Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:35:01.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In Defense of a Self-Disciplined, Domain-Specific Social Contract Theory of Business Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Ben Wempe
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article sets out two central theses. Both theses primarily involve a fundamental criticism of current contractarian business ethics (CBE), but if these can be sustained, they also constitute two boundary conditions for any future contractarian theory of business ethics. The first, which I label the self-discipline thesis, claims that current CBE would gain considerably in focus if more attention were paid to the logic of the social contract argument. By this I mean the aims set by the theorist and method of reasoning by which normative conclusions are drawn in the contract model. The second, to which I refer as the domain-specificity thesis, argues that current CBE needs to be better adapted to its field of application and the specific goals which it aims to establish. I will substantiate these two theses on the basis of a comparative analysis of CBE with two earlier families of social contract theories.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 2005 , pp. 113 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2005

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

Ackerman, B. A. 1980. Social Justice in the Liberal State. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Anshen, M. 1970. “Changing the Social Contract: A Role for Business.” The Columbia Journal of World Business 5(6); reprinted in Beauchamp, T. L. and Bowie, N. E., Ethical Theory and Business. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 97–103.Google Scholar
Barry, B. 1989. “Constructing Theories of Justice (2): Original Position Theories.” In Theories of Justice, 320–53. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Barry, B. 1995. Justice as Impartiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boatright, J. R. 2000. “Contract Theory and Business Ethics: A Review of Ties That Bind. Business and Society Review 105: 452–66.Google Scholar
Bowie, N. E. 1991. “Moral Decision Making and Multinationals.” Business Ethics Quarterly 1: 223–33.Google Scholar
Brock, G. 1998. “Are Corporations Morally Defensible?” Business Ethics Quarterly 8: 703–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, J., and Tullock, G.. 1962. The Calculus of Consent. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Calton, J. M. 2001. Review of Ties That Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Business and Society 40: 220–25.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1982. Corporations and Morality. Prentice Hallx.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1989. The Ethics of International Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T., and Dunfee, T. W.. 1999. Ties That Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T., and Dunfee, T. W.. 2000a. Précis for: Ties That Bind. Business and Society Review 105: 436–43.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T., and Dunfee, T. W.. 2000b. “Securing the Ties That Bind: A Response to Commentators. Business and Society Review 105: 480–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, M. 2000. “Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Hype Over Hypernorms.” Journal of Business Ethics 26: 101–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunfee, T. W. 1991. “Business Ethics and Extant Social Contracts.” Business Ethics Quarterly 1: 23–51.Google Scholar
Dunfee, T. W. 2000. “Dunfee re Frederick: Nature and Norms.” Business and Society Review 105: 493–501.Google Scholar
Dunfee, T. W., and Donaldson, T.. 2000. Book Review Dialogue: “Tightening The Ties That Bind: Defending a Contractarian Approach to Business Ethics.” American Business Law Journal 37: 579–85.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1977. “Justice and Rights.” In Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 150–83.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1981. “What is Equality? Part I: Equality of Welfare; Part II: Equality of Resources.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 10: 185–246, 283–345.Google Scholar
Fort, T. L. 2001. Ethics and governance: Business as mediating institution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederick, W. C. 2000a. “Pragmatism, Nature and Norms.” Business and Society Review 105, 4: 467–79.Google Scholar
Frederick, W. C. 2000b. “Seeking Common Ground: A Response to Dunfee.” Business and Society Review 105: 502–04.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, R. E. 1994. “The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions. Business Ethics Quarterly 4: 409–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gauthier, D. 1986. Morals by Agreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Gough, J. W. [1937] 1957. The Social Contract. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1981. Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1995. “Reconciliation through the Public Use of Reason: Remarks on John Rawls’s Political Liberalism.” Journal of Philosophy 92 (March).Google Scholar
