Globalization and Its Challenges for Business and Business Ethics in the Twenty‐first Century

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8594.2012.00410.x
• Author: Patricia H. Werhane
• Date: 01 September 2012
• Published date: 01 September 2012

Globalization and Its

Challenges for Business and

Business Ethics in the

Twenty-first Century

PATRICIA H. WERHANE

ABSTRACT

The global expansion of free enterprise has been under-

way for some time, and the challenges for global compa-

nies are well-known. Companies often operate in

economically blighted communities and in corrupt envi-

ronments without a rule of law. At the same time

Western-based global corporations are under increasing

public pressure to take on responsibilities to these com-

munities that are often beyond their expertise or eco-

nomic purview. For example, at the 2008 Davos meetings

Bill Gates proposed the idea of “creative capitalism, chal-

lenging business to ‘meet the needs of the poor in ways

that generate profits’. . .” In what follows I shall argue

that while there have been many successful global ven-

tures, the Gates’ challenge requires academics and

managerial leaders to rethink their mind sets and

expand their thinking about what we mean by globaliza-

tion, poverty, and the multiple dimensions of free

enterprise.

Patricia H. Werhane is a Director of Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul

University, Chicago, IL. E-mail: pwerhane@depaul.edu.

bs_bs_banner

Business and Society Review 117:3 383–405

© 2012 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Blackwell Publishing,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.

It is an honor and a pleasure to be back at Bentley University

and to be the 2012 Verizon Professor of Business Ethics.

Bentley University, under the leadership of Michael Hoffman

and later with Robert Frederick, was one of the first universities

to take business ethics seriously. Beginning in the 1970s, they

organized a series of conferences linking business leaders, aca-

demics, government, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Today, that series, now the Bentley Global Business Ethics Sym-

posium has been reinvigorated under the leadership of Anthony

Buono, and Bentley continues as a global leader in business

ethics.

The global expansion of free enterprise has been in process for

some time, and the challenges for global companies as well as for

small and medium-sized enterprises are well-known. Companies

often operate in economically blighted communities and in

corrupt environments without a rule of law. Western-based global

corporations are also under increasing public pressure to take on

responsibilities to these communities that are often beyond their

expertise or economic purview. For example, at the 2008 Davos

meetings, Bill Gates proposed the idea of “creative capitalism,

challenging business to ‘meet the needs of the poor in ways that

generate profits’ . . .” (Gates 2008; Hartman et al. 2008). In what

follows, I will discuss globalization, global poverty, and the expan-

sion of global capitalism. I shall argue that while there have been

many successful global ventures, the Gates’ challenge requires

academics and entrepreneurs and managerial leaders to rethink

their mind-sets and expand their thinking about what we mean

by globalization, poverty, and the multiple dimensions of free

enterprise.

Every person comes at a topic with his or her presuppositions,

and these are important to understanding that point of view and

the arguments justifying that position or positions. Let me begin

with a few of my presuppositions that ground my thinking. First,

“[o]ur conceptual scheme(s) and forms of language mediate even

our most basic perceptual experiences” (Railton 1986, p. 172).

What this implies is that our minds are not merely blank tablets

absorbing the data of whatever experiences we encounter. Rather,

part of beginning educated, even as small children, part of the

learning process is learning to sort out, order, and frame our

experiences. No one can simply absorb all of what is presented in

384 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW