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Can Organisational Accountability and Governance Ever be Amoral? Looking Back to Look Forward

University of Glamorgan

This article considers Adam Smith's notion of self-love and its role within market contexts. Consideration then moves to how that notion has become equated with selfishness and the implications of this development in a context where economic activity is portrayed as apolitical and amoral. The argument is developed that the issues raised by this debate have significant policy implications for corporate governance legislation of both profit seeking and non-profit seeking organisations. The arguments of this article are three-fold. The first is that accountability and governance, in their various forms and located as they have to be within multiple sets of relationships, have to be rooted in ethics and values. The second is that the law and ethics are both diminished when decoupled. The third is that Anglo/American notions of corporate accountability and governance practices portray business organisations as apart from society, rather than a part of society.

Public Policy and Administration, Vol. 21, No. 3, 38-55 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/095207670602100304


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