Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Duties of Justice in Business

  • Reference work entry
Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics

  • 5391 Accesses

Abstract

In this section we analyze the role, if any, of principles in distributive justice in business ethics. The business world is often criticized in morally condemning terms, many of them somehow related to the issue of distributive justice. Traders are accused of receiving indecently high bonuses; CEOs benefit from shockingly high packages upon dismissal – the “golden parachutes”; the announcement of a massive layoff boosts share value on the stock markets; and multinationals are said to exploit supplier companies and, indirectly, their workers in emerging countries. The list of complaints is endless. However, justice, more particularly distributive justice, is a complex issue. Moreover, the scope and the relevance of the different principles of distributive justice in the business world is not obvious.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    However, this may be an optimistic assumption. See, for example, Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, Harper Business 2006. Thanks to Kim Tomasson for this suggestion.

  2. 2.

    See French [9], Arnold [1], Werhane [33].

  3. 3.

    Hayek explains this on Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbYdbf3EEc

  4. 4.

    We will reexamine this issue later.

  5. 5.

    See, for example, the four volumes of Lisa Newton and Catherine Dillingham’s Watersheds.

  6. 6.

    An example of an initiative taken by corporations is the Business Social Compliance Initiative (http://www.bsci-intl.org/)

  7. 7.

    The system has been developed in the 1980s by the British economist Stephen Littlechild, and especially in [15].

  8. 8.

    For the link between vulnerability and exploitation, see [11].

  9. 9.

    An interesting initiative is Asia Floorwage (http://asiafloorwage.org/). Other well-known initiatives are Ethical Trading, Initiative Clause Sociale, …

  10. 10.

    Source: “Drug firm wakes up to sleeping sickness,” by Sarah Boseley, health editor, in the The Guardian, Monday 7 May 2001. The French Libération reported under the cynical heading: “Des vies africaines ne tiennent qu’à un poil américain” (African lives depend on an American hair), Sandrine Cabut, Libération 21 February 2001.

  11. 11.

    Readers who think that unconscious bias may be true, but that they themselves are free from these automatic reactions, should go online and take the test on http://implicit.harvard.edu. Nosek et al. [20] analyzes in detail the results of research related to this “implicit” test.

  12. 12.

    See Demuijnck [5] for detailed argumentation on this issue.

References

  1. Arnold D (2006) Corporate moral agency. Midwest Stud Philos 30:279–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Blank R, Dabady M, Citro CF (2004) Measuring racial discrimination. National Academies Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  3. Buchanan A (1985) Ethics, efficiency and the market. Clarendon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  4. De George R (1993) Competing with integrity in international business. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  5. Demuijnck G (2009) Non-discrimination in human resources management as a moral obligation. J Bus Ethics 88:83–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Desjardins J (2007) Business, ethics, and the environment: imagining a sustainable future. Pearson, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  7. Donaldson T (1989) Ethics of international business. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  8. Engelen PJ, Liedekerke LV (2007) The ethics of insider trading revisited. J Bus Ethics 74:497–507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. French P (1996) Integrity, intentions, and corporations. Am Bus Law J 34:141–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gauthier D (1986) Morals by agreement. Clarendon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  11. Goodin R (1988) Reasons for welfare. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hayek F (1945) The use of knowledge in society. Am Econ Rev 35(4):519–530

    Google Scholar 

  13. Heath J (2007) An adversarial ethic for business: or when Sun-Tzu met the stakeholder. J Bus Ethics 72(4):359–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kalev A, Dobbin F, Kelly E (2006) Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies. Am Sociol Rev 71:589–617

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Littlechild S (1983) Regulation of British telecommunications’ profitability: report to the Secretary of State. Department of Industry, London

    Google Scholar 

  16. Maitland I (2003) The great non-debate over international sweatshops. In: Shaw W (ed) Ethics at work: basic readings in business ethics. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 49–66

    Google Scholar 

  17. Marx K (1962/1867) Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie. Erster Band. Dietz Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  18. Moore J (1990) What is really unethical about insider trading? J Bus Ethics 9:171–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Nosek B, Hansen J (2008) The associations in our head belong to us: searching for attitudes and knowledge in implicit evaluation. Cogn Emot 22:553–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Nosek B, Smyth FL, Hansen JJ, Devos T, Lindner NM, Ranganath KA, Smith CT, Olson KR, Chugh D, Greenwald AG, Banaji MR (2007) Pervasiveness and correlates of implicit attitudes and stereotypes. Eur Rev Soc Psychol 18:36–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Nozick R (1974) Anarchy, state, and Utopia. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  22. Newton L, Dillingham C (1993) Watersheds: classic cases in environmental ethics. Wadsworth Publishing, Independence

    Google Scholar 

  23. Pogge T (2008) World poverty and human rights: cosmopolitan responsibilities and reforms. Polity, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  24. Renouard C (2007) La responsabilité éthique des multinationales. PUF, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  25. Richards JR (1997) Equality of opportunity. Ratio 10(3):243–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Roemer J (1985) Should Marxists be interested in exploitation? Philos Public Aff 14(1):30–65

    Google Scholar 

  27. Roemer J (1989) What is exploitation? Reply to Jeffrey Reiman. Philos Public Aff 18(1):90–97

    Google Scholar 

  28. Rose G (2011) Gaps in the implementation of environmental law at the national, regional and global leve’l. Paper presented at the first preparatory 2011 UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Ruggie J (2011) Guiding principles on business and human rights: implementing the United Nations “protect, respect and remedy” framework. Downloadable on http://www.unglobalcompact.org/issues/human_rights/The_UN_SRSG_and_the_UN_Global_Compact.html)

  30. Sen A (1985) The moral standing of the market. Soc Philos Policy 2:1–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Walzer M (1983) Spheres of justice. A defense of pluralism and equality. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  32. Wenar L (2008) Property rights and the resource curve. Philos Public Aff 36(1):2–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Werhane P (1985) Persons, rights, and corporations. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  34. Werhane P (1999) Moral imagination and management decision making. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  35. Werhane P, Kelley S, Hartman L, Moberg D (2009) Alleviating poverty through profitable partnerships: globalization, markets and economic well-being, 1st edn. Routledge/Taylor & Francis, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. EDHEC Business School, 24 avenue Gustave Delory, CS 50411, 59057, Roubaix, France

    Prof. Geert Demuijnck

Authors
  1. Prof. Geert Demuijnck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geert Demuijnck .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Peter Löscher-Stiftungslehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsethik, Technische Universität München, München, Germany

    Christoph Luetge

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Demuijnck, G. (2013). Duties of Justice in Business. In: Luetge, C. (eds) Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1494-6_98

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1494-6_98

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1493-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1494-6

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation