Corporate Responsibility for Wealth Creation and Human Rights, by Georges Enderle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 332 pp.

IF 3.4 2区 哲学 Q2 BUSINESS
Marcos Paulo de Lucca-Silveira
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

I n his recently published book, Georges Enderle discusses wealth creation, human rights, and corporate responsibility. Enderle presents an original argument, according to which business enterprises, as organizations, must create wealth but also carry moral obligations on human rights. It is an intriguing argument, especially when compared to mainstream perspectives on corporate responsibility, usually centered on profit and shareholder returns or on stakeholder value creation. The first part of the book presents an innovative conception of wealth creation. In the following section, Enderle develops a normative-ethical perspective centered on human rights. He carefully defines the purpose of business and economy as the creation of wealth and argues that it should be guided by human rights. The last section is dedicated to showing how his perspective can be applied to the ethics of business organizations. Enderle argues that it is necessary to understand wealth in a comprehensive manner: wealth not only involves economic capital but also encompasses natural, human, and social capital. Enderle argues that the literature dealing with a nation’s wealth that considers only its monetary dimension is limited. When applied to business ethics, this notion of wealth implies, as he seeks to demonstrate throughout the book, a set of corporate ethical obligations. The author draws a parallel between wealth and public and private goods. Public goods are defined by nonexcludability and nonrivalry. The wealth of a society, according to Enderle, is defined by the same characteristics. Wealth can be seen as a combination, and not a mere aggregation, of private and public wealth because they are mutually dependent. There is no way of creating private wealth without existing public wealth, and public wealth depends on the availability of private wealth. An implication of a broader understanding of wealth as private and public is the type ofmotivation behindwealth creation. If it is true that self-interestedmotivations do not underlie preferences and choices for public goods, the creation of wealth, in Enderle’s terms, would also require other-regarding motivations to be carried out. Furthermore, the process of wealth generation has not only the productive dimension—traditionally considered by the mainstream literature—but also a distributive one. In the book, Enderle seeks to demonstrate how corporate responsibility should face income inequalities in business organizations and society at large (chapter 19). Enderle argues for a reduction of executive compensation as a means of diminishing income inequality within business firms. The discussion of inequalities and rewards echoes contemporary work in political philosophy on “limitarianism” (Robeyns 2022), the view that no one should have more than a certain upper limit of wealth 352 Business Ethics Quarterly
《创造财富和人权的企业责任》,Georges Enderle著。剑桥:剑桥大学出版社,2021年。332页。
在他最近出版的书中,Georges Enderle讨论了财富创造、人权和企业责任。Enderle提出了一个独创的论点,即商业企业作为组织,必须创造财富,但也必须承担人权方面的道德义务。这是一个有趣的论点,尤其是与企业责任的主流观点相比,通常以利润和股东回报或利益相关者价值创造为中心。本书的第一部分提出了一个创新的财富创造概念。在下一节中,Enderle提出了一个以人权为中心的规范伦理观点。他谨慎地将商业和经济的目的定义为创造财富,并认为这应该以人权为指导。最后一节专门展示了他的观点如何应用于商业组织的道德规范。Enderle认为,有必要全面理解财富:财富不仅涉及经济资本,还包括自然资本、人力资本和社会资本。Enderle认为,关于一个国家财富的文献只考虑其货币层面是有限的。当应用于商业道德时,正如他在整本书中试图展示的那样,这种财富概念意味着一套企业道德义务。作者将财富与公共和私人物品进行了比较。公共产品被定义为非排他性和非竞争性。Enderle认为,一个社会的财富是由相同的特征来定义的。财富可以被视为私人财富和公共财富的组合,而不仅仅是它们的总和,因为它们是相互依赖的。没有现有的公共财富就无法创造私人财富,而公共财富取决于私人财富的可用性。更广泛地理解私人和公共财富的含义是财富创造背后的动机类型。如果自利动机确实不是公共产品偏好和选择的基础,那么用恩德尔的话,财富的创造也需要其他相关的动机。此外,财富产生的过程不仅具有主流文学传统上认为的生产维度,而且具有分配维度。在书中,Enderle试图证明企业责任应该如何面对商业组织和整个社会的收入不平等(第19章)。Enderle主张减少高管薪酬,以此来减少企业内部的收入不平等。对不平等和奖励的讨论呼应了当代政治哲学中关于“极限主义”的工作(Robeyns 2022),即任何人的财富都不应该超过一定的上限352《商业道德季刊》
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来源期刊
CiteScore
6.20
自引率
10.00%
发文量
38
期刊介绍: Business Ethics Quarterly (BEQ) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes theoretical and empirical research relevant to the ethics of business. Since 1991 this multidisciplinary journal has published articles and reviews on a broad range of topics, including the internal ethics of business organizations, the role of business organizations in larger social, political and cultural frameworks, and the ethical quality of market-based societies and market-based relationships. It recognizes that contributions to the better understanding of business ethics can come from any quarter and therefore publishes scholarship rooted in the humanities, social sciences, and professional fields.
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