Corporations Are Not Moral Agents
1. Corporations are not persons. They are artificial legal constructions, machines for mobilizing economic investments toward the efficient production of goods and services. We cannot hold a corporation responsible. We can only hold its individual responsible.
2. It is not necessary. Why is it necessary to project moral responsibility to the level of the organization? Doesn't ethics finally rest on the honesty and integrity of the individual in the business world?
Kenneth Goodpaster, John B. Matthews Can a Corporation have a Conscience? Harvard Business Review, January-February, 1982
John Ladd Philosopher, Brown University
• The Structure of a Moral Code (1956) • Ethical Relativism (1973, 1985) • Ethical Issues Relating to Life and Death (1979)
"It is improper to expect organizational conduct to conform to the ordinary principles of morality. We cannot and must not expect Formal organizations, or their representatives acting in their official Capacities, to be honest, courageous, considerate, sympathetic, or to have any kind of moral integrity. Such concepts are not in the vocabulary, so to speak, of the organizational language game.”
Can a “legal” person be moral?
(the fragment of The Corporation movie) Topic 5. Managing CSR in Company
Individual vs. Organizations
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