Business And Philosophy

There is no ultimate division between the "practical" and the "philosophical."  This does not mean that all practical matters are intellectually rich on their own, but it does mean that all practical matters involve epistemological and metaphysical issues.  Philosophy encompasses everything; to deny this fact is self-refuting.  Because nothing is outside of philosophy, nature of business and the workplace is not outside of such concerns.

As several moments of thinking about the subject reveals, business is not philosophically unimportant.  There is far more that a business must consider besides how to generate as much money for stockholders as possible.  In particular, business is intimately connected with ethics, despite the common misperception that the two exclude each other to some extent.  When a corporation prioritizes stockholder returns above all else, it is in danger of descending into habits that ironically have the potential to devastate its reputation and consumer ties--and therefore devastate its earnings--later on.

The treatment of employees [1], the environment, and consumers is of great moral significance to the daily operations of businesses (with the obvious exception of sole proprietorships in the case of managing employees, as sole proprietors have no subordinates by definition).  If humans have moral obligations, then those obligations do not disappear in a corporate context, and thus neither profit nor managerial ego can justify immoral behaviors.  An intelligent leader can easily recognize that a desirable objective does not mean that any method of achieving that objective is valid.

It is possible, of course, to pursue both profitability and ethics at the same time.  The issue is that many people think that to grasp one they must in some way let go of the other, and thus they end up doing the very thing they mistakenly believe is inevitable.  If corporate leaders want to earn enough revenue to make consistent profits and simultaneously stay within the boundaries of their moral obligations, they will see that they can seek both goals without forfeiting either.  If only possibility was always accompanied by willingness!