IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/humman/v4y2019i1d10.1007_s41463-018-0048-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Myth of Responsibility: on Changing the Purpose Paradigm

Author

Listed:
  • Friedrich Glauner

    (Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen)

Abstract

As part of our exploration of a new conceptual framework for an economy that works for 100% of humanity, this conceptual paper asks why all talk about the purpose of organizations seems to suffer from a certain bias, namely the bias of scarcity, and how this myth of scarcity influences our understanding of corporate responsibility. The mainstream understanding of corporate purpose always contains partly normative and partly functional aspects designed to cope with the purported problem of scarcity. According to economic and CSR reasoning, this bias concerning the purpose of business organizations triggers two quite distinct understandings of the essence of corporate responsibility. The economic view interprets it as responsibility towards the company, while CSR and business ethics argue that it reflects, or at least ought to reflect, a broader responsibility towards society. To overcome this responsibility gap, we need to affect a paradigm shift in economic reasoning, a shift which reconciles economic responsibility on the micro-level logic of raising profit with the greater demands of the meso, macro, and supra levels. Only then do we obtain a truly meaningful lever for changing real-world business practice from within the micro-logics of running a corporation. This paradigm shift requires a different mental model - a model of resource growth and natural abundance, rather than of scarcity - on the part of both economists and business ethicists. It can be labeled the economic model of future viability. This paper develops a conceptual argument for a future viable model of business practice which, first and foremost, takes seriously the need for the kind of micro-level decision-making which keeps individual organizations afloat, but which also, and crucially, delivers a solution for future viable business models and business behavior which breaks the apparent downward spiral of modern wealth creation, i.e. the spiral of continuous acceleration, disruption, concentration and resource exploitation, and which, thirdly, delivers a proper definition of purpose which can be applied in measurement systems which are free of biased assumptions of scarcity.

Suggested Citation

  • Friedrich Glauner, 2019. "The Myth of Responsibility: on Changing the Purpose Paradigm," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 5-32, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:humman:v:4:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s41463-018-0048-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s41463-018-0048-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41463-018-0048-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41463-018-0048-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert U. Ayres & Benjamin Warr, 2009. "The Economic Growth Engine," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13324.
    2. Ayres, Robert U. & Warr, Benjamin, 2005. "Accounting for growth: the role of physical work," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 181-209, June.
    3. K. Frieler & M. Meinshausen & A. Golly & M. Mengel & K. Lebek & S. D. Donner & O. Hoegh-Guldberg, 2013. "Limiting global warming to 2 °C is unlikely to save most coral reefs," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(2), pages 165-170, February.
    4. Michael Pirson & Paul Lawrence, 2010. "Humanism in Business – Towards a Paradigm Shift?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 553-565, June.
    5. Kathrin Glau & Daniël Linders & Aleksey Min & Matthias Scherer & Lorenz Schneider & Rudi Zagst, 2018. "Innovations in Insurance, Risk- and Asset Management," Post-Print hal-02298297, HAL.
    6. Friedrich Glauner, 2017. "Values Cockpits," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Springer, number 978-3-319-58513-0.
    7. Friedman, Milton, 2002. "Capitalism and Freedom," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226264202.
    8. Claus Dierksmeier, 2013. "Kant on Virtue," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(4), pages 597-609, April.
    9. Smith, Adam, 2008. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199535927 edited by Sutherland, Kathryn.
    10. Friedrich Glauner, 2016. "Future Viability, Business Models, and Values," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Springer, number 978-3-319-34030-2.
    11. Frederick, William C., 1992. "Anchoring Values In Nature: Toward A Theory of Business Values 1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 283-303, July.
    12. Friedrich Glauner, 2018. "Innovation, Business Models, and Catastrophe: Reframing the Mental Model for Innovation Management," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Reinhard Altenburger (ed.), Innovation Management and Corporate Social Responsibility, pages 133-157, Springer.
    13. Friedman, Milton, 2002. "Capitalism and Freedom," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226264219, Febrero.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vanessa Schäffner, 2021. "Between Real World and Thought Experiment: Framing Moral Decision-Making in Self-Driving Car Dilemmas," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 249-272, July.
    2. C. Rudeloff & P. Michalski, 2024. "How Corporate Brands Communicate their Higher Purpose on Social Media: Evidence from Top Global Brands on Twitter," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(3), pages 202-215, August.
    3. Michael Pirson, 2019. "Managing Towards a World that Works for all," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-4, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ralph P. Hall & Robert Ashford & Nicholas A. Ashford & Johan Arango-Quiroga, 2019. "Universal Basic Income and Inclusive Capitalism: Consequences for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-29, August.
    2. Felix Windegger & Clive L. Spash, 2021. "Reconceptualising Freedom in the 21st Century: Degrowth vs. Neoliberalism," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2021_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. Howard Stein, 2012. "The Neoliberal Policy Paradigm and the Great Recession," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 59(4), pages 421-440, September.
    4. Dakpogan, Arnaud & Smit, Eon, 2018. "The effect of electricity losses on GDP in Benin," MPRA Paper 89545, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Adam Martin & Matias Petersen, 2019. "Poverty Alleviation as an Economic Problem," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(1), pages 205-221.
    6. Innset, Ola, 2023. "Dual Argument, Double Truth: On the continued importance of the state in neoliberal thought," SocArXiv kyvdm, Center for Open Science.
    7. Julia Rotter & Peppi-Emilia Airike & Cecilia Mark-Herbert, 2014. "Exploring Political Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 581-599, December.
    8. Potgieter, Petrus H., 2010. "Water and energy in South Africa – managing scarcity," MPRA Paper 23360, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kivisto, Hanna, 2016. "Capital as Power and the Corporatization of Education," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 1-17.
    10. Levy, Daniel & Snir, Avichai, 2022. "Potterian Economics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 1, pages 1-32.
    11. Ulrike Reisach, 2016. "The creation of meaning and critical ethical reflection in operational research," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 4(1), pages 5-32, June.
    12. Qichun He & Meng Sun, 2018. "Does Fiscal Decentralization Increase the Investment Rate? Evidence from Chinese Panel Data," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 19(1), pages 75-101, May.
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5vh7udhojr93npqcg7j64df9d4 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Robert Hahn & Robert Litan & Hal Singer, 2010. "Addressing the next wave of Internet regulation: Toward a workable principle for nondiscrimination," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(3), pages 365-382, September.
    15. Klaus M. Leisinger, 2008. "Zur Relevanz der Unternehmensethik in der Betriebswirtschaftlehre (oder: The Business of Business is still Business–But the Rules have Changed)," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 60(58), pages 26-49, January.
    16. Åsbjørn Melkevik, 2016. "No progressive taxation without discrimination? On the generality of the law in the classical liberal tradition," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 418-434, December.
    17. Layman Daniel, 2012. "Locke on Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-12, January.
    18. Jose Luis Retolaza & Leire San-Jose, 2021. "Understanding Social Accounting Based on Evidence," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    19. Røpke, Inge, 2020. "Econ 101—In need of a sustainability transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    20. Jeroen Bergh, 2011. "Energy Conservation More Effective With Rebound Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(1), pages 43-58, January.
    21. Richard Green & Nicholas Vasilakos, 2012. "Storing Wind for a Rainy Day: What Kind of Electricity Does Denmark Export?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 33(3), pages 1-22, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:humman:v:4:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s41463-018-0048-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.