39 found
Order:
  1. Accountable to Whom? Rethinking the Role of Corporations in Political CSR.Waheed Hussain & Jeffrey Moriarty - 2018 - Journal of Business Ethics 149 (3):519-534.
    According to Palazzo and Scherer, the changing role of business corporations in society requires that we take new measures to integrate these organizations into society-wide processes of democratic governance. We argue that their model of integration has a fundamental problem. Instead of treating business corporations as agents that must be held accountable to the democratic reasoning of affected parties, it treats corporations as agents who can hold others accountable. In our terminology, it treats business corporations as “supervising authorities” rather than (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   55 citations  
  2.  94
    Business Ethics and (or as) Political Philosophy.Joseph Heath, Jeffrey Moriarty & Wayne Norman - 2010 - Business Ethics Quarterly 20 (3):427-452.
    ABSTRACT:There is considerable overlap between the interests of business ethicists and those of political philosophers. Questions about the moral justifiability of the capitalist system, the basis of property rights, and the problem of inequality in the distribution of income have been of central importance in both fields. However, political philosophers have developed, especially over the past four decades, a set of tools and concepts for addressing these questions that are in many ways quite distinctive. Most business ethicists, on the other (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   74 citations  
  3.  87
    On the Origin, Content, and Relevance of the Market Failures Approach.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2020 - Journal of Business Ethics 165 (1):113-124.
    The view of business ethics that Christopher McMahon calls the “implicit morality of the market” and Joseph Heath calls the “market failures approach” has received a significant amount of recent attention. The idea of this view is that we can derive an ethics for market participants by thinking about the “point” of market activity, and asking what the world would have to be like for this point to be realized. While this view has been much-discussed, it is still not well-understood. (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   20 citations  
  4. Rawls, Self-Respect, and the Opportunity for Meaningful Work.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2009 - Social Theory and Practice 35 (3):441-459.
    John Rawls says that one of the requirements for stability is “[s]ociety as an employer of last resort” (PLP, lix). He explains: “[t]he lack of . . . the opportunity for meaningful work and occupation is destructive . . . of citizens’ self-respect” (PLP, lix). Rawls implies in these claims that the opportunity for meaningful work is a social basis of self-respect. This constitutes a significant shift in his account of self-respect, one that has been overlooked. I begin by clarifying (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   43 citations  
  5. On the Relevance of Political Philosophy to Business Ethics.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2005 - Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (3):455-473.
    Abstract:The central problems of political philosophy (e.g., legitimate authority, distributive justice) mirror the central problems of business ethics. The question naturally arises: should political theories be applied to problems in business ethics? If a version of egalitarianism is the correct theory of justice for states, for example, does it follow that it is the correct theory of justice for businesses? If states should be democratically governed by their citizens, should businesses be democratically managed by their employees? Most theorists who have (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   47 citations  
  6. What’s in a Wage? A New Approach to the Justification of Pay.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2020 - Business Ethics Quarterly 30 (1):119-137.
    ABSTRACT:In this address, I distinguish and explore three conceptions of wages. A wage is a reward, given in recognition of the performance of a valued task. It is also an incentive: a way to entice workers to take and keep jobs, and to motivate them to work hard. Finally, a wage is a price of labor, and like all prices, conveys valuable information about relative scarcity. I show that each conception of wages has its own normative logic, or appropriate justification, (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  7.  56
    The Connection Between Stakeholder Theory and Stakeholder Democracy: An Excavation and Defense.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2014 - Business and Society 53 (6):820-852.
    In early writings, stakeholder theorists supported giving all stakeholders formal, binding control over the corporation, in particular, over its board of directors. In recent writings, however, they claim that stakeholder theory does not require changing the current structure of corporate governance and further claim to be “agnostic” about the value of doing so. This article’s purpose is to highlight this shift and to argue that it is a mistake. It argues that, for instrumental reasons, stakeholder theorists should support giving all (...)
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   22 citations  
  8. Do CEOS get Paid too much?Jeffrey Moriarty - 2005 - Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (2):257-281.
    Abstract:In 2003, CEOs of the 365 largest U.S. corporations were paid on average $8 million, 301 times as much as factory workers. This paper asks whether CEOs get paid too much. Appealing to widely recognized moral values, I distinguish three views of justice in wages: the agreement view, the desert view, and the utility view. I argue that, no matter which view is correct, CEOs get paid too much. I conclude by offering two ways CEO pay might be reduced.
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   30 citations  
  9.  88
    Why online personalized pricing is unfair.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2021 - Ethics and Information Technology 23 (3):495-503.
    Online retailers are using advances in data collection and computing technologies to “personalize” prices, i.e., offer goods for sale to shoppers at their reservation prices, or the highest price they are willing to pay. In this paper, I offer a criticism of this practice. I begin by putting online personalized pricing in context. It is not something entirely new, but rather a kind of price discrimination, a familiar pricing practice. I then offer a fairness-based argument against it. When an online (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  10.  28
    Desert-based Justice.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2018 - In Serena Olsaretti (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 152-173.
    Justice requires giving people what they deserve. Or so many philosophers – and according to many of those philosophers, everyone else – thought for centuries. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, however, perhaps under the influence of Rawls’s (1971) desert-less theory, desert was largely cast out of discussions of distributive justice. Now it is making a comeback. In this chapter I consider recent research on the concept of desert, arguments for its requital, and connections between desert and other distributive ideals. I (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  11. Against the asymmetry of desert.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2003 - Noûs 37 (3):518–536.
    Desert plays a central role in most contemporary theories of retributive justice, but little or no role in most contemporary theories of distributive justice. This asymmetric treatment of desert is prima facie strange. I consider several popular arguments against the use of desert in distributive justice, and argue that none of them can be used to justify the asymmetry.
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   18 citations  
  12.  88
    Is ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ Merely a Principle of Nondiscrimination?Jeffrey Moriarty - 2016 - Economics and Philosophy 32 (3):435-461.
    Should people who perform equal work receive equal pay? Most would say ‘yes’, at least insofar as this question is understood to be asking whether employers should be permitted to discriminate against employees on the basis of race or sex. But suppose the employees belong to all of the same traditionally protected groups. Is (what I call) nondiscriminatory unequal pay for equal work wrong? Drawing an analogy with price discrimination, I argue that it is not intrinsically wrong, but it can (...)
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  13. How Much Compensation Can CEOs Permissibly Accept?Jeffrey Moriarty - 2009 - Business Ethics Quarterly 19 (2):235-250.
    ABSTRACT:Debates about the ethics of executive compensation are dominated by familiar themes. Many writers consider whether the amount of pay CEOs receive is too large—relative to firm performance, foreign CEO pay, or employee pay. Many others consider whether the process by which CEOs are paid is compromised by weak or self-serving boards of directors. This paper examines the issue from a new perspective. I focus on the dutiesexecutives themselveshave with respect totheir owncompensation. I argue that CEOs’ fiduciary duties place a (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   12 citations  
  14.  80
    Participation in the Workplace: Are Employees Special?Jeffrey Moriarty - 2010 - Journal of Business Ethics 92 (3):373-384.
    Many arguments have been advanced in favor of employee participation in firm decision-making. Two of the most influential are the "interest protection argument" and the "autonomy argument." I argue that the case for granting participation rights to some other stakeholders, such as suppliers and community members, is at least as strong, according to the reasons given in these arguments, as the case for granting them to certain employees. I then consider how proponents of these arguments might modify their arguments, or (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   11 citations  
  15.  65
    Justice in compensation: a defense.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2011 - Business Ethics 21 (1):64-76.
    Business ethicists have written much about ethical issues in employment. Except for a handful of articles on the very high pay of chief executive officers and the very low pay of workers in overseas sweatshops, however, little has been written about the ethics of compensation. This is prima facie strange. Workers care about their pay, and they think about it in normative terms. This article's purpose is to consider whether business ethicists' neglect of the normative aspects of compensation is justified. (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  16. Desert and distributive justice in a theory of justice.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2002 - Journal of Social Philosophy 33 (1):131–143.
    Some writers think that John Rawls rejects desert as a distributive criterion because he thinks that people are not capable of deserving anything. I argue that Rawls does not think this, and that he rejects desert because he thinks that we cannot tell what people deserve. I then offer a criticism of Rawls's rejection of desert based on its correct interpretation.
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  17.  79
    Business Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2021 - New York, NY, USA: Routledge.
    Packed with examples, this book offers a clear and engaging overview of ethical issues in business. -/- It begins with a discussion of foundational issues, including the objectivity of ethics, the content of ethical theories, and the debate between capitalism and socialism, making it suitable for the beginning student. It then examines ethical issues in business in three broad areas. The first is the market. Issues explored are what can be sold (the limits of markets) and how it can be (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  18.  64
    Against Pay Secrecy.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2017 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 35 (4):689-704.
    Many firms keep pay secret. They do not make information about what their employees are paid available inside or outside of the firm, i.e. to other employees or to the public at large. Indeed, many firms discourage their employees from, or sanction them for, disclosing their pay. Against this, I argue that there are good moral reasons for firms to be transparent about pay. Pay transparency prevents injustice, promotes autonomy, and increases efficiency. After presenting the positive case for pay transparency, (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  19.  53
    Compensation Ethics and Organizational Commitment.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2014 - Business Ethics Quarterly 24 (1):31-53.
    ABSTRACT:If an employee is committed to his firm—if he is “attached” or “bound” to it—then his firm may be able to obtain a discount on his labor. This paper asks: Is it wrong for firms to do so? If we understand just or fair pay solely in terms of voluntary agreements between employers and employees, the answer seems to be ‘no.’ Against this, I argue that, in some cases, it is ‘yes.’ In particular, it is wrong for firms to try (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  20. Smilansky, Arneson, and the asymmetry of desert.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 162 (3):537-545.
    Desert plays an important role in most contemporary theories of retributive justice, but an unimportant role in most contemporary theories of distributive justice. Saul Smilansky has recently put forward a defense of this asymmetry. In this study, I argue that it fails. Then, drawing on an argument of Richard Arneson’s, I suggest an alternative consequentialist rationale for the asymmetry. But while this shows that desert cannot be expected to play the same role in distributive justice that it can play in (...)
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  21. The epistemological argument against desert.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2005 - Utilitas 17 (2):205-221.
    Most contemporary political philosophers deny that justice requires giving people what they deserve. According to a familiar anti-desert argument, the influence of genes and environment on people's actions and traits undermines all desert-claims. According to a less familiar – but more plausible – argument, the influence of genes and environment on people's actions and traits undermines some desert-claims (or all desert-claims to an extent). But, it says, we do not know which ones (or to what extent). This article examines this (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  22.  29
    On the Ethics of Selling Psychic Services.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2023 - Public Affairs Quarterly 37 (4):331-351.
    In many places, it is possible to buy psychic services, including tarot card, palm, and mediumship readings. Yet we have powerful evidence that psychic abilities do not exist. This paper asks whether psychic services should be for sale. I begin by considering whether psychics deceive or mislead buyers. Next, I consider a harm-based argument against the sale of psychic services. Finally, I consider an argument in favor of their sale that appeals to expressive considerations. I conclude with a tentative policy (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  23.  61
    McMahon on Workplace Democracy.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2007 - Journal of Business Ethics 71 (4):339-345.
    This paper offers a sympathetic critique of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy: A General Theory of Government and Management. Although I find fault with some of his arguments, my goal is not to show that these arguments are irreparable, but to highlight issues that deserve further consideration. After defining some terms, first, I raise an objection to McMahon’s rejection of the moral unity of management (MUM) thesis. Second, I draw attention to his “moralization” of the workplace, and examine the role (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  24.  8
    Against the Sale of Homeopathy (and Other Ineffective Medicines).Jeffrey Moriarty - forthcoming - Journal of Business Ethics.
    Consumers spend billions of dollars per year on homeopathic products. But there is powerful evidence that these products don’t work, i.e., they are not medically effective. Should homeopathic products be for sale? I give reason for thinking that the answer is ‘no.’ It has been suggested that the sale of homeopathic products involves deception. This might be so in some cases, but the problem is simpler: it is that these products don’t do what people buy them to do. More precisely, (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  25.  39
    Risky Pay and the Financial Crisis: Who's Responsible?Jeffrey Moriarty - 2018 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 42 (1):156-173.
    According to an existing “environmental” narrative, the financial crisis of 2007-2009 was due in part to executive compensation packages in the financial services industry that incentivized excessive risk-taking. Also according to this narrative, those who have a duty to protect society – principally, government regulators, but also firms themselves – are open to blame for how executives were paid, and must take steps to change executive compensation. This narrative is important but incomplete. I offer a supplementary “agential” narrative. According to (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  26.  49
    Wanted: Positive Arguments for Markets.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2017 - Journal of Value Inquiry 51 (4):641-645.
    Many people believe that some things, like kidneys or sex, should not be for sale. Let us call these things “contested commodities.” Against this, Brennan and Jaworksi defend “markets without limits” (hereafter: MwL). According to this thesis: “If you may do it for free, you may do it for money” (2016, p. 10). Since we can give away our kidneys for free and have sex for free, we should be able to do these things for money. Brennan and Jaworksi deftly (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  27. Business ethics: An overview.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2008 - Philosophy Compass 3 (5):956-972.
    This essay provides an overview of business ethics. I describe important issues, identify some of the normative considerations animating them, and offer a roadmap of references for those wishing to learn more. I focus on issues in normative business ethics, but discuss briefly the growing body of work in descriptive business ethics. I conclude with a comment on the changing nature of the field.
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  28.  4
    Deserving the Option to Give.Jeffrey Moriarty - forthcoming - Ratio.
    This paper argues that people can deserve the option to give. Discussions of desert tend to focus on the benefits and burdens that people might, in some sense, receive, like wealth and jobs. But intuitively, people can also deserve the ability to decide what to do with their wealth or to select who gets a job. Shaping distributive policies and outcomes in accordance with desert is more complicated than philosophers have realised.
