Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T10:23:10.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are Business Managers “Professionals”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Thomas Donaldson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper examines two issues about professionalism and business that appear at first blush to be entirely separate. The first is the question of who counts as a “professional,” and whether, in particular, business people are “professionals.” The second issue is how acknowledged professionals that regularly interact with business, such as accountants, lawyers, and physicians, can find the moral free space necessary to maintain professional integrity in the face of financial pressures. Conflicts of interest for professionals working in corporations recur with disturbing regularity, and often have serious consequences. In the end I will show how both issues share a common solution. The solution involves understanding the normative function of the manager in the modern corporation, a function, I will argue, made more conspicuous by work over the last two decades done in the areas of stakeholder theory, corporate social performance (CSP), and social contract theory. The remainder of the paper is devoted to articulating these two problems and clarifying their common solution.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 83 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anurag, S. 1997. Professional as agent: Knowledge asymmetry in agency exchange. Academy of Management Review 22, no. 3.Google Scholar
Bero, L.; Barnes, D. E.; Hanauer, P.; Slade, J.; and Glantz, S. A. 1995. Lawyer Control of the Tobacco Industry’s External Research Program: The Brown and Williamson Documents. JAMA 274: 241–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brien, A. 1998. Professional ethics and the culture of trust. Journal of Business Ethics 17: 391–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crozier, M. C. U. o. C. P. 1964. The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Davis, M. 1987. The Use of Professions. Business Economics 22: 5–10.Google Scholar
Davis, M. 1996. Professional autonomy: A framework for empirical research. Business Ethics Quarterly 6: 441–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1982. Corporations and Morality. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. and Dunfee, T. 1999. Ties that Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Boston: Harvard University Business School Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. and Preston, L. 1995. The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications. Academy of Management Review 20: 65–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunfee, T. W. 1997. Social Contract Theory. In The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics, ed. Werhane, P. H. and Freeman, R. E., pp. 585–589. Oxford: Blackwell Business.Google Scholar
Dunlap, A. J. 1997. Why I’m Taking On the Arrogant AMA. Wall Street Journal, January 17.Google Scholar
Eastman, K. L.; Eastman, J. K.; and Eastman, A. D. 1996. The ethics of insurance professionals: Comparison of personal versus professional ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 15: 951–962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emanuel, L. 1997. Professionalism. Presentation to American Medical Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Fort, T. L. 1996. Trust and law’s facilitating role. American Business Law Journal 34: 205–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M. 1970. The Social Responsibility of Business Is To Increase Its Profits. New York Times Magazine, September 13, pp. 32–33.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. M. 1997. Fakes. Truth or consequences: A study of critical issues and decision making in accounting. Journal of Business Ethics 16: 161–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, A. H. 1992. Professional Ethics. In Encyclopedia of Ethics, vol. 2, ed. Becker, L. C. and Becker, C. B., pp. 1018–1020. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Graham, J., and Van, J. 1997. AMA Chief Quits Over Product Deal. Chicago Tribune, December 5, p. 1.Google Scholar
Hanauer, P.; Slade, J.; Barnes, D. E.; Bero, L.; and Glantz, S. A. 1995. Lawyer Control of Internal Scientific Research to Protect Against Products Liability Lawsuits: The Brown and Williamson Documents. JAMA 274: 234–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosmer, L. T. 1995. Trust: The connecting link between organizational theory and philosophical ethics. Academy of Management Review 20: 379–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamal, K., and Bowie, N. E. 1995. Theoretical considerations for a meaningful code of professional ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 14: 703–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansen, E., and Von Glinow, M. A. 1985. Ethical Ambivalence and Organizational Reward Systems. Academy of Management Review 10: 814–822.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, J. 1997. Sunbeam Sues AMA Over Deal; Dunlap Blasts Group’s ‘Arrogance,’ Seeks $20 Million. Chicago Tribune, September 9, p. 1: Zone N.Google Scholar
Levin, M. 1998. Years of Immunity and Arrogance Up In Smoke: Tobacco Companies Face ‘Death of A Thousand Paper Cuts’ from 40 Years’ Worth of Incriminating Documents. Times, May 10, p. 1D.Google Scholar
Morris, M. H. A. S. M. J. A. A., and Peery, N. S. Jr. 1996. Auditors’ ability to discern the presence of ethical problems. Journal of Business Ethics 15: 1119–1130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, T. 1939. The Professions and Social Structure. Social Forces 17: 457–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, R. D.; Leonardi, R.; and Nanetti, R. Y. 1994. Making Democracy Work : Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1993. Markets and freedoms: Achievements and limitations of the market mechanism in promoting individual freedoms. Oxford Economic Papers 45: 519–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R. C. and Walter, I. 1997. Street Smarts: Linking Professional Conduct with Shareholder Value in the Securities Industry. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Stackhouse, M. L., and McCann, D. P. 1991. A Postcommunist Manifesto: Public Theology After the Collapse of Socialism. The Christian Century, January 16, pp. 44–47.Google Scholar
Wood, D. 1991. Corporate Social Performance Revisited. Academy of Management Review 16: 691–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar