Human beings are moral agents. Generally speaking, we have
consciences and a sense of ought,
which according to David Hume is not derived from what is. In other words, ethical principles are not obtained from
describing some object or situation. Organizations consisting of human beings
do not have consciences; nor are companies able to have a sense of ought that is not reduced to monetary
terms. Such terms being empirical, they cannot get to ought anyway. The illusion that corporations are themselves moral
agents comes from the failure to distinguish an organization itself from not
only its human members, but also its culture. While it may seem that an organizational
culture is distant from the people who inhabit the organization, as if culture
were somehow based at the organizational level, culture is simply a way of saying that most people in a group share
certain basic beliefs, values and ways of behaving. Beliefs, values and conduct
pertain to persons. Physiologically, the brain thinks, values, and conducts the
rest of the body. There is no “organizational brain.” Rather, culture refers to
a critical mass proportion of persons having something in common. This does not
mean that the “something” exists apart from, or "above," the persons.
The full essay is in The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business: A Malignant Mentality of
Mendacity, available in print and as an ebook at
Amazon.com.
