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Chapter Twelve: Just Business: Fulfilling Social Contracts
Learning Objectives of Chapter Twelve
1. Define integrative social contract theory.
3.
5. Analyze why moral free space is necessary.
SUMMARY: Chapter Twelve concludes the study of business ethics by applying social
tudents are
introduced to the idea of moral free space and learn why it makes for a better system in
the real world. Chapter Twelve also explains partial compliance theory and specifically
addresses deception and corruption within a moral framework.
A Social Contract Theory of Business Ethics
In order to use social contract theory in a business context, the original position must
be recrafted. The contractors must decided on ground rules to govern their
commercial interactions.
ontract theory, when the original contractors in a business
ethics model assess the possible agreements that they can strike, they do so from a
vantage point as economic actors.
mind the purposes for which they pursue business.
Integrative social contracts theory of business ethics (ISCT): the principle
social contractors will find themselves, although they knew the kinds of economic
communities that exist.
Can create indecision in business
Rights Revisited: Shareholders Versus Stakeholders
The problem for rational contractors gathering behind a veil of ignorance is that they
do not know where in the real economic world they will find themselves.
Agreeing to protect a certain inviolability of individual choice links them to a
set of individual moral rights and duties.
Therefore, a social contract for business must endorse parts of fundamental
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Shareholders Versus Stakeholders Debate
Social contract theory sheds light on the controversy between shareholders and
stakeholders. For example:
Guidant and the Disclosure of Product Failure
Because one possible role is that of consumer, contractors in the original position will
want to protect their ability to pursue their goals as efficiently as possible through
consumption choices.
Contractors would be better able to protect their interest in rationally pursuing goals
they autonomously choose if, in the original position, they settle for individual rights
-being for the entire
community.
Relativism Revisited: Social Conventions and Moral Free Space
Conventions are not self-justifying and can be wrong. But their content matters for
what morality commands. But different rules apply in different cultural contexts, as
there are social conventions specific to all human groups.
Contractors can rationally decide to follow conventions about morality. They can
also decided that some areas of morality should be left blank in the social contract.
That blank delegates to real communities the task of filling in the blanks with their
own conventions. Leaving blanks in the social contract is supported by:
Time, Inc. and Journalistic Ethics
Contractors in the original position will wish to permit both civil disobedience and
encourage ethics for journalists when it comes to confidentiality and publishing the
truth. Individual journalists have moral permission (possibly a moral obligation) to
Some argue that journalistic ethics justify civil disobedience for journalists only.
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Partial Compliance Theory
Most people have an imperfect tendency to do what morality requires. The ideal is
unattainable. Either morality demands too much, or an individual human being
cannot act ethically in a world where others do not.
Can morality require ideal behavior in a world that does not meet the ideal?
Partial compliance theory is the theory of what morality requires in a world that only
partially complies with it. Ideal compliance theory is complete compliance.
Deception as Self-Defense
Corruption
Unlike deception in negotiations, the direct harm from corruption affects third parties.