Hampton, J. 1986. Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hampton, J. 1995. “Contract and Consent.” In A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, ed. Goodin, R. and Pettit, P.. Oxford: Blackwell, 379–93.Google Scholar
Hartman, E. M. 1996. Organizational Ethics and the Good Life. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hartman, L. P., Shaw, B., and Stevenson, R.. 2003. “Exploring the Ethics and Economics of Global Labor Standards: A Challenge to Integrated Social Contract Theory.” Business Ethics Quarterly 13: 193–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbes, T. 1991. Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Husted, B. W. 2000. “A Critique of the Empirical Methods of Integrative Social Contracts Theory.” Journal of Business Ethics 20: 227–35.Google Scholar
Kant, I. 1991. Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keeley, M. 1988. A Social Contract Theory of Organizations. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, C. M. 1996. The Sources of Normativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. 1990. Contemporary Political Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Lessnoff, M. H. 1986. Social Contract. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Locke, J. 1988. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, L. A. 2001. “Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Ethical Implications of Marketing Credit Cards to U.S. College Students.” American Business Law Journal 38: 413–41.Google Scholar
Margolis, J. D. 1998. “Psychological Pragmatism and the Imperative of Aims.” Business Ethics Quarterly 8: 409–30.Google Scholar
Mayer, D. 1994. “Hypernorms and Integrative Social Contracts Theory.” In Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society., ed. Wartick, S. and Collins, D., 96–100.Google Scholar
Mayer, D. 2001. “Community, Business Ethics, and Global Capitalism.” American Business Law Journal 38: 215–60.Google Scholar
Mayer, D., and Cava, A.. 1995. “Social Contract Theory and Gender Discrimination.” Business Ethics Quarterly 5: 257–70.Google Scholar
McClelland, J. S. 1996. “The Theory of the Social Contract.” In A History of Western Political Thought. London: Routledge, 171–274.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., and Wood, D. J.. 1997. “Towards a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience.” Academy of Management Review 22: 853–86.Google Scholar
Oakeshott, M. 1975. “On the Civil Condition.” In On Human Conduct. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 108–84.Google Scholar
Orts, E. W., and Strudler, A.. 2002. “The Ethical and Environmental Limits of Stakeholder Theory.” Business Ethics Quarterly 12: 215–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pateman, C. 1985. The Problem of Political Obligation: A Critique of Liberal Theory. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Pettit, P. 1993. “Political Theory.” In The Common Mind: An Essay on Psychology, Society and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 284–339.Google Scholar
Phillips, R. A. 1997. Stakeholder Theory and a Principle Of Fairness.” Business Ethics Quarterly 7: 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, R. A. and Margolis, J. D.. 1999. “Towards an Ethics of Organizations.” Business Ethics Quarterly 9: 619–38.Google Scholar
Puffer, S. M., and McCarthy, D. J.. 1997. “Business Ethics in a Transforming Economy: Applying the Integrative Social Contracts Theory to Russia.” University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law 18: 1281–1304.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1999. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rogers, H. P., Ogbuehi, A. O., and Kochunny, C. M.. 1995. “Ethics and Transnational Corporations in Developing Countries.” Journal of Euromarketing 4(2): 11–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rousseau, J. J. 1988. The Social Contract and Discourses. London: Everyman’s Library.Google Scholar
Rowan, J. R. 2001. “How Binding the Ties? Business Ethics as Integrative Social Contracts.” Business Ethics Quarterly 11: 379–90.Google Scholar
Rynning, H. 1996. “Political Liberalism and Integrative Social Contracts Theory.” IABS Proceedings Seventh Annual Meeting: 113–18.Google Scholar
Salbu, R. S. 2000. “Ties That Bind: ISCT as a Procedural Approach to Business Ethics.” Business and Society Review 105: 444–51.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. 1998. What We Owe to Each Other.” Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. C. 1993. Ethics and Excellence: Coorperation and Integrity in Business.” New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Soule, E. 2002. “Managererial Moral Strategies: In Search of a Few Good Principles.” Academy of Management Review 27: 114–24.Google Scholar
Stephens, C. U., Gerde, V. W., Wokutch, R. E., and Watson, G.. 1997. “The Value-Rational Organization: A Rawlsian Perspective on Structure. IABS Proceedings Eighth Annual Meeting.Google Scholar
Strong, K. C., and Ringer, R. C.. 1997. “An Empirical Test of Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Social Hypernorms and Authentic Community Norms in Corporate Drug Testing Programs.” IABS Proceedings Eighth Annual Meeting.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. F. 1987. Political Ethics and Public Office. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar