Moral Reasoning in Management

Morals in the Market Place "Business is business", we used to be told. Grammatically speaking, the statement is as unexceptionable as one that "rain is rain", and about as pointless. It is meaningful only in what it excludes or in what it implies. Doing business, for instance, is not the same as administering a dole or charitable distribution, just as rain is not a shower of confetti or spray from a hose. What used to be implied when people said "business is business" was that bargaining, buying and selling, hiring and firing, were processes conducted according to ruthless, unchallengeable rules, in which no concession to weakness, no consideration of personal factors or social interests had any part. Power went with possession, or with advantage; and power was to be used to the full.