自我牺牲型领导与工作疏离感的关系，而且跨层次调节上下级关系与工作疏离感之间的负向关系。     

U.S. CEOs of SBUs in Luxury Goods Organizations: A Mixed Methods Comparison of Ethical Decision-Making Profiles

This study involved using a mixed method research design to examine the moral philosophy difference between the ethical decision-making process of CEOs in U.S.-led and non-U.S.-led within the luxury goods industry. The study employed a MANOVA to compare the ethical profiles between the two leader types (US and non-US led) and a phenomenological qualitative process to locate themes that give indication as to the compatibility of the luxury strategy values and practices with the principles and concepts of responsible leadership and conscious capitalism. As the luxury goods industry is facing the first slowdown since 2000, pressure to achieve sales targets in the U.S. to make up for losses in other markets will place these CEOs under extreme pressure from their headquarters. These leaders must possess the ethical decision-making capability to balance legal and moral dilemmas unique to multinational luxury goods organizations while delivering business results in a challenging environment. Results of the study show no evidence of difference in the ethical decision-making profiles between the two groups of leaders. The themes and emergent findings resulting from the qualitative analysis indicate a profound incompatibility between the values informing decision-makers using the luxury strategy and those employed by leaders operating within the principles and parameters of responsible leadership and conscious capitalism. Recommendations for future research include replicating the study with a larger sample, within a different geographic region or comparing leaders using the luxury strategy to those using conscious capitalism.     

Sismondi's forgotten ethical critique of early capitalism

The purpose of this paper is to bring attention to Sismondi's forgotten ethical critique of laissez-faire capitalism. It is a forgotten critique because Sismondi has to a large extent been neglected in the literature. He has been too quickly labelled an economic romanticist. It is ethical because Sismondi questioned what he called chrematistics, which to him was becoming the chief end of economics. Chrematistics is the science of the increase of wealth conceived of abstractly and not in relation to man or society. This was opposed to the provisioning principle which Sismondi saw as the key principle of economics. To Sismondi the object of economics is man not wealth. His critique of laissez-faire capitalism was from this perspective. This led Sismondi to propose state containment of capitalism so that the well-being of the whole community was attained. This proposal is an alternative to Marx's complete liquidiation of capitalism. Sismondi's ethical critique is important not only from the point of view of the history of political economy but also for an insight into what values and principles should be given priority in our economic systems today. Ross E. Stewart is a Ph.D. Student at the Department of Accountancy, University of Glasgow. He was previously Lecturer at the Department of Management Studies, University of Waikato, New Zealand and is holder of the Thomson McLintock Post-Graduate Fellowship in Accounting at the University of Glasgow. The present paper was presented at an Ethics Seminar on property at Regent College, Vancouver, B.C. Other publications have been in the Financial Accounting and Auditing areas, e.g. Accounting for Goodwill, R-112, New Zealand and Society of Accountants, September, 1980, and Independence the Auditor's Cornerstone, The Accountant's Journal (October, 1977).     

Moral theory and defective tobacco advertising and warnings (the business ethics of Cipollone v. Liggett Group)

Traditional moral theories help corporate decision-makers understand what position consumers, like Rose Cipollone, in Cipollone vs Liggett Group, will take against cigarette manufacturers who fail to warn of the dangers of smoking, conceal data about addiction and other dangers, from the public, as well as continue to neutralize the warnings on cigarettes by deceptive advertisements. John F. Quinn teaches philosophy and management at the University of Dayton. He did his doctoral studies at the University of Washington in philosophy and his legal doctorate at the University of Dayton. Recently new to business ethics, after years of teaching medieval philosophy and aesthetics, he brings a knowledge of business law and management to his work in business ethics. His book with J.M.B. Crawford on The Christian Foundations of Criminal Responsibility, an integration of medieval moral theology and the common law tradition of criminal responsibility, will soon be published by Mellon Press. He also practices law in Ohio in select corporate issues.     

Islam,entrepreneurship, and embeddedness

This study centers on the premise that entrepreneurship is an embedded process. Although “the entrepreneur” is inherently an “individual,” entrepreneurship can never be fully disembedded from the more general social settings within which any business venture is situated. An Islamic‐based economic discursive framework should be cognizant of the different forms of sociality, spatiality, and community as well as the various norms, codes, and symbols that define society more generally. The work of Karl Polanyi on embeddedness is engaged and juxtaposed with Islam's understanding of the ideal mode of economic discursive practices. Islamic economic models and Polanyi are both critical of the corrosive effects of unbridled capitalism and individualism that ultimately lead to reification and exploitation. The conclusion recommends more small‐N case studies by researchers and entrepreneurial educational materials that emphasize the importance of networks and local embeddedness.     

