Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:23:22.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impossibility of the Separation Thesis: A Response to Joakim Sandberg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Jared D. Harris  and
R. Edward Freeman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Distinguishing “business” concerns from “ethical” values is not only an unfruitful and meaningless task, it is also an impossible endeavor. Nevertheless, fruitless attempts to separate facts from values produce detrimental second-order effects, both for theory and practice, and should therefore be abandoned. We highlight examples of exemplary research that integrate economic and moral considerations, and point the way to a business ethics discipline that breaks new ground by putting ideas and narratives about business together with ideas and narratives about ethics.

Type
Dialogue: Commentators and Author
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 541 - 548
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ashforth, B. E. and Kreiner, G. E. 1999. “‘How Can You Do It?’: Dirty Work and the Challenge of Constructing a Postive Identity,” Academy of Management Review 24(3): 413–34.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Kreiner, G. E., Clark, M. A. and Fugate, M. 2007. “Normalizing Dirty Work: Managerial Tactics for Countering Occupational Taint,” Academy of Management Journal 50(1): 149–374.Google Scholar
Bartunek, J. M. 2002. “The Proper Place of Organizational Scholarship: A Comment on Hinings and Greenwood,” Administrative Science Quarterly 47(3): 422–27.Google Scholar
Cameron, K. S., Quinn, R. E., DeGraff, J. and Thakor, A. V. 2006. Competing Values Leadership: Creating Value in Organizations. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Crary, A. 2007. Beyond Moral Judgment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. and Preston, L. 1995. “The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence and Implications,” Academy of Management Review 20(4): 65–91.Google Scholar
Ferraro, F., Pfeffer, J. and Sutton, R. I. 2005. “Economics Language and Assumptions: How Theories Can Become Self-Fulfilling,” Academy of Management Review 30(1): 8–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feyerabend, P. 1975. Against Method. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Frank, R. H. 1988. Passions within Reason. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Frank, R. H., Gilovich, T. and Regan, D. 1993. “Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (Spring): 159–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, R. E. 1994. “The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions,” Business Ethics Quarterly 4(4): 409–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, R. E.. 2000. “Business Ethics at the Milennium,” Business Ethics Quarterly 10(1):169–80.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., Wicks, A. C. and Parmar, B. 2004. “Stakeholder Theory and ‘The Corporate Objective Revisited,’” Organization Science 15(3): 364–69.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. 1970. “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” The New York Times Magazine (September 13): 33, 122–26.Google Scholar
Ghoshal, S. 2005. “Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices,” Academy of Management Learning & Education 4(1): 75–91.Google Scholar
Hargrave, T. J. Forthcoming. “Moral Imagination, Collective Action, and the Achievement of Moral Outcomes,” Business Ethics Quarterly.Google Scholar
Hargrave, T. J. and Van de Ven, H. 2006. “A Collective Action Model of Institutional Innovation,” Academy of Management Review 31(4): 864–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J., and Bromiley, P. 2007. “Incentives to Cheat: The Influence of Executive Compensation and Firm Performance on Financial Misrepresentation,” Organization Science 18(3): 350–67.Google Scholar
Hartman, E. M. 2008. “Reconciliation in Business Ethics: Some Advice from Aristotle,” Business Ethics Quarterly 18(2): 253–65.Google Scholar
Hinings, C. R. and Greenwood, R. 2002. “Disconnects and Consequences in Organization Theory,” Administrative Science Quarterly 47(3): 411–21.Google Scholar
Jensen, M. C. 2002. “Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function.” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(2): 235–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A. A. 2007. “Cooperation between Corporations and Environmental Groups: A Transaction Cost Perspective,” Academy of Management Review 32(3): 889–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A. A. and Lenox, M. J. 2000. “Industry Self-Regulation without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry’s Responsible Care Program,” Academy of Management Journal 43(4): 698–716.Google Scholar
King, A. A. and Lenox, M. J.. 2001a. “Does It Really Pay to Be Green? An Empirical Study of Firm Environmental and Financial Performance,” Journal of Industrial Ecology 5(1): 105–16.Google Scholar
