Volkswagen and the Future of Honesty
In the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, cynics might say that lofty talk of "business ethics" is intended only to camouflage the pursuit of profit. Yet the company’s behavior is odd, because, even – or especially – by the standard of profit maximization, its software ruse was an extraordinarily reckless gamble.
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PRINCETON – If you used the term “business ethics” in the 1970s, when the field was just starting to develop, a common response was: “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” That quip would often be followed by a recitation of Milton Friedman’s famous dictum that corporate executives’ only social responsibility is to make as much money for shareholders as is legally possible.