Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T23:24:35.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Managers in the Moral Dimension: What Etzioni Might Mean to Corporate Managers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Bill Shaw  and
Frances E. Zollers
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In The Moral Dimension, Amitai Etzioni critiques the neoclassical economic paradigm (NEP), a model built upon ethical egoism and which equates rationality (the logical/empirical domain) with the maximization of preferences by self-interested economic units. Etzioni finds the NEP’s exclusion of the moral/affective domain to be a glaring failure and, because of this omission, he claims that the economic model is not capable of achieving its design functions: prediction and explanation. Etzioni introduces a socio-economic model, the I & We paradigm, in which the moral/affective encapsulates the logical/empirical. Further elaboration and testing of this model remains to be undertaken. We find it to hold more promise than its neoclassical economic rival, and we explicate its value for the modern manager.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , April 1993 , pp. 153 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1993

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

Notes

1 Etzioni, Amitai, The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics, p. 182 (1988)Google Scholar.

2 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 15.

3 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 8-9.

4 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 71-74.

5 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 16.

6 Simon, Herbert, “The Failure of Arm Chair Economics,” Interview in Challenge, November/December, p. 26Google Scholar.

7 Sen, Amartya K., “Rational Fools,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 6. No. 4, p. 322 (1977)Google Scholar.

8 Arrow, Kenneth, “Risk Perception in Psychology and Economics,” Economic Inquiry, vol 20, p. 1 (1982)Google Scholar.

9 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 18.

10 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 93.

11 Metzger, Michael B. & Schwenk, Charles R., “Decision MaWng Models, Devis Advocacy, and the Control of Corporate Crime,” American Business Law Journal, Vol. 28, pp. 337–363 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Allison, Graham T., “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missie Crisis,” The American Political Science Review; pp. 689–690 (Septemb er. 1969)Google Scholar.

13 Allison, supra note 12, at 692.

14 Wright, J., On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors, p. 62 (1979)Google Scholar; Stevenson, , “Corporations and Social Responsibility : In Search of the Corporate Soul,” George Washington Law Review, p. 721 (1974)Google Scholar.

15 Metzger & Schwenk, supra note 11, at 341; Cyert, R. & March, J., A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, pp. 239–240 (1963)Google Scholar; Williamson, O., The Economics of Discretionary Behavior: Managerial Objectives in a Theory of the Firm, p. 131 (1967)Google Scholar; Stone, C., Where the Law Ends: The Social Control of Corporate Behavior, pp. 38–39 (1975)Google Scholar; Clinard, M. & Yeager, P., Corporate Crime, pp. 47–48 (1980)Google Scholar; McGuire, J., Theories of Business Behavior, pp. 80–83 (1964)Google Scholar; Byrne, & Hoffman, , “Efficient Corporate Harm: A Chicago Metaphysic,” Corrigible Corporations and Unruly Law, pp. 113–114 (1985)Google Scholar.

16 Metzger & Schwenk, supra note 11, at 339.

17 Simon, Herbert A., “Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations,” The American Economic Review, pp. 493, 507 (1978)Google Scholar.

18 Cyert & March, supra note 15, at 8.

19 Allison, supra note 12, at 690.

20 Note, “Decision MaHng Models and Control of Corporate Crime,” 85 Yale Law Journal, p. 1101 (1976); Allison, G., Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missie Crisis, pp. 67–91 (1971)Google Scholar.

21 Pfeffer, J., Power in Organinzationsi p. 23 (1981)Google Scholar.

22 Cyert & March, supra note 15, at 101; Allison, supra note 20, at 91.

23 Allison, supra note 12, at 690.

24 Metzger & Schwenk, supra note 11, at 354.

25 Mintzberg, H., The Structuring of Organizations, p. 187 (1979)Google Scholar; Allison, supra note 20, at 175; Hage, J., Theories of Organizations, p. 55 (1980)Google Scholar; “Decision Making Models and Control of Corporate Crime,” supra note 20, at 1104.

