Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:22:57.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Business as Mediating Institution1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Timothy L. Fort
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper argues that business can be helpfully conceived of as a mediating institution. Drawing upon neo-conservative theology, the author argues that mediating institutions serve a vital function in a free society to provide social justice out of an expanded civil society and provide a framework for a flourishing free market. Such institutions also nourish the attitudinal orientation of solidarity in applying the principle of subsidiarity by which self-interest becomes fulfilled through concern for others.

The author further argues that businesses also be conceived of as mediating institutions and thereby be held to criteria of meeting associational needs. In addition to normative reasons for revising the social contract so that businesses do serve the role of mediating institutions, contemporary management theories demonstrate that businesses can also meet their social obligations of creating wealth while meeting associational needs.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 149 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1996

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.)

Footnotes

1.

Copyright 1995 by Timothy L. Fort. All rights reserved.

References

Notes

3. See Michael, J. Phillips, “Corporate Moral Personhood and Three Conceptions of the Corporation,” Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 2 (1992), p. 435Google Scholar citing John Marshall on 437 in Trustees of Dartmouth College v Woodward 17 U.S. (4 Wheat) 518, 636 (1819). Phillips helpfully characterizes the various conceptions of corporations as the concession theory, the aggregate theory and the real entity theory.

4. Stephen, B. Presser, Thwarting the Killing of the Corporation: Limited Liability, Democracy and Economics, 87 Nw. L.R. 148, 156 (1991).Google Scholar

5. Morey, W. McDaniel, “Stockholders and Stakeholders,” Stetson Law Review, vol. 21 (1991), p. 121.Google Scholar

6. Phillips, supra note 3 at 438-439.

7. 18 U.S. 394(1886).

8. Herbert, V. Hovenkamp, Enterprise and American Law: 1836-1937, vol. 21 (1991).Google Scholar

9. Berle, A., “The 20th Century Capitalist Revolution” (1954), p. 169Google Scholar in James, J. Hanks, “Playing With Fire: Nonshareholder Constituency Statutes in the 1990s,” Stetson Law Review, vol. 21 (1991), pp. 97–98.Google Scholar

10. Jeffrey, Nesteruk, “The Moral Status of the Corporation: Comments on an Inquiry,” Business Ethics Quarterly, vol 2. (1992), p. 461.Google Scholar

11. Edward Freeman, R., Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984).Google Scholar

12. John, Boatright, “What So Special about Shareholders?” Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 4 (1994), p. 393.Google Scholar

13. For a review of the various arguments for corporate constituency statutes and their relevant literature, see Timothy, L. Fort, “Corporate Constituency Statutes: A Dialectical Interpretation,” University of Pittsburgh Journal of Law and Commuication (1996).Google Scholar

14. Id.

15. Thomas, Donaldson and Thomas, V. Dunfee, “Towards a Unified Conception of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contract Theory, Academy of Management Review, vol. 19 (1994), p. 252.Google Scholar

16. Michael, Keeley, A Social Contract Theory of Organizations (1988).Google Scholar

17. See e.g., Katherine, Van Wezel Stone, “Employees as Stakeholders Under State Nonshareholder Constituency Statutes,” Stetson Law Review, vol. 21 (1991), p. 45.Google Scholar

18. Milton, Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits,” The New York Times Magazine (September 30, 1970), p. 33.Google Scholar

19. See Hayek, F.A., Law, Legislation, Liberty: The Political Order of a Free People, (1982), p. 82.Google Scholar

20. Robert, Solomon, Ethics and Excellence (1992).Google Scholar

21. LaRue, Tone Hosmer, “Why Be Moral? A Different Rationale For Managers,” Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 4 (1994), p. 191.Google Scholar

22. Michael, Novak, The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1993).Google Scholar

23. David, Ruder, “Public Obligations of Private Corporations” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, (1965), p. 209.Google Scholar

24. See generally, Juliet, Schor, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (1992).Google Scholar

25. Id. at 45.

26. Id.

27. Id. at 46-48.

28. Alexis, de Toqueville, Democracy in America, Book Two at 114 (Henry Reeve Trans; revised by Frances, Bown; Phillips, Brad, ed) (1945).Google Scholar

29. Id. at 131.

30. Richard, John Neuhaus, Doing Well and Doing Good: The Challenge to the ChristianCapitalist (1992), p. 240.Google Scholar

31. Charles, Taylor, Multiculturalism and “The Politics of Recognition” (1992), pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

32. See generally, Robert, Nisbet, The Quest For Community: A Study in the Ethics of Freedom and Order (1990).Google Scholar

33. Id. at 50.

34. See generally, Abraham, Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation Psychological Review (1943), pp. 370–96.Google Scholar

35. Id.

36. See generally, Walker, C. R. and Guest, R. H., The Man on the Assembly Line (1952).Google Scholar

37. See generally, Herzberg, F., Work and the Nature of Man (1966).Google Scholar

38. See generally, McClelland, D. C. and Winter, D. G., Motivating Economic Achievement (1971).Google Scholar

39. See Solomon, supra note 20.

40. See Donaldson & Dunfee, supra note 15.

41. See Keeley, supra note 16.

42. See Freeman, supra note 11.

43. Boatright, supra note 12.

44. See e.g., Nisbet, supra note 32 at 89-108.

45. Id. at 91-92; 105-106.

46. Id. at 134-135.

47. Id. at 116-135.

48. Donaldson & Dunfee, supra note 15 at 257 citing Herbert, Simon, Models of BoundedRationality (1982).Google Scholar

49. John Haughey, S. J.The Holy Use Of Money (1986), pp. 3–6.Google Scholar

50. Id. at 4.

51. Nisbet, supra note 32 at 255-256.

52. See generally, The Federalist Papers.

53. Robert, N. Bellah, et.al. The Good Society (1992), p. 92.Google Scholar

54. Patricia, Werhane, Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism (1991), p. 113.Google Scholar

55. Hayek, F. A., The Fatal Conceit (1988), pp. 12–15.Google Scholar

56. Id. at 136-137.

57. Robert, Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (1977), p. 143.Google Scholar

58. Ronald, Takaki, Through a Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), p. 426.Google Scholar

59. Michael, Keeley, The Trouble with Transformational Leadership (1995), p. 78.Google Scholar

60. Hayek, supra note 19 at 3.

61. Jonathan, Macey, “An Economic Analysis of the Various Rationales For Making Share-holders the Exclusive Beneficiaries of Corporate Fiduciary Duties,” Stetson Law Review, vol. (1991), pp. 23, 33;Google Scholar Van Wezel Stone, supra note 17 at 54-55, 70-71.

62. James, J. Hanks, “Playing With Fire: Nonshareholder Constituency Statutes in the 1990s,” Stetson Law Review, vol. 21(1991), pp. 97, 111.Google Scholar

63. See generally, Peter, Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1974).Google Scholar

64. Id. at 100.

65. Id.

66. Id.

67. See generally, Charles, Hampden-Turner, Creating Corporate Culture: From Discord to Harmony (1990).Google Scholar

68. Id. at 55.

69. Id. at 58-59.

70. Id.

71. Id.

72. Id. at 60.

73. Timothy, L. Fort, “The Spirituality of Solidarity and Total Quality Management” Business and Professional Ethics Journal (1996).Google Scholar

74. See generally, Tom, Chappell, The Soul of a Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good (1993).Google Scholar

75. Id. at 61-62.

76. Id. at 71.