No longer violent enough?: Creative destruction,innovation and the ossification of neoliberal capitalism

ABSTRACT

My goal is to suggest that it is useful to distinguish analytically between capital’s primal, often direct violence against bodies and a systemic form of violence that is at the same time reproductive of the capitalist system and directed against its own creations. I suggest that this analytical separation allows us to see that on the one hand capitalist violence is intensifying and with it processes of exploitation, class bifurcation, downward mobility and environmental, political and social degradation. On the other hand, however, capitalism appears to be ossifying as it loses its ability to self-reproduce. The violent act of (periodically) destroying its own creation to make room for new production and formation is becoming stifled and nothing appears capable of blowing up the dead weight of capital that is suffocating living labour. Drawing on the work of David Graeber and Mariana Mazzucato I propose that, paradoxically, it is the logic of the market that causes the stifling of real innovation and thus capitalism’s ability to reproduce. It is in this sense that I claim that capitalism is no longer violent enough.     

Alienation and empowerment: Some ethical imperatives in business

The issue of worker alienation in the context of business ethics is critically examined. From a normative perspective, it is assumed that the minimal ethical requirement in business should include accountability for adverse consequences of management practice for workers in organizations. Using this standard, managerial actions that are responsible for worker alienation are considered unethical. The nature of work alienation and the organizational conditions responsible for it are outlined. Several dealienation measures in the form of empowerment strategies for management are presented as ethical imperatives.Rabindra N. Kanungo, Chaired Professor of Management, McGill University. Concentrating on the basic and applied areas of psychology and management, his publications include eight books and more than 100 articles in professional journals.The preparation of the paper is supported by the Power Corp. International Management Centre. The author is thankful to Manuel Mendonca for his suggestions and critical comments.     

论中国社会主义市场经济的理论基础

马克思的经济理论是中国社会主义市场经济的理论基础,主要包括:马克思的社会经济三形态理论;马克思的资本主义市场经济学说;马克思的商品经济理论。这一理论基础解答了如何将社会主义与市场经济相结合的伟大历史课题。     

Guanxi and Conflicts of Interest

Guanxi involves interpersonal obligations, which may conflict with other obligations people have that are based on general or abstract moral considerations. In the West, the latter have been widely accepted as the general source of obligations, which is perhaps tied to social changes associated with the rise of capitalism. Recently, Western ethicists have started to reconsider the extent to which personal relationships may form a distinct basis for obligation. In administration and management, salient bases for decision-making include deontological, consequentialist and personalist ethics. The first may be reflected in a bureaucratic approach, the second in a price system, and the third in arrangements like guanxi. Each has positive and negative aspects, but problems arise when they lead to conflicting obligations, as may occur for an office holder who has some obligations based in deontological considerations and others based in personal relationships. This is a type of conflict of interest. Such conflicts have been considered in the West, and remedies proposed. Problems arise especially in cases where it is not clear how to prioritise different obligations, and this has been noted as a difficulty in the Chinese legal system. Questions that need to be answered include not only questions about how to deal with conflicting obligations, but also questions about what institutions to accept as giving rise to obligations. Institutions themselves may be problematic not only because of their consequences for economic productivity, but because they are internally incoherent, and this may be manifested in frequent conflicts faced by office holders. Chris Provis studied and taught philosophy, then worked for some years in industrial relations and now is Associate Professor in the School of Management at the University of South Australia, and Deputy Director of the Ethics Centre of South Australia. He has published articles in journals including Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, and Business Ethics: A European Review. His book Ethics and Organisational Politics was published by Edward Elgar in 2004.     

Modernity/art and Marketing/aesthetics—a Note on the Social Aesthetics of Georg Simmel

This paper interrogates and contrasts representations of work and Utopia in two examples of popular culture. The examples are a sample of contemporary popular management books and a sample of work-related themes in the popular music of Bruce Springsteen. In comparing the two the paper examines how they both use utopian representations as a key element of their claims, yet do so in markedly different ways. It is argued that Springsteen uses a “voice from within” to explore the ambiguities and paradoxes that emerge from the gap between real experience and utopian desire. Conversely, popular management books tend to speak from a “voice from above” that actively suppress ambiguity and ignore power in order to reproduce the dominant ethos of contemporary capitalism. Thus while popular management provides uncritical support for its imaginary Utopia, Springsteen provides a compelling critique of the promises of economic freedom through capitalism—promises which management writers are so often complicit in (re)producing.     

A Marxist Approach to Business Ethics

This paper contains a philosophical explication of some of the essentials of a Marxist approach to business ethics. A Marxist approach is construed as a moral critique of capitalism. This paper hopes to lay the groundwork for a more detailed analysis of Karl Marx's critique of capitalist economies.     

Adam Smith and the ethics of contemporary capitalism

This paper presents a theoretical elaboration of the ethical framework of classical capitalism as formulated by Adam Smith in reaction to the dominant mercantilism of his day. It is seen that Smith's project was profoundly ethical and designed to emancipate the consumer from a producer and state dominated economy. Over time, however, the various dysfunctions of a capitalist economy — e.g., concentration of wealth, market power — became manifest and the utilitarian ethical basis of the system eroded. Contemporary capitalism, dominated as it is by large corporations, entrenched political interests and persistent social pathologies, bears little resemblance to the system which Smith envisioned would serve the common man. Most critiques of capitalism are launched from a Marxian-based perspective. We find, however, that by illustrating the wide gap between the reality of contemporary capitalism and the model of amoral political economy developed by Smith, the father of capitalism proves to be the most trenchant critic of the current order.G. R. Bassiry is currently professor of Management and international business at California State University, San Bernardino, California. Formerly he served as Vice President and Acting President of Farabi University. His most recent articles on business ethics include Ethics, Education, and Corporate Leadership,Journal of Business Ethics and Business Ethics and the United Nations: A Code of Conduct,Sam Advanced Management Journal. He has also published numerous journal articles on international business, corporate strategy and corporate leadership, and is the author ofPower vs. Profit by Arno Press of New York Times.Marc Jones is a management lecturer at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research interests include multinational corporations and economic development. He has worked as a financial analyst for Electronic Data Systems Corporation and as a management consultant for Peat Marwick Main & Company.     

The effects of social and moral integration on ethical standards: A comparison of American and Ukrainian business students

This paper examines levels of similarity in ethical outlooks in countries where economic and sociocultural values may differ markedly. We compared students from a capitalist country, the United States, with students from Ukraine, a country experiencing dramatic ideological confusion and economic change. We tested the hypothesis that greater social and moral integration, as operationalized by a lack of alienation and by religiousness, will directly affect one's willingness to engage in unethical business practices.The sample was composed of business students in both Ukraine and the United States. The survey instrument consisted of widely used scales for measuring alienation and religiousness. The measure of ethical standards was a vignette-based quasi-projective technique.Results showed that, for the sample as a whole, willingness to engage in unethical business behavior was related to higher levels of alienation and lower levels of religiousness. The Ukrainians were also much more willing to engage in unethical behavior than were the Americans. The explanation for this difference is unclear, however. For the Ukrainians, religiousness and alienation did not explain the patterns in unethical behavior, and relationships were very weak for the Americans. There may be some unmeasured factor, such as economic exigency, that is influencing the results. It simply may be that people choose to behave more ethically when they have the luxury to do so. Dr. Ellen Kennedy and Dr. Leigh Lawton are Professors in the Department of Marketing at the University of St. Thomas. They have published several articles together in the Journal of Business Ethics and in Industrial Marketing Management. Most of their research deals with cross-cultural ethics.     

Capitalism and its Regulation: A Dialogue on Business and Ethics

This dialogue engages with the ethics of politics of capitalism, and enacts a debate between two participants who have divergent views on these matters. Beginning with a discussion concerning definitions of capitalism, it moves on to cover issues concerning our different understandings of the costs and benefits of global capitalist systems. This then leads into a debate about the nature and purposes of regulation, in terms of whether regulation is intended to make competition work better for consumers, or to prevent negative outcomes for citizens. The conclusion speculates about the usefulness or otherwise of this Socratic method of dialogue.Martin Parker is Professor of Organisation and Culture at the University of Leicester Management Centre, having previously held positions at Staffordshire and Keele Universities. His research and writing is concerned with the ethics, politics and culture of organisation. Together with Campbell Jones and Rene ten Bos, he has just finished a textbook titled For Business Ethics which will be published by Routledge in 2005.Gordon Pearson is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Management, Keele University, having previously spent some fifteen years in academia teaching and writing mainly on strategy. Prior to that he spent thirty years in industrial general and strategic management.