Abstract
Disloyalty is always a vice, but loyalty is not always a virtue, so ethical management should not seek simply whatever loyalty it can get. Loyalty can make it possible for us to trust each other, and, when it takes appropriate objects and does not take extreme or improper forms, it can lie at the heart of much of what makes life worthwhile. Hence, it is understandable that corporations and management seek loyalty despite the fact that it can so easily go wrong. This paper deals with the issues of the grounds and objects of the employee loyalty that it is appropriate for management to seek.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ewin, R. E.: 1990, ‘Loyalty: The Police’,Criminal Justice Ethics.
Ewin, R. E.: 1991, ‘The Moral Status of the Corporation’,Journal of Business Ethics.
Ewin, R. E.: forthcoming, ‘Loyalty and Virtues’,Philosophical Quarterly.
French, P. A.: 1979, ‘The Corporation as a Moral Person’,American Philosophical Quarterly.
Grosman, B. A.: 1989, ‘Corporate Loyalty, Does it Have a Future?’,Journal of Business Ethics.
Griffiths, A. P.: 1960, ‘How Can One Person Represent Another?’,Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume.
Love, J. F.: 1987,Mcdonald's: Behind the Arches (Bantam, London).
Luban, D.: 1988,Lawyers and Justice (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).
Michalos, A. C.: 1991, ‘The Loyal Agent's Argument’, in D. C. Poff and Waluchow, W. J. (eds.),Business Ethics in Canada (Prentice Hall Canada).
Peters, T. J. and Waterman, R. H., Jr.: 1984,In Search of Excellence (Harper and Row [Australasia], Sydney).
Westin, A. F., with the assistance of Kurtz H. I. and Robins, A. (eds): 1981,Whistle Blowing! Loyalty and Dissent in the Corporation (McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Bob Ewin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of Western Australia. He is the author ofCo-operation and Human Values (1981),Liberty, Community, and Justice (1987),Virtues and Rights: The Moral Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (1991), and ‘The Moral Status of the Corporation’ (this journal, 1991).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ewin, R.E. Corporate loyalty: Its objects and its grounds. J Bus Ethics 12, 387–396 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00882029
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00882029