Abstract
Although Shakespeare had good reasons in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, for asserting “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”1, it is highly doubtful that the bard would have applied this epithet today with respect to status of business ethics in Denmark. Although there is much still to be done, Denmark is one of the few countries in the world where debates as to the social, environmental and ethical responsibilities of business have been so extensive and led to such heightened awareness and action, both at the societal level and at the organizational level. This development, mainly during the past decade, has taken place in a strong symbiotic relationship with the research, teaching and mediating activities in the field of business ethics at the Copenhagen Business School. The following five major themes have come into focus in Denmark since the beginning of the 1990’s: the “political consumer”, ethical investing, corporate social responsibility, social and ethical accounting, and values-based management.
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Notes
Shakespeare, W., Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 1, Scene 4, circa 1599.
Although the “political consumer” is not organised into activist/pressure groups, it should be noted that there is a tradition in Denmark for the disemination of critical information on such matters as product reliability and safety, the working environment etc. In particular, the Danish Consumer Council (Forbrugerrådet) has over the years been a most active watchdog and is actively engaged in dialogue with all major producer associations.
According to the major Danish business newspaper Børsen, April 14, 1997, p. 8.
See e.g. Hjulmand, K., Del umuliges kunsl: Politik og den politiske forbruger (The art of the impossible: Politics and the political consumer), Jyllands Postens Erhvervsbogklub, Copenhagen, 1997 chapter two.
A rather piquant detail here is that Cheminova is owned by the research fund of Denmark’s second largest university, the University of Aarhus.
Poulsen, P.T. (ed.), Ansvar og vœrdier (Responsibility and values), Centrum, Copenhagen, 1997.
This emerging concept of corporate social responsibility should be seen against the following concept which has dominated economic thinking over the last 40 years: “Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their share holders as possible.” (Milton Friendman, Nobel Prize Lauriate in Capitalism & Freedom, University of Chicago Press, 1962).
In a Danish article from 1988 my colleague, the philosopher Dr. Ole Thyssen and I proposed the development of ethical accounting as a means of operationalizing ethics in an organization. The article, now available in English, (“Conflict and Consensus: Ethics as a Shared Value Horizon for Strategic Planning”, Human Systems Management 9, 1990, pp. 135-151) was based on our work with ethics and with decision making contexts characterized by multiple stakeholders having multiple criteria for judging the performance of an enterprise. Our proposal was brought to the attention of the management of Denmark’s seventh largest bank, Sbn Bank or “Sparekassen Nordjylland” as it is known in Denmark. The bank is a regional bank primarily serving Northern Jutland with 71 branches in 19 regional areas and with roughly 1,300 employees, 200,000 customers and 60,000 shareholders, most of whom are customers. A year earlier the bank had begun to develop its “Code of Values” based on psychological theories regarding people’s basic needs. The top management was keen on developing a perspective on management and organizational development based on the values of its major stakeholders and offered us the opportunity of using the bank as a laboratory for developing ethical accounting. The first ethical accounting statement was developed for the year 1989 and since then such supplements to the bank’s financial statements have been developed each year. See e.g. Pruzan, P., “The Ethical Dimensions of Banking,” in (Zadek, S, P. Pruzan and R. Evans, eds.), Building Corporate AccountAbility: Emerging practices in social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting, Earthscan, London, 1997, 63–84 and Pruzan, P., “The Ethical Accounting Statement” World Business Academy Perspectives, vol. 9 no. 2, 1995, 35–46.
In addition, a large number of publications exist in Danish on the theory and practice of ethical accounting; in particular reference is made to the following books: Bak, C., Etisk Regnskab (Ethical Accounting), Handelsruajskolens Forlag, 1996; Hjelmar, U. (ed.), Etisk Regnskab: En ny form for brugerindflydelse og kvalitetsudvikling i den offentlige sektor? (Ethical Accounting: A new way of developing consumer empowerment and quality in the public sector?), Frydenlund, 1997; Morsing, M., Den etiske praksis: En introduktion til det etiske regnskab (The ethical practice: An introduction to ethical accounting), Handelshøjskolens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1991.