King, A. A. and Lenox, M. J.. 2001b. “Lean and Green? Exploring the Spillovers from Lean Production to Environmental Performance,” Production and Operations Management 10(3): 244–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A. A. and Lenox, M. J.. 2002. “Exploring the Locus of Profitable Pollution Reduction,” Management Science 48(2): 289–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreiner, G. E., Ashforth, B. E and Sluss, D. M. 2006. “Identity Dynamics in Occupational Dirty Work: Integrating Social Identity and System Justification Perspectives,” Organization Science 17(5): 619–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Margolis, J. D. and Walsh, J. P. 2003. “Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business,” Administrative Science Quarterly 48: 268–305.Google Scholar
Martin, R. L. 2007. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integrative Thinking. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
McCloskey, D. N. 1998. The Rhetoric of Economics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, R. P. 1996. The Politics of Ethics: Methodsfor Acting, Learning, and Sometimes Fighting, with Others in Addressing Ethics Problems in Organizational Life. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. 2002. The Collapse of the Fact / Value Dichotomy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. 1951. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism,” The Philosophical Review 60(1): 20–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, R. E. and Rohrbaugh, J. 1983. “A Spatial Model of Effectiveness Criteria: Towards a Competing Values Approach to Organizational Analysis,” Management Science 29(3): 363–77.Google Scholar
Reynolds, S. 2006a. “Moral Awareness and Ethical Predispositions: Investigating the Role of Individual Differences in the Recognition of Moral Issues,” Journal of Applied Psychology 91(1): 233–43.Google Scholar
Reynolds, S.. 2006b. “A Neurocognitive Model of the Ethical Decision-Making Process: Implications for Study and Practice,” Journal of Applied Psychology 91(1): 737–48.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, P., Siegel, D. S., Hillman, A. and Eden, L. 2006. “Three Lenses on the Multinational Enterprise: Politics, Corruption, and Corporate Social Responsibility,” Journal of International Business Studies 37(6): 733–46.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, P.,Uhlenbruck, K and Eden, L. 2005. “Government Corruption and the Entry Strategies of Multinationals,” Academy of Management Review 30(2): 383–96.Google Scholar
Sandberg, J. 2008. “Understanding the Separation Thesis,” Business Ethics Quarterly 18(2): 213–32.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. 1964. “How to Derive ‘Ought’ From ‘Is,’” The Philosophical Review 73(1): 43–58.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1987. On Ethics and Economics. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Seo, M., and Creed, W. E. D. 2002. “Institutional Contradictions, Praxis, and Institutional Change: A Dialectical Perspective,” Academy of Management Review 27(2): 222–47.Google Scholar
Treviño, L. K., and Weaver, G. R. 2001. “Organizational Justice and Ethics Program ‘Follow-Through’: Influences on Employees’ Harmful and Helpful Behavior,” Business Ethics Quarterly 11(4): 651–71.Google Scholar
Uhlenbruck, K.Rodriguez, P.Doh, J., and Eden, L. 2006. “The Impact of Corruption on Entry Strategy: Evidence from Telecommunication Projects in Emerging Economies,” Organization Science 17(3): 402–14.Google Scholar
Wade, J. B., O’Reilly, C. A. and Pollock, T. G. 2006. “Overpaid CEOs and Underpaid Managers: Fairness and Executive Compensation,” Organization Science 17(5): 527–44.Google Scholar
Wade, J. B., Porac, J. F., Pollock, T. G., and Graffin, S. D. 2006. “The Burden of Celebrity: The Impact of CEO Certification Contests on CEO Pay and Performance,” Academy of Management Journal 49(4): 643–60.Google Scholar
Walsh, J. P., Meyer, A. D. and Schoonhoven, C. B. 2006. “A Future for Organization Theory: Living In and Living With Changing Organizations,” Organization Science 17(5): 657–71.Google Scholar
Walsh, J. P., Weber, K., and Margolis, J. D. 2003. “Social Issues in Management: Our Lost Cause Found,” Journal of Management 29(6): 859–81.Google Scholar
Weaver, G. R., and Treviño, L. K. 1999. “Compliance and Values Oriented Ethics Programs: Influences on Employees’ Attitudes and Behavior,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 9(2): 315–35.Google Scholar
Weaver, G. R., Treviño, L. K., and Cochran, P. L. 1999a. “Corporate Ethics Programs as Control Systems: Influences of Executive Commitment and Environmental Factors,” Academy of Management Journal 42(1): 41–58.Google Scholar
Weaver, G. R.,Trevino, L. K., Cochran, P. L.. 1999b. “Integrated and Decoupled Corporate Social Performance: Management Commitments, External Pressures, and Corporate Ethics Practices,” Academy of Management Journal 42(5): 539–52.Google Scholar
Wicks, A. C. 1996. “Overcoming the Separation Thesis: The Need for a Reconsideration of Business and Society Research,” Business & Society 35(1): 89–118.Google Scholar