Humanizing Corporations — David Sloan Wilson Interviews Per L. Saxegaard

Imagine, if you lot can, that corporations genuinely are similar people. They would vary inwards their dispositions. Some would live selfish together with short-sighted, caring exclusively nigh their ain immediate gain. Others would live to a greater extent than prosocial together with far-sighted, genuinely caring nigh the basis roughly them together with willing to practise their portion to promote the mutual good. As alongside existent people, the cooperators would live inwards danger of exploitation past times the knaves, but they would besides live able to protect themselves past times banding together, establishing norms of proper conduct together with punishing transgressors. That’s how private cooperators larn by to live on together with fifty-fifty thrive inwards a Darwinian world. Why shouldn’t the same live truthful inwards a basis of corporate people?

One somebody who is able to imagine this scenario is Per L. Saxegaard, a erstwhile Norwegian investment banker who decided to practise the equivalent of a Nobel Prize to recognize enlightened occupation organisation leaders. He does this through the Business for Peace Foundation, which was founded inwards 2007....

PLS: So, it struck me that what nosotros request to focus on inwards occupation organisation is to larn these ii curves, the “making money” crease together with the “making a difference” curve, to come upward together. We request to brand money piece making a deviation to other people; merging net income alongside a higher purpose, piece acting ethically together with responsible. We coined it to live businessworthy. All occupation organisation people know the concept of beingness creditworthy. That’s nigh non losing other people’s money. Being businessworthy is nigh earning other people’s trust. You can’t purchase trust. Others give it to you....

Evonomics
Humanizing Corporations: H5N1 Nobel Prize for Enlightened Business Leaders
David Sloan Wilson interviews Per L. Saxegaard, the Founder together with Executive Chairman of the Business for Peace Foundation

Also at Evonomics

It’s conventional wisdom inwards occupation organisation circles today that corporate directors should “maximize shareholder value.” Corporations supposedly be to serve shareholders’ interests, together with non (or at least, non directly) those of executives, employees, customers, or the community. However, this shareholder-value dogma begs a cardinal question. What, exactly, practise shareholders value?

Most shareholder-value advocates assume that shareholders tending exclusively nigh their ain wealth. But it is increasingly accepted that the human economicus model of purely selfish demeanour doesn’t ever apply. This possibility provides a challenge to the dominant occupation organisation image of “maximizing shareholder value:” the concept of the prosocial shareholder.

THE SOCIAL ANIMAL

The occupation alongside the human economicus theory is that the purely rational, purely selfish somebody is a functional psychopath. If Economic Man cares zero for ethics or others’ welfare, he volition lie, cheat, steal, fifty-fifty murder, whenever it serves his textile interests. Not surprisingly, although human economicus is live together with good inwards many economic science departments, many experts today prefer to encompass behavioral economics, which relies on information from experiments to run across how existent people really behave. Behavioral economic science confirms something both of import together with reassuring. Most of us are non conscienceless psychopaths....

I tin cry upward the await nosotros gave each other when introduced to human economicus inwards Econ 101.

We all thought, similar WTF? Are people really similar that.

It seemed nonsensical, therefore at least.

But every bit 1 is farther exposed to conventional economics, 1 begins to think that people are really similar that.

How the Dominant Business Paradigm Turns Nice People into Psychopaths

Lynn Stout | Distinguished Professor of Corporate together with Business Law at Cornell Law School


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