engleski

Recontextualising business within society

The work provides places some basic understandings of the nature of business in the context of current socio-economic transformations, with an emphasis on the transition in Croatia. Business can be viewed as a strictly instrumental activity, which is being undertaken and carried out strictly in order to achieve specific goals, which usually revolve around profit maximisation. Without diminishing the importance of such considerations, it is argued that such a picture is rather incomplete, because it ignores the variety of considerations that shape human behaviour in the context of business. The proposed view treats business as a socially contextualised practice, within which social and ethical foundations are discernible. The practice of business takes place within institutional and normative frameworks, whose best representations are the concepts of the corporation. The assumptions about the role of management, internal distribution of power and the relationship of the corporation with the society and the state shape individual and corporate behaviour and influence the relationship between business and society. The contemporary societal context often threatens the multiplicity of individual and institutional influences that shape business conduct. The promotion of narrowly instrumental views of business evolved into two forms. The dominant form of contemporary capitalism, existent in many Western countries, is based on the central role of the corporation in society accompanied by the dominance of the market discourse. By spreading its logic throughout various social and institutional spheres, the market discourse facilitates polarisation within corporations, loosening of the ties between business and society, and geographical polarisation in accordance with the logic of globalisation, often leading to socially detrimental effects. On the other hand, a more comprehensive picture of the contemporary capitalism also requires an apprehension of its peripheral form, based on political discourses and the centrality of the state. The emergence of this ‘political capitalism’ often stems from the introduction of the market discourse without the support of its institutional and normative prerequisites, which is particularly discernible in some former communist countries, including Croatia. Their transition from communism to market economy is a specific form of movement from modernity to postmodernity in which the weakness of institutions and ethical understandings promotes politically motivated distortion of market mechanisms, leading to both socially and economically detrimental outcomes. Since political capitalism has so far received insufficient academic attention, its treatment had to be reduced to an inductive approach. Consequently, the transition in Croatia is examined, and the obtained insights are used for drawing some wider conclusions about the importance of institutional and normative frameworks for the integration of business into society. Although the two forms of contemporary capitalism are based on competing discourses, it is argued that they facilitate a similar neglect of the social and ethical foundations of business, which can be overcome through realisation of practice-based nature of business and a redefined multiplicity of individual and institutional influences shaping business and corporate practices, leading towards a more purposive integration of business into society. What is needed is a constant debate about the goals and purposes of business. Although the transition from modernity to postmodernity facilitates ideological singularity, it may also facilitate the awareness of the social and ethical foundations of business, because it shifts our attention to tentative and dialogical nature of business activities.

business; society; corporation; institutional-normative frameworks; political capitalism

nije evidentirano