Can a Business Be Evil? asks Lew McCreary in an excellent, five-paragraph post on Harvard Business Publishing. If not, then who is responsible for the death of Carlene Balderrama, a 53-year-old wife and mother who killed herself hours before her house was to be sold in a foreclosure auction?
McCreary, an editor at Harvard Business Review, will get you thinking about your own social accountability for the seemingly private business decisions you make.
Certainly the actions of subprime lenders took on a moral dimension, says McCreary. But labeling these companies as evil, a loaded biblical term, may serve only to shut off meaningful discussion.
“The problem with accusing a business of evil is that the behavior of an enterprise is collective, consisting of so many individuals, engaged daily in myriad acts of omission and commission, that it is virtually impossible to fix moral accountability in a meaningful way. CEOs are not typically hired for their moral qualities…”
His readers offer a number of passionate opinions:
- “Hitler’s Reich evolved from a kind of green-eyeshades consciousness that allowed people to invent, participate in and justify many machinations that added up to a massive horror. The mortgage preditors may fall into this class.” –Bronwyn
- “I think to be evil means there is the intent to harm, or a clear awareness of harm that is not communicated to the customer. I think anyone involved in the sub-prime crisis who understand how bad the loans were and signed them anyway has something to apologize for. Yes, I believe in buyer beware, but I also believe people know what’s right, and generally feel guilty when they do what’s wrong.” –Scott
- “No amount of shared responsibility makes any business evil more acceptable. It really is about the individual, the leader, the manager…” –Evelyn
What do you think? If you believe a business can be evil, what can society do to punish its behavior?
(Foreclosure image by gruntzook!, CC 2.0)
