Business and Society

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Business and Society

• A Theory of Business Ethics beyond Risk Management

Socio-Economic Theories of Sustainable Change
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Business Ethics

• Why?
• Practical some impressions
• Theoretical the lack of regulative frameworks
• Businesses as drivers for sustainable change?
• How? (contemporary concepts)
• Theses business ethics from an economic
  perspective
• Antitheses business ethics from an (discourse)
  ethical perspective
• socio-economic perspective of business ethics
• not a syntheses of an economic and ethical
  approaches
• critical social science perspective that opens
  windows to possible worlds (Giddens)
• (1) questions economic worlds
• (2) complementary to impossible worlds of
  ethical approaches

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Why Business Ethics? (Practical problems)

• business scandals
• business ethics and global problems
• intragenerational justice (North-South)
• intergenerational justice (future generations)
• ? systemic push towards more intra- and
  intergenerational justice (through
  businesses?)

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Why Business Ethics? (theoretical arguments)

• Do we need businesses for business ethics?
• Moral economics and the relevance of political
  regulations
• good games require more good rules than good
  players (Buchanan/ Brennan)
• political regulations necessary but not
  sufficient
• regulative frameworks are incomplete
• regulative frameworks are merely reactive
• the influence of the traditional national-state
  is increasingly limited (globalization)
• consequences
• social responsibility of businesses
• business ethics is more than a supplement to
  moral economics

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Why Business Ethics? (businesses as drivers for
change)

• businesses are de facto drivers for change
• can they also become drivers for sustainable
  change?
• difficult, very difficult but not hopeless and
• depending on other conditions

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• Why?
• How? (contemporary concepts)
• Theses business ethics from an
  economic perspective
• Antitheses business ethics from an
  (discourse) ethical perspective
• socio-economic perspective of business ethics

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business ethics an economic perspective

• risk management
• organizational improvement
• market positioning
• civil positioning

Economy
Ethics
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business ethics a (discourse) ethical
perspective (1)

• criticism of the utilitarian approaches of
  traditional economics and management
• moral point of view as a critical position
• theoretical status regulative idea (not
  empirical facts)
• transformation from an utilitarian to a
  communicative logic

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business ethics a (discourse) ethical
perspective (2)

• Two levels of responsibility
• Level 1 ethics of business
• innovative synthesis between ethics and economics
  (teleological orientation)
• principal of categorical self-binding through
  deontological values (responsible profit-seeking
  not profit-maximization)
• Level 2 republican idea of business ethics
• ordoliberal commitment (arrangement of the
  political framework)
• critical public (as community of all citizens) is
  the authority of just businesses practices

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contemporary business ethics a criticism

• (discourse) ethical perspective
• explication of the moral point of view as
  impossible worlds
• normative orientations are necessary!
• focus on ideal communication communities
• neglecting real communication communities
• chance of realization about zero
• economic perspective
• no normative orientation
• argumentation within the economic paradigm
• based on a specific understanding of economic
  worlds
• helpful perspective but just one possible
  standpoint and not the objectively-given truth

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business ethics a socio-economic perspective (1)

• general idea
• not impossible worlds
• not economic worlds
• possible worlds
• critical social science approach
• critical in the sense that the social scientist
  tries to develop new visions of social reality
• social sciences as hunters of myths (Elias)
• especially economical myths

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4 modern myths

• Myth 1 individuals act according to the
  principle of utility maximization (theory of
  action)
• Myth 2 organization are rational entities
  businesses merely speak and understand the
  language of profit (maximization) (organizational
  theory)
• Myth 3 institutions are the result of rational
  decisions or they are the result of an
  evolutionary process of natural selection
  (institutional theory)
• Myth 4 the economic system is an autonomous
  societal sphere (system theory/ theory of spheres
  of values).

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other myths
economic perspective
socio-economic perspective
utility maximization
interpretative theory of action

• Myth 1(actions)
• Myth 2(orga.)
• Myth 3(inst.)
• Myth 4(system/sphere)

multilingual actors

• rational entities (profits)

cultural science paradigm
natural science paradigm

• institutions as symbolic orders

• optimal institutions

conflicts between spheres of values
autonomous system
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M1 interpretative theory of action

• interpretative
• not objectively-given situations (logic of the
  situation) but
• definition of the situation through the actor
• perspective of the actors ? perspective of the
  observer
• cognitive frames, scripts of actions, routines
• relevant theories
• Interpretative Sociology (Weber, Schütz, Berger/
  Luckmann et al.)
• New Economic Sociology (Granovetter et al.)
• Evolutionary Economics (Nelson/ Winter, Witt et
  al.)

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M 2 3 multilingual actorsand institutions as
symbolic orders (1)

• What are institutions?
• institutions guide our action
• shared meanings that enable free individuals to
  coordinate their actions
• reduce uncertain while they help to frame
  situations
• Institutions are relevant
• intraorganisational
• interorganisational

Next week Institutionalization of
Sustainability. A Theoretical Framework and some
Empirical Results (same time, same place)
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M 2 3 multilingual actorsand institutions as
symbolic orders (2)

• (1) intraorganisational
• profit-seeking is the leading modus of businesses
  but not the only one (Wieland transactions cost
  economics)
• businesses also communicate in terms of law,
  politics, morality (ontological argument)
• businesses are multilingual actors
• morality is in principal available in business
  but not necessarily applicable forms
• consequences foster forms of application of
  morality
• institutional level
• clear values, such as codes of conduct
  (stabilization)

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M 2 3 multilingual actorsand institutions as
symbolic orders (3)

• (2) intraorganisational
• explicit and implicit knowledge in businesses is
  crucial
• businesses as bundle of individual competences
  and routines
• evolutionary economics and organizational
  learning literature
• consequences on two levels
• Individual level
• moral competences
• institutional level
• institutional arrangements enable (moral)
  learning processes (sustainable change)

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M 2 3 multilingual actorsand institutions as
symbolic orders (4)

• intraorganisational
• (1) stabilization of values
• (2) learning processes and sustainable change
• Balance!

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M 4 conflicts between spheres of values

• the economic system has its own logic
  (Eigengesetzlichkeiten, Max Weber) however its
  is not an autonomous sphere
• economic theories neglect the relation to other
  spheres (Religion, Politics, Science, Medias, Art
  etc.)
• focus on the tensions and conflicts between
  different spheres is necessary
• theories of societal differentiation are relevant
• Weber (theory of spheres of values)
• geneses of institutions
• Luhmann (system theory)
• organizations as mediators between different
  spheres
• organizations as origin of change

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Summary

• economic worlds are seen as a possible worlds
  however, it is merely one possible story we can
  tell
• socio-economic perspective hunts economic myths
  and tries to tell another story
• questions certain assumptions of economic
  theories
• develops possible worlds based on
• theory of action,
• organizational and institutional theory
• theory of spheres of values
• develops another how it is or how we can see
  it
• complementary to impossible worlds of ethical
  approaches
• Linkage between possible and impossible worlds
  still open

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