RT Article
T1 What Corporate Governance Can Learn from Catholic Social Teaching
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 145
IS 4
SP 711
OP 724
A1 Cremers, Martijn
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785662597
AB This reflection focuses on what insights Catholic Social Teaching (CST) can provide for corporate governance. I argue that the ‘standard’ agency theory is overly reductionist and insufficiently incorporates important economic limitations (such as asymmetric information, incomplete contracts, and the need for coordination) as well as human frailty. As a result, such agency theory insufficiently distinguishes firms from markets, which can easily relativize how we treat others and facilitate rationalization of unethical behavior. I then explore how three pillars of CST—human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity—can help overcome these limitations. CST proposes a vision of the business corporation as a community of persons, working together in cooperative business relationships toward the shared purpose of contributing to human flourishing.
K1 Subsidiarity
K1 Solidarity
K1 Human Flourishing
K1 Catholic Social Teaching
K1 Corporate Governance
DO 10.1007/s10551-016-3127-5