Individuals are generally considered morally responsible for their actions. Who or what is responsible when those individuals become part of business organizations? Can we correctly ascribe moral responsibility to the organization itself? If so, what are the grounds for this claim and to what extent do the individuals also remain morally responsible? If not, does moral responsibility fall entirely to specific individuals within the organization and can they be readily identified? A perennial question in business ethics has concerned the extent to which business organizations can be correctly said to have moral responsibilities and obligations. In philosophical terms, this is a question of "corporate moral agency." Whether firms can be said to be moral agents and to have the capacity for moral responsibility has significant practical consequences. In most legal systems in the world, business firms are recognized as "persons" with the ability to own property, to maintain and defend lawsuits, and to self-organize governance structures. To recognize that these "business persons" can also act morally or immorally as organizations, however, would justify the imposition of other legal constraints and normative expectations on organizations. In the criminal law, for example, the idea that an organized firm may itself have criminal culpability is accepted in many countries (such as the United States) but rejected in others (such as Germany). This book collects new contributions by leading business scholars in business ethics, philosophy, and related disciplines to extend our understanding of the "moral responsibility of firms."

This book examines whether firms as organizations can be considered morally responsible for their actions. This question has profound practical implications as well as theoretical significance, not least when we are today so frequently confronted with misconduct in business.

All students and advocates of human rights will be interested in this concerted exploration of the human rights moral obligations that fall, not directly on states, but on private and public organisations. Such an approach to human rights opens up the possibility of holding corporations and bureaucracies to account for human rights violations even when they have acted in accordance with the law. This interdisciplinary and international project brings together eminent philosophers, lawyers, social scientists and practitioners to articulate theoretically and develop in practical contexts the moral implications of human rights for non-state actors. What emerges from the book as a whole is a distinctive contemporary vision of the emerging moral impact of human rights and its significance for organisational behaviour and performance.

The Moral Responsibilities of Companies is a philosophical analysis of the question of whether companies can be held morally responsible for the harms they create, and what implications such a view has on the moral position of employees and shareholders in these companies.

The Routledge Handbook of Collective Responsibility comprehensively addresses questions about who is responsible and how blame or praise should be attributed when human agents act together. Such questions include: Do individuals share responsibility for the outcome or are individuals responsible only for their contribution to the act? Are individuals responsible for actions done by their group even when they don’t contribute to the outcome? Can a corporation or institution be held morally responsible apart from the responsibility of its members? The Handbook’s 35 chapters—all appearing here for the first time and written by an international team of experts—are organized into four parts: Part I: Foundations of Collective Responsibility Part II: Theoretical Issues in Collective Responsibility Part III: Domains of Collective Responsibility Part IV: Applied Issues in Collective Responsibility Each part begins with a short introduction that provides an overview of issues and debates within that area and a brief summary of its chapters. In addition, a comprehensive index allows readers to better navigate the entirety of the volume’s contents. The result is the first major work in the field that serves as an instructional aid for those in advanced undergraduate courses and graduate seminars, as well as a reference for scholars interested in learning more about collective responsibility.

This book argues for the inclusion of the corporation as an integral element of political philosophy. It begins with a historical evaluation of the corporation as a constituent of political society. It shows how Adam Smith, Hegel, and Marx conceived the role of the corporation in relation to the state, the market and civil society, before moving on to the rejection of the corporation as a genuine moral and political agent by Rawls and Habermas. The next chapter of the book presents the corporation as a collective that possesses political and moral agency. The author outlines four distinct political philosophies of corporate responsibility: the Aristotelian conservative-virtue ethical conception; the market liberal theory; the social liberal theory of corporate citizenship and political CSR; and Marxist-inspired critical theories. It is argued that the social liberal theory provides a better justification compared to its rivals. The third and final group of chapters applies the social liberal conception – called the social liberal corporation – to important contemporary issues, including human rights in global supply chains, financial and digital firms, sustainability and climate change. Corporate Responsibility and Political Philosophy will appeal to political philosophers, political theorists, and applied ethicists, as well as scholars in other disciplines working on issues related to business ethics, organizational ethics, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. As it provides a comprehensive introduction to corporate responsibility it is also relevant to sustainability professionals who seek an overview of the theoretical debate on corporate responsibility.

This encyclopedia spans the relationships among business, ethics and society, with an emphasis on business ethics and the role of business in society.

This comprehensive Encyclopedia captures the intricacies of corporate communication, offering 87 clear, succinct definitions of important concepts within marketing, business, organizational communication and public relations followed by critical, literary analyses of significant research ventures.

Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, values-driven management, corporate governance, and ethical leadership are necessary horizons for the legitimacy of corporations in the process of globalization. Based on hermeneutics and institutional analysis, this book discusses the place of values in corporations and the role of ethics in management. With the theories of business ethics as a starting point, it is possible to propose a vision of the good citizen corporation. The book presents theories, concepts of responsibility for stakeholder justice, and basic ethical principles of respect for autonomy, dignity, integrity, and vulnerability. This is the foundation for an analysis of the ethical relations to internal and external constituencies of the firm, i.e. shareholders, owners, investors, management, employees, consumers, and local community. The interaction with the environment is further analyzed with a focus on ethical principles as the basis for sustainability. This investigation culminates with the conceptualization of the firm as a collective and institutional moral agent. The content also includes analysis of concrete political developments in the US, Europe, and the United Nations. Finally, the book provides a framework for a new corporate strategy based on global business ethics.