Business Ethics: A Trojan Horse?

Drucker Peter F. , “What is ‘Business Ethics’?” The Publıc Interest, Vol. 63 (Spring 1981), p. 18; essentially the same article was reprinted in Forbes, Vol. 128 (14 September 1981).

Ibid., p. 22.

Ibid., p. 26.

For a review of principles from ethical theory, see LaCroix W. L. , Principles for Ethics in Business (Washington D.C.: University Press of America, 1979), pp. 11–19; Connerly John , “Morality of Consequences: A Critical Appraisal,” Theological Studies, Vol. 34 (September 1973) pp. 396–414; and a response to Connerly's analysis, O'Connell Timothy E. , Principles For A Catholıc Morality (New York: Seabury Press, 1978), pp. 144–149.

Drucker , op. cit., pp. 24–25.

For a discussion and bibliography on the history of casuistry, see Hamel E. , “Casuistry,” The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 195–197.

Drucker , op. cit., p. 34.

Ibid., pp. 35–36.

Perhaps the most insightful discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of casuistry is by Josef Pieper: “Casuistry, then, must be regarded as no more than a highly useful, and probably necessary, aid; certainly not as an absolute standard for making ethical judgments and performing concrete ethical actions. To confound model and reality, to put too great a valuation on casuistry, is equivalent to misunderstanding the meaning and rank of the virtue of prudence.” See Pieper Josef , Prudence (New York: Pantheon Books, 1959), pp. 52–53.

Ibid.

Cf. MK 2:23 - 3:6.

This approach to morally evaluating an action has been increasingly criticized by contemporary scholars. For a survey of this literature, see O'Connell Timothy E. , Principles For A Catholıc Morality, pp. 169–173; and Connerly , op. cit.

Ramsey Paul , “Incommensurability and Indeterminancy in Moral Choices,” in McCormick Richard A. , S.J. (ed.) Doing Evil To Achıeve Good (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1978), pp. 69–144; and idem (ed.), War and the Christıan Conscience (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1961).

McCormick Richard A. , S.J., “A Commentary on the Commentaries,” in McCormick , Doing Evil, pp. 231–241.

Ibid., p. 235.

McCormick Richard A. , S.J., “Ambiguity in Moral Choice, in McCormick, Doing Evil, p. 45.

Drucker , op. cit., pp. 20–21.

McCormick , “Ambiguity.”

For a good discussion of how tactics differ from prudence, see Pieper , op. cit., p. 42f.

Another firm that I have researched, Hewlett-Packard, could have served equally well for this study.

See Green Mark , “When Corporations Become Consumer Lobbyists: On Conscience and Profits,” in Vogel David Bradshaw Thornton , Corporations and Their Critics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), p. 20; and Cann Robert , Footprınts on the Planet: A Search For An Environmental Ethic (New York: Universe Books, 1978), Chapter 10, “Environment's Stake at Cummins,” pp. 115–23.

For a further discussion of a stakeholder management at Cummins, see Schacht Henry B. Powers Charles W. , “Business Responsibility and the Public Policy Process,” in Vogel Bradshaw (eds.), pp. 23–32. Schacht is chairman and chief executive officer of Cummins Engine Company. The ethics course at Cummins has been designed and is taught by the director of corporate responsibility, Michael R. Rion.

Quoted in the Cummins Engine Company case study, Personnel Sourcing and Development (A), pp. 2–3.

The Allied Chemical Corporation has also instituted a course in business ethics as a part of a management development program.

For a good survey of current thinking on courses in business ethics see Jones Donald G. , “Teaching Business Ethics: State of the Art and Normative Critique,” The Annual of the Society of Christıan Ethics (Waterloo, Ontario: Council on the Study of Religion, 1981), pp. 185–215.

Drucker points toward an ethics of character when he advises managers to “practice behavior appropriate to the sort of person they would want to see ‘in the mirror in the morning.’” Drucker , op. cit., pp. 36.

Cf. LaCroix , op. cit., pp. 11–19.

For an example of how an ethics of character might be employed in business ethics, see Williams Oliver F. Houck John W. , Full Value: Cases in Christıan Business Ethics (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978).

Cf. Aristotle, Ethics, Book 10, Chapter 9, and Politics, Book 1, Chapter 13; and Aquinas Thomas , Summa Theologica, Part I-II, Q. 95, AI, ANS. See also Hauer-Was Stanley , Character and the Christıan Life: A Study in Theologıcal Ehics (San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press, 1975).