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  29.  49
    Ross on desert and punishment.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2006 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (2):231–244.
    W. D. Ross thinks it is good, other things equal, that people get what they deserve. But he denies that "the principle of punishing the vicious, for the sake of doing so, is that on which the state should proceed in its bestowal of punishments." Ross offers two main arguments for this denial: what I call the "scope argument" and the "state's purpose argument." I argue that both fail. In doing so, I illuminate Ross's distinctive views about desert and the (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  30.  5
    Deserving Jobs, Deserving Wages.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2008 - In Jeffery David Smith (ed.), Normative Theory and Business Ethics. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 119-146.
    This chapter applies recent work on desert to two sets of issues in business ethics. The first set of issues concerns who ought to be hired, fired, promoted, and demoted. Call these issues of “job justice.” The second set of issues concerns how much workers, including managers, ought to be paid. Call these issues of “wage justice.” I focus on job and wage justice because considerations of desert play an important, though sometimes tacit, role in discussions of these issues.
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  31.  1
    (2 other versions)Business Ethics.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2016 - In Moriarty Jeffrey (ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
    [Editor's Note: The following new entry by Jeffrey Moriarty replaces the former entryon this topic by the previous author.], A business is a productive organization—an organization whosepurpose is to create goods and services for sale, usually at a profit.Business is also an activity. One entity “does business” with another when itexchanges a good or service for valuable consideration. Businessethics can thus be understood as the study of the ethical dimensionsof productive organizations and commercial activities. This includesethical analyses of the production, (...)
    No categories
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  32.  54
    Does Distributive Justice Pay? Sternberg’s Compensation Ethics.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2011 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 25 (1):33-48.
    Compensation has received a great deal of attention from social scientists. Characteristically, they have been concerned with the causes and effects of various compensation schemes. By contrast, few theorists have addressed the normative aspects of compensation. An exception is Elaine Sternberg, who offers in Just Business a comprehensive theory of compensation ethics. This paper critically examines her theory, and argues that the justification she gives for it fails. Its failure is instructive, however. The main argument Sternberg gives for her theory (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  33. Employee Ethics and Rights.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2018 - In Eugene Heath, Byron Kaldis & Alexei M. Marcoux (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics. New York: Routledge. pp. 474-489.
    This chapter advances our understanding of the moral contours of the employment relationship. It considers what employers owe their employees, and what employees owe their employers. I begin with a brief discussion of the value and limits of contractual freedom in employment. Then I consider ethical issues in five areas: (1) hiring and firing, (2) compensation, (3) the nature of work, including meaningful work and workplace democracy, (4) privacy, and (5) whistleblowing.
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  34. Just Deserts: The Significance of Desert to Distributive Justice.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2002 - Dissertation, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick
    The view that justice requires giving people what they deserve is both ancient and plausible. Yet many contemporary political philosophers, including John Rawls and Robert Nozick, have put forward distributive theories that give no place to desert. In this dissertation, I give reason to believe that the contemporary rejection of desert is mistaken, and that desert should be taken seriously by political philosophers. ;This project is incomplete in the sense that I do not say how seriously desert should be taken---how (...)
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  35.  47
    The Demands of Stakeholder Theory for Corporate Governance.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2016 - Business Ethics Journal Review 4 (8):47-52.
    Aimee Barbeau advances a thoughtful critique of my article, “The Connection Between Stakeholder Theory and Stakeholder Democracy: An Excavation and Defense.” Although Barbeau does much to push forward the debate about corporate governance, she does it without undermining my thesis. For what Barbeau has shown is not that stakeholder theorists should not endorse stakeholder boards of directors, but that they should also endorse other ways for stakeholders to participate in decision-making processes within firms.
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  36. Teaching & learning guide for business ethics: An overview.Jeffrey Moriarty - 2009 - Philosophy Compass 4 (5):873-876.
    This article provides some suggestions, including a list of readings, for use in teaching a course in business ethics.
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  37.  27
    Liberty, Desert, and the Market. [REVIEW]Jeffrey Moriarty - 2005 - Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (4):734-735.
    This is a review of Serena Olsaretti's book Liberty, Desert, and the Market.
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  38.  50
    Public Capitalism: The Political Authority of Corporate Executives. [REVIEW]Jeffrey Moriarty - 2015 - Philosophical Review 124 (3):422-425.
    This is a review of Christopher McMahon's book, Public Capitalism.
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  39.  13
    Wealth, Commerce and Philosophy: Foundational Thinkers and Business Ethics. [REVIEW]Jeffrey Moriarty - 2018 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 3.
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark