Skip to main content
Log in

After Durkheim: An Agenda for the Sociology of Business Ethics

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Over the last twenty years the organization of business activity appears to have shifted from an emphasis on bureaucratic organizations toward an emphasis on market structures. Economic self-interest has acquired a new social legitimacy, and the force of traditional moral authorities has waned. In these circumstances the work of Emile Durkheim on the problematics of business ethics and the impact of a culture of self-interest on the stability of society, work that has hitherto been neglected by the business ethics community, acquires a new relevance. In this paper we review Durkheim's problematization of business ethics, establish its relevance for the contemporary world, and use it to develop an empirical research agenda for the contemporary sociology of business ethics.

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

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baumgartner, M. P.: 1988, The Moral Order of a Suburb (Oxford University Press, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumhart, R. C.: 1968, An Honest Profit: What Businessmen Say About Ethics in Business (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. N. (ed.): 1973, Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. N. and Associates: 1985, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (University of California Press, Berkeley).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bensman, J.: 1967, Dollars and Sense: Ideology, Ethics, and the Meaning of Work in Proft and Nonprofit Organizations (Macmillan, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Boatright, J. R.: 1999, ‘Presidential Address: Does Business Ethics Rest on a Mistake?’, Business Ethics Quarterly 9, 583–592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bridges, W.: 1995, Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace without Jobs (Nicholas Brealy, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A. B.: 1987, ‘In Search of the Moral Manager’, Business Horizons 30 (March–April), 7–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, A. D. and H. Daems (eds.): 1980, Managerial Hierarchies: Comparative Perspectives on the Rise of Modern Industrial Enterprise (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, A. D.: 1962, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of Industrial Enterprise (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, A. D.: 1977, The Visible Hand: The Management Revolution in American Business (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Charkham, J.: 1994, Keeping Good Company: A Study of Corporate Governance in Five Countries (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, H.: 1999, ‘The Market as God’, The Atlantic Monthly (March), 18–23.

  • Dalton, M: 1959, Men Who Manage: Fusions of Feeling and Theory in Administration (John Wiley & Sons, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Deetz, S.: 1992, Democracy in an Age of Corporate Colonization (SUNY Press, Albany, NY).

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M.: 1973, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology, 2nd edition (Routledge, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E.: 1993, The Division of Labour in Society (Free Press, New York), partly reprinted in Bellah (1973).

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E.: 1957, Professional Ethics and Civic Morals (Routledge, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E.: 1973, Moral Education (Free Press, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E.: 1982, The Rules of Sociological Method (Free Press, New York).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M.: 1978–1986, The History of Sexuality (Pantheon, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Froud, J., C. Haslam, S. Johal and K. Williams (eds.): 2000, ‘Shareholder Value and the Political Economy of Late Capitalism’, Economy and Society 29, 1–178.

  • Fukuyama, F.: 1999, The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order (Free Press, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, R. T.: 1987, Emile Durkheim: Ethics and the Sociology of Morals (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT).

    Google Scholar 

  • Howell, S. (ed.): 1997, The Ethnography of Moralities (Routledge, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackall, R.: 1988, Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers (Oxford University Press, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, M. C. and K. Murphy: 1990, ‘CEO Incentives — It's Not How Much You Pay But How’, Harvard Business Review 68(3), 138–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, T. M. and F. H. Gautschi: 1988, ‘Will the Ethics of Business Change: A Survey of Future Executives’, Journal of Business Ethics 7, 231–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamont, M.: 1992, Money, Morals and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper and Middle Classes (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W.: 1971, Business Organization and the Myth of the Market Economy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, D. J., M. M. Presley and T. Little: 1982, ‘Ethical Beliefs and Personal Values of Top Level Executives’, Journal of Business Research 10, 475–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcuse, H.: 1961, One Dimensional Man (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mars, G.: 1982, Cheats at Work (Allen & Unwin, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mintzberg, H.: 1996, ‘Managing Government, Governing Management’, Harvard Business Review 74(3), 75–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newton, L. H.: 2000, ‘Millennial Reservations’, Business Ethics Quarterly 10, 291–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oughton, C. and G. Whittam: 1997, ‘Competition and Cooperation in the Small Firm Sector’, Scottish Journal of Political Economy 44, 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peiperl, M., M. Arthur, R. Goffee and T. Morris: 2000, Career Frontiers (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, B. Z. and W. H. Schmidt: 1987, ‘Ethics in American Companies: A Managerial Perspective’, Journal of Business Ethics 6, 383–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sennett, R.: 1998, The Corrosion of Character (Norton, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, P.: 1997, How are we to Live: Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe, A.: 1998, One Nation After All (Viking, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe, A.: 1989, Whose Keeper? Social Science and Moral Obligation (University of California Press, Berkeley).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hendry, J. After Durkheim: An Agenda for the Sociology of Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 34, 209–218 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012558717452

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012558717452

Navigation