Abstract
One way of ensuring that individual actions do not violate a group's moral norms is to develop within each individual a conscience. Conscience consists in the internalization or acceptance of a group's moral norms as correct and overriding one's self-interest when they conflict.
Corporations as well as individuals need a conscience to monitor and control their behavior. The correlative of a personal conscience in a corporation consists in the representation of group interests in the running and managing of the firm. This means consumer and employee representation on the board of directors and management is the most effective way to promote corporate moral behavior.
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Joseph M. Grcic is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University of Chicago. (Formerly at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.) He is a Phi Beta Kappa Member. His most important publications are ‘Kant and Rawls: Contrasting Conceptions of Moral Theory’ in Journal of Value Inquiry 17, ‘Rawls and Socialism’ in Philosophy and Social Criticism, Spring 1980, and ‘Revolution and Economic Inequality’ (forthcoming in Kant-Studien).
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Grcic, J.M. Democratic capitalism: Developing a conscience for the corporation. J Bus Ethics 4, 145–150 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00383568
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00383568