rel="nofollow" href="#u24524d2b-f84b-5a2f-92db-e400f97cf46a">Chapter 5 (“Discerning a Higher Law”), which examines the challenges of interpreting ethical pronouncements for business enterprises and the people in them as conceptually derivative from an objective moral law. Arguments from a moral realist frame of reference are put forward for the idea of a higher moral law from which obligations to honor human rights and other moral precepts specified in corporate and international instruments can be drawn. Replies are given to the views of moral skeptics, relativists, and nihilists who oppose the robust brand of moral realism that I offer.
Chapter 6 (“Polycentered Phron
Chapter 7 (“Moral-Cultural Undertones of the Financial Crisis”) begins with a brief account of the emergence of the financial crisis, drawing on the received views of leading economists, businesspersons, and legal experts. It offers a critical exegesis of the three chief conceptual models that have framed these received reactions to the calamity: the paradigms of economics, business management, and legal regulation. Second, it argues that in light of the limitations of these three mental models, an alternative moral mental model is of particular importance. Third, it applies the book's moral framework, based on virtue, dignity, and the common good, to the financial crisis, distinguishing that framework from mainstream “business ethics” models. Current business ethics models are deficient for dealing with the financial crisis for these reasons. First, they tend to be based on the idea that if it's not illegal, it's acceptable. Second, they fail to seriously engage moral right and wrong because of their immersion in moral relativism. Third, they are dominated by window dressing, political-correctness, and antibusiness agendas. The chapter continues by identifying the existence of a moral-cultural malaise lurking beneath the financial crisis. This general condition is characterized by a postmodern moral relativism and rejection of traditional values (both economic and moral), a rise in speculative culture, and egoistic individualism. Moral reform focused on virtue, dignity, and the common good, rather than legal regulation, is the appropriate response to these factors. The chapter also introduces the concept of market ecology and relates it to the idea of the common good. I highlight a number of key moral malfeasances connected to the financial crisis to illustrate the harm such practices inflict on the ecology of the market so conceived. The chapter concludes that instead of looking only to the adoption of new legal regulations, visionary corporate governance ought to take greater cognizance of cultivating virtuous, dignity-respecting behavior directed at the common good, which will create favorable background moral conditions for sustaining the ecology of the market.
In Chapter 8 (“Symphony of Soft Law”), I argue that corporate governance must focus on the role of soft law in today's global environment. Soft law is a novel mechanism for constraining corporate behavior. In reconciling financial and social imperatives, firms must consider its impact on reputation capital. I analyze the emergence of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) paradigm and its connection to global corporate governance. By examining its history, I first illustrate how the CSR movement has rendered firms' reputations accountable to the movement's demands, and then I trace the conceptual expansion of CSR to the related notions of “corporate social responsiveness” and “corporate social performance.” I examine alternative conceptual models of global corporate governance including the “monophonic” model, the “polyphonic” model, the “integrative social contracts” model, and finally, the “reputational capital” model. I also examine specific types of global civil regulations in detail, and I discuss the bases for why global corporations accept the emerging soft-law regime. After highlighting the chief characteristics of civil regulations in light of the underlying regulatory aim to bind firms and markets to worldwide norms, I discuss the dominant forms of civil regulation within the triad of voluntary self-regulation, interfirm and cross-industry initiatives, and coregulation and multistakeholder partnerships. I then build on these discussions to analyze the role that reputation-accountability mechanisms play in securing firms' compliance with global civil regulations. After distinguishing reputation accountability from legal accountability, I explain the operational components of reputation accountability, the process by which key constituents of transnational firms enforce the “rule of reputation,” and the strategic and operational implications firms face as a result of such enforcement. Finally, I take on arguments in opposition to the emerging paradigm of global civil regulation.
There are serious questions concerning what endures morally. Assuming that there is merit to the philosophical accounts of human nature about rationality, freedom, creativity, and sociability—and therefore about virtuosity as well—we are faced with significant challenges going forward. What sort of position are we in to evaluate the possible future cultures and political and economic arrangements into which we are evolving without knowing what it will be like to live in them? It is hard enough to figure out what tradition teaches us for today. It is far harder to figure out what valuable lessons tradition has for tomorrow. So Chapter 9 (“Theme and Variations”) and the Conclusion wrap up the book's performance with a discussion of economic culture and the transgressive influence it has on market ecology, in an attempt to take these interpretive challenges into account.
Thus, I offer Virtuosity in Business as a means to highlight the significance of emerging expectations for industries, corporations, and other market participants, even as it qualifies such expectations. While predicated on moral objectivity, Virtuosity in Business recognizes variety in individual and cultural values and preferences. The challenge is to find the right balance between a conception of virtue as universal and global, while recognizing the relevance of local cultural moral understandings and practices. Once again, the music analogy is helpful. Although music is often described as a “universal language,” which we find “spoken” in all cultures, significant differences exist among the types of music that cultures create and the variant modes through which they perform it.
Many of the same qualities that sanctify the performance of a virtuoso musician on the stage turn out to sanctify the ostensibly much different kind of performance of a virtuoso businessperson or business enterprise. Remaining mindful of the many aspects in which musical and business performances remain (appropriately) dissimilar, however, should not deter us from reflecting on some of the striking points of similarity. One of the chief reasons for undertaking this kind of comparison is that it helps us to envision businesses and businesspeople in a new light, something sorely needed in these times of profound disillusionment with economic institutions and actors. It would be a stretch to suggest that the more mundane aspects of doing business, say, running a convenience store, are tantamount to delivering an aria at the Met. To think this way, however, is to miss the point, and those too quick to dismiss the value of positing a virtuoso metaphor for economic life, perhaps deeming business to be utterly irredeemable, pass up an opportunity to gain deeper insight into what business might be if we changed our thinking about it and began to see it as a human endeavor ordained to the common good, instead of as
