How Public Spirited Is American Business?
| Author | Howard R. Bowen |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625228000112 |
| Published date | 01 March 1952 |
| Date | 01 March 1952 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
82
How
Public
Spirited
Is
American
Business?
By
HOWARD
R.
BOWEN
I N
attempting
to
answer
the
question
i-
posed
by
the
title
of
this
article,
I
shall
refer
to
the
several
hundred
large
corporations
which
we
think
of
collec-
tively
as
&dquo;big
business.&dquo;
This
restric-
tion
of
the
subject
is
made
only
in
the
interests
of
clarity
and
brevity.
A
dis-
cussion
of
the
public
spirit
of
our
sev-
eral
million
smaller
enterprises
would
be
both
useful
and
important,
but
it
would
require
special
treatment
beyond
the
scope
of
this
paper.
Thus
in
the
following
paragraphs,
when
such
words
as
&dquo;business,&dquo;
&dquo;businessman,&dquo;
&dquo;business
leader,&dquo;
are
used
without
qualifying
ad-
jectives,
they
refer
exclusively
to
big
business.’-
Many
of
the
leaders
of
America’s
large
corporations
are
deeply
concerned
about
their
obligations
to
society.
This
is
not
an
entirely
new
phenomenon.
The
concepts
of
&dquo;stewardship&dquo;
and
&dquo;the
gospel
of
wealth&dquo;
are,
of
course,
old
ideas
dating
back
perhaps
several
centuries.
And
for
at
least
fifty. years,
a
growing
number
of
businessmen
have
seriously
pondered
their
role
in
modern
society
and
have
earnestly
considered
how
this
role
might
be
integrated
more
fully
into
the
total
social
structure.
Only
within
the
past
few
years,
how-
ever,
and
particularly
since
World
War
II,
have
large
numbers
of
business
lead-
ers
actively
preached
the
doctrine
that
they
are
servants
of
society
and
pro-
claimed
their
obligations
not
only
to-
ward
stockholders
but
also
toward
workers,
consumers,
suppliers,
the
gov-
ernment,
and
the
general
public.
To-
day,
discussion
of
&dquo;the
social
responsi-
bility
of
business&dquo;
has
become
both
acceptable
and
commonplace
in
leading
business
circles.
The
increasing
interest
in
social
re-
sponsibility
has
introduced
a
positive
and
constructive
note
into
the
social
thinking,
the
public
utterances,
and
the
policies
of
businessmen.
Traditionally
much
of
their
thinking
and
action
was
negative
and
defeatist.
It
was
directed
toward
maintaining
the
freedom
and
the
power
of
private
business.
Fre-
quently
it
consisted
of
little
more
than
attacks
against
organized
labor
and
against
whatever
governmental
meas-
ures
were
being
considered
from
time
to
time
for
the
regulation
of
business.
But
thoughtful
businessmen
have
learned
from
depression,
war,
inflation,
and
social
unrest,
and
from
world-wide
tendencies
toward
public
ownership
and
public
control
of
industry.
They
have
been
forced
by
the
revolutionary
events
of
past
decades
to
think
carefully
about
the
conditions
that
must
be
met
if
the
private
enterprise
system
is
to
remain
the
basic
economic
organization
of
this
country.
They
have
seen
clearly
that
private
enterprise
will
be
accepted,
and
can
retain
its
freedom
of
action,
only
if
it
demonstrably
serves
society
better
than
alternative
systems.
From
this
line
of
thinking
has
emerged
a
new
em-
phasis
on
the
social
responsibilities
of
business.
ENVIRONMENT
CONTROL
AND
ADAPTATION
The
heightened
concern
of
business-
men
for
their
social
responsibilities
can
be
explained
in
terms
of
the
changing
1
Much
of
this
article
is
in
the
form
of
a
description
and
analysis
of
the
attitudes
of
businessmen.
It
is
based
on
the
following
sources:
speeches
and
publications
of
business-
men,
public
opinion
studies,
mail
question-
naires,
and
interviews.
Because
of
space
limitations,
documentation
has
been
omitted.
Full
reference
to
sources
and
methods
will
be
included
in
my
forthcoming
book
on
the
so-
cial
responsibilities
of
business.
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