26 Maccoby, M., The Gatnesman, pp. 77–83 (1976)Google Scholar.

27 March, J. & Olsen, J., Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations, p. 19 (1979)Google Scholar.

28 March & Olsen, supra note 27, at 84.

29 Frank, Robert, Passions Within Reason, p. ix (1988)Google Scholar.

30 Bowie, Norman E., “Challenging the Egoistic Paradigm,” Business Ethics Quarterly, p. 10(1991)Google Scholar.

31 Bowie, supra note 30, at 11.

32 Bowie, supra note 30, at 15.

33 Bowie, supra note 30, at 16.

34 Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, pp. 124, 127 (1966)Google Scholar.

35 Hirsch, Fred, The Social Limits to Growth, p. 141 (1976)Google Scholar.

36 Warsh, David, “How Selfish Are People—Really?”, Harvard Business Review, p. 27 (May-June 1989)Google Scholar.

37 Warsh, supra note 36, at 27.

38 Becker, G., The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, p. 169 (1976)Google Scholar; Warsh, supra note 36, at 27.

39 Rubin, , “The Economics of Crime,” in The Economics of Crime (Andreano, & Siegfried, , eds.) 13 (1980)Google Scholar.

40 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 17.

41 Simon, supra note 17, at 500.

42 Simon, supra note 17, at 501. Simon opts for something that can be characterized as subjective rationality, i.e., rationality within the parameters of information that one actually possesses and remembers, rather than objective rationality, i.e., rationality given every relevant fact whether known or not.

43 Freeman, R. Edward, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, p. 46 (1984)Google Scholar.

44 Roberts, N. & King, R, “The Stakeholder Audit Goes Public,” Organizational Dynamics, pp. 63–77 (Winter, 1989)Google Scholar.

45 Goodpaster, Kenneth E., “Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis,” Business Ethics Quarterly, pp. 69–70 (1991)Google Scholar.

46 Logsdon, Jeanne M. & Palmer, David R., “Issues Management and Ethics,” Journal of Business Ethics, p. 191 (1988)Google Scholar.

47 Logsdon & Palmer, supra note 46, at 193-194; Wartick, Steven L. & Cochran, Philip L., “The Evolution of the Corporate Social Performance Model,” Academy of Management Review, pp. xxx (1985)Google Scholar.

48 Wartick & Cochran, supra note 47, at 760.

49 McKie, J. W., Social Responsibility and the Business Predicament (1974)Google Scholar.

50 Wartick & Cochran, supra note 47, at 760.

51 Wartick & Cochran, supra note 47, at 760.

52 Wartick & Cochran, supra note 47, at 760.

53 Wartick & Cochran, supra note 47, at 760.

54 Frank, supra note 29, at 5-7.

55 Frank, supra note 29, at 96-113.

56 Frank, supra note 29, at 255-56.

57 Frank, supra note 29, at 253.

58 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 185, 195.

59 McGrath, & Kravitz, , “Group Research,” 33 Annual Review of Psychology 203 (1982)Google Scholar.

60 The word groupthink refers to those situations in which group norms overwhelm one’s thought processes in such a way that the person foregoes any realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

61 “Risky shift” designates the widely observed phenomena that people behave differently in groups than they do as individuals. Singly, we know that we will be held accountable for our conduct. Within a group, we might be inclined to take greater risks because it is possible to spread the blame or dodge accountability by pointing to someone else. Inesko, C. & Shopler, J., Experimental Social Psychology 468 (1972)Google Scholar.

62 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 188.

63 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 196.

64 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 245.

65 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 8.

66 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 208.

67 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 208.

68 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 239.

69 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 204-205, 250.

70 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 238.

71 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 243.

72 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 239.

73 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 239.

74 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 242.

75 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 243.

76 Etzioni, supra note 1, at 244; Etzioni, A., “Humble Decision Making,” Harvard Business Review, p. 122 (July-August 1989)Google Scholar.