Good Corporation, Bad Corporation: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Economy

Business Ethics

 

Source: United States Marshals Service, 2004, public domain Figure 1.3 The mug shot of former Enron top executive Ken Lay. Lay was eventually convicted on 10 counts of fraud; while awaiting sentencing of up to 100 years in prison he died of a heart attack in 2006.

Business ethics is an academic discipline closely related to CSR, but one that tends to use the tools of philosophy to formally analyze the ethical role of individuals and corporations. Although the terms are quite similar, there are differences of nuance. For example, although academics who study business ethics tend to focus on corporations, the term itself could also apply to the ethical dilemmas of sole proprietors or of individuals involved in commercial situations, such as a private party trying to sell a used car that he knows has a hidden mechanical flaw. While the term CSR tends to be used by corporations and social entrepreneurs in a way that assumes a positive connotation, business ethics is used in a more neutral and even critical fashion, as one might expect, given the perspective of writers who are not beholden to corporations. Indeed, when the media uses the term business ethics, it is often in a negative sense, to draw attention to instances of deception or fraud on the part of corporations or executives.⁷

White-Collar Crime

White-collar crime refers to fraudulent or financially-oriented criminal activities by high-status professionals or businesspeople. The term white-collar crime was coined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland, who defined it as a "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" in a 1939 speech entitled "The White Collar Criminal". Although the term applies to financial fraud committed by individuals who are not associated with corporations, there is a strong linkage to corporations in actual practice because corporate executives are often well-placed to commit crimes of fraud and corruption. However, a distinction should be drawn between white-collar crime and corporate crime, which refers to crimes for which the corporation itself is responsible. In many cases, such as in violations of US laws against bribing foreign government officials, it may be unclear whether the matter is better classified as white-collar crime or corporate crime. In the law, it may depend on whether the corporation's senior executives were aware of and supported the acts of criminality.

While there is a popular perception that punishments for wealthy white-collar criminals are less severe than for poor and middle-class criminals, the situation appears to have changed in light of the severe penalties for white-collar crime mandated by the 2002 Sarbanes–Oxley Act, which was adopted by the US Congress in the wake of the notorious Enron scandal. As a result, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, the architect of Enron's frauds, was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Bernie Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom, was convicted of fraudulent misstating of billions of dollars of WorldCom earnings, resulting in a sentence of 25 years. More recently, Bernie Madoff, whose vast Ponzi scheme defrauded investors of up to $65 billion, was sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison for his crimes, effectively a life sentence without possibility of parole.