Abstract
At the beginning of this essay I sketch a solution to the question of how we can predicate moral properties, such as moral excellence, to the corporation. This solution suggests that there are at least two necessary criteria for corporate moral excellence: (1) a moral corporate culture and (2) the moral autonomy of the individual within the corporate culture. I put forward guidelines for the development of both and argue for their necessary interdependence.
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W. Michael Hoffman is Director of the Center for Business Ethics and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
His most important publications are Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality (McGraw-Hill, 1984), Proceedings of five national conferences in Business Ethics, Kant's Theory of Freedom and articles in various professional periodicals and anthologies.
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Hoffman, W.M. What is necessary for corporate moral excellence?. J Bus Ethics 5, 233–242 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00383631
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00383631