Empowering People as an End for Business

Abstract

In the past decade business ethicists in the United States have called into question the classical formulation of the purpose of business, i.e., the purpose of a corporation is to maximise profits for stockholders. In place of the profit maximisation view a number of alternative theories of the function of the firm have arisen such as:

• 1. The corporation should seek profits so long as it does not cause avoidable harm or unduly infringe upon human rights (for example, Simon et al., 1972);

• 2. The corporation should seek to do social good (correct social problems) as well as seek profit (for example, Davis, 1975);

• 3. The corporation should seek to produce life sustaining and enhancing goods and services (Camenisch, 1981);

• 4. The corporation should seek to maximise the interests of the various corporate stakeholders rather than simply the interests of the stockholders (Freeman, 1984).

The thesis of this paper was originally proposed in Bowie (1988).