The cooperation between Dansk Industri and CO-Industri is called SUM (Strategisk Udvikling af Medarbejdere — Strategic Development of Employees) while the particular study dealing with ethical accounting is part of the project called KUMO (Kontinuerlig Udvikling af Medarbejdere og Organisation — Continual Development of Employees and Organiation). For futher information contact: SUM Sekretariatet, DK-1780 Copenhagen V, Denmark; telephone: (+45) 3377 9111, fax: (+45) 3377 9100, email: sum@login.dknet.dk
A key person in this development was Dr. Simon Zadek, Research Director of the New Economics Foundation in London. For a historical overview as well as a presentation of the motivations and theory underlying SEAAR, reference is made to the major reference in the field: Zadek, S., P. Pruzan and R. Evans, Building Corporate AccountAbility: Emerging Practices in Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting, Earthscan, London, 1997. In addition to the historical and theoretical sections it also provides nine case studies of applications in a wide variety of organizations in the US, Canada, UK, Italy, Norway and Denmark. It is primarily for people facing the practical task of handling, developing and implementing corporate social and ethical responsibility agendas although it is also targeted towards corporate stakeholders and an audience of students and researchers.
For father information on the institute contact The secretariat, Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility, Vine Court, 112–115 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1JE, England.
A resume of the first International Conference on Social and Ethical Accountability: Balancing Performance, Ethics and Accountability, Nijenrode Castle, Holland is available in the special conference issue (nr. 5) of the quarterly journal of the Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility, AccountAbility, 5, autumn, 1997.
Elkington, J., Cannibals with Forks — The triple bottom line of 21st century business, Capstone, Oxford, 1997 presents the persepective that corporate operations will not be sustainable even “if they meet economic efficiency and environmental quality standards, but fail to meet emerging social and ethical standards…” (p. 129). A major focus is on the role to be played by “sustainability accounting” which will integrate financial, environmental and social/ethical accounting.
Mandag Morgen Rating 97, Ugebrevet Mandag Morgen, Copenhagen, 1997, p. 13. See too the section: “First analysis of 300 leading corporation’s ethical engagement”.
See e.g. Thyssen, O., VÉrdiledelse: Om organisationer og etik (Values-based management: On organizations and ethics), Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 1997 and Petersen,V.C. and Lassen, M.S. Vœrdibaseret Ledelse — et alternativ til styring, regulering og kontrol? (Values-based Management — an alternative to steering, regulation and control?), Dansk Industri, 1997.
See e.g. Pruzan, Peter, “When value is more than money: on values-based management”, forthcoming in Business Ethics, 1998.
Typical for this development is the publication of the book: Jensen, H.S., P.Pruzan and O. Thyssen, Den etiske udfording: om fœlles vœrdier i et pluralistisk samfund (The ethical challenge: on shared values in a pluralistic society), Handelshøjskolens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1990 and a series of articles on ethical accounting, the first of which dates back to 1988.
The Ph.D. theses are: Bordum, A., Diskursetikken og Det Etiske Regnskab — Principper for Ledelse mellem Magt og Konsensus (Discours Ethics and Ethical Accounting — Principles for Management between Power and Consensus), Copenhagen Business School, 1997 and Jensen, F.D., At Lede den Enkelte gennem det Fœlles — bidrag til en praksisforankret styringsforstaelse (Leading the Individual through the Collective — contributions to a conception of steering rooted in practice), Aarhus Business School, 1997.
A typical example of such a project is the development of social and ethical accounting at the major innovative and highly successful international producer of pharmaceuticals, enzymes etc., Novo-Nordisk. A number of other firms have similar projects underway. Another such example in its embryonic phase is a project called “corporate stakeholder convergence — a benchmark research study of the world’s best practice in corporate stakeholder management” to be carried out by the Danish-based international consulting company Oxford IPC in collaboration with the World Business Academy, USA and the International Institute of Labor Studies, Geneva. And yet another such example is the work being planned by the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs to follow up on its pathbreaking teamwork with a network of 16 well-respected Danish corporations to develop methods for contributing to the development of new perspectives on corporate social responsibility with respect to marginalized groups of employees. As to new publications, project called “corporate stakeholder convergence — a benchmark research study of the world’s best practice in corporate stakeholder management” to be carried out by the Danish-based international consulting company Oxford IPC in collaboration with the World Business Academy, USA and the International Institute of Labor Studies, Geneva. And yet another such example is the work being planned by the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs to follow up on its pathbreaking teamwork with a network of 16 well-respected Danish corporations to develop methods for contributing to the development of new perspectives on corporate social responsibility with respect to marginalized groups of employees. As to new publications, mention can be made of a book planned for publication summer 1998: Etik i Erhvervslivet which will provide a survey of the major themes characterizing the Danish debate on business ethics and will have contributions by leading academics and business leaders.
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Pruzan, P. (1998). Theory and Practice of Business Ethics in Denmark. In: Zsolnai, L. (eds) The European Difference. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5595-7_1
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