Conscience And Corporate Culture

by Goodpaster, Kenneth E.

• ISBN13: 9781405130394
• ISBN10: 1405130393
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

To what ethical standards can we hold corporations? In the past few years, monumental corporate scandals have been emblazoned on every front page, but people have largely responded with ambivalence to events such as Enron's collapse and the tragedy of NASA's Columbia. In Conscience and Corporate Culture, Goodpaster sets out to identify the common patterns among such recent events, and argues for the development of an ethical response. Reporting on more than three decades of professional evolution, the book serves as a platform for communication between doers and thinkers on a subject that is profoundly difficult and important. A vital resource for both educators in the field of business ethics and practicing corporate executives, this volume is an important step in advancing the constructive dialogue on corporate conscience. Perhaps we should ask no more of corporations than we ask of ourselves morally, but neither should we ask less.

Author Biography

Kenneth E. Goodpaster is Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas.His research has spanned a wide range of topics, from conceptual studies of ethical reasoning to empirical studies of the social implications of management decision making. He is author of Perspectives on Morality (1976), Ethics and Problems of the 21st Century(1979), and the casebook Business Ethics: Policies and Persons (4th edn., 2006).

Table of Contents

List of Figures	viii
Foreword by Thomas E. Holloran	xi
Preface	xvii
Acknowledgments	xxiv
Introduction	1	(10)
Part I Conscience: Response to a Pathology	11	(100)
1 Teleopathy: The Unbalanced Pursuit of Purpose	15	(17)
2 Mindsets and Culture	32	(18)
3 Conscience as a Mindset: Personal and Organizational	50	(36)
4 Challenges to the Very Idea	86	(25)
Part II The Moral Agenda of Leadership	111	(146)
5 Orienting Corporate Conscience	115	(35)
6 Institutionalizing Corporate Conscience	150	(40)
7 Sustaining Corporate Conscience	190	(26)
8 Conscience and Three Academies	216	(41)
Epilogue	257	(4)
Notes	261	(40)
Index	301