In both the public and the business world, in academe as well as in practice, the ideas of Adam Smith are regarded as the bedrock of modern economics. When present economic conditions and management practices are criticised, Adam Smith is referred to by defenders and detractors of the current status quo alike. Smith, it is believed, defined the essential terms of reference of these debates, such as the rational pursuit of self-interest on part of the individual and the resultant optimal (...) allocation of goods in free markets thanks to the workings of an “invisible hand.” In this article, we question whether this standard view of Smith, the economist, is tenable. We provide an extensive review of the extant secondary literature from economists, business ethicists, and philosophers, comparing their assessments to crucial elements of Smith’s theoretical system. As a result, we show that Smith, far from being an advocate of a value-free or even value-averse conception of economic transactions, stood for a virtue-based and values-oriented model of business. Accordingly, we argue current management education and the pedagogy of business ethics ought to be changed, and certain strategic conclusions drawn for business practice. (shrink)

The proposal by Adam Smith that the market is a primal human reality has arguably been the most influential of the myths offered as a substitute for the authoritative story of Eden by the Enlightenment’s founding fathers. This essay examines how rival primal stories shape agents’ moral stances by directing attention, framing conceptual priorities and in situating stated and unstated analytical presuppositions in contemporary economic discourses. Contemporary scholars have recently emphasised that the root metaphor of Smith’s economic theory is original (...) barter. Tracing this scholarship, I will show how this picture of the human economic agent grounds the central tenets of the emerging global economic order. This vision will, however, then be shown to contrast with both the biblical vision of human economic activity, medieval and reformation theological appropriations of this vision, and the political and economic institutions that pre-modern Christendom developed to express their belief in a human responsibility to serve the divine sustenance of the human race. I will conclude by suggesting why the transition from Christendom to modern global capitalism demands a deeper than usual theological analysis of phenomena we usually refer to under the heading of globalisation, calling for reformulations of basic Christian and non-Christian presumptions about economic practice and ethics. (shrink)