Business Ethics: Four Spheres of Executive Responsibility

Barnard Chester , The Functions of the Executive (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), p. 278.

Sartre Jean-Paul , Dirty Hands, in No Exit and Three Other Plays, translated by Abel Lionel (New York, NY: Vintage International, 1989), p. 218. The specific problem Sartre poses, the problem of “dirty hands” in public life, is analyzed in Walzer Michael , “Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands,” Philosophy and Public Affairs (Winter 1973), pp. 160–180.

I am using the notion of spheres in a way that is roughly analogous to that developed by the political philosopher Michael Walzer. His analysis of distributive justice is based upon a division of social life into different spheres of activities—each centered upon different goods—such as health or education. Walzer argues that the moral standards governing the distribution of each of these goods derive not from some grand, overarching theory of justice but rather from the particular meanings associated with a good in a particular community with a particular history. See Walzer Michael , Spheres of Justice (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1983), pp. 3–30.

Tawney Richard H. , Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926), p. 184.

Clark Robert C. , “Agency Costs Versus Fiduciary Duties,” in Pratt John W. Zeckhauser Richard J. , eds., Principals and Agents: The Structure of Business, (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1985), pp. 71–79.

Schumpeter Joseph , Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3rd edition (New York, NY: Harper Colophon/Harper & Row, 1975), pp. 67–68, 83.

Nozick Robert , Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc., 1974), p. 163.

See Tsuchiya Moriaki , “The Japanese Firm as a Capsule,” Japanese Economic Studies (Fall 1984), pp. 8–41.

See Milgram Stanley , Obedience to Authority (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1974).

Niebuhr Reinhold , Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics (New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons, 1932), p. xi.

Richardson G.B. , “The Organization of Industry,” Economic Journal (October 1972), p. 883.