Friedman and the social responsibility of corporation

Essay aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich BWL - Unternehmensethik, Wirtschaftsethik, Note: 1,6, Grenoble Ecole de Management, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as 'the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century...possibly of all of it'. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of 'social responsibility' of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008.