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Social Evolution, Corporate Culture, and Exploitation

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  • Schlicht, Ekkehart

    () (University of Munich)

Abstract

It has been claimed that the market fosters selfishness and thereby undermines the moral basis of society. This thesis has been developed with an emphasis on market exchange. Everyday life is, however, predominantly shaped by interactions in the workplace rather than by shopping behaviour. This essay places emphasis on firm organisation, rather than market interaction, in moulding cultural traits. The argument starts with the observation that workers may perceive the employment relationship in two different ways, with different behavioural consequences. The first is the conventional incentive view. The other is the social exchange view. Implementing the social exchange perspective may be profitable for firms which organize complex tasks. This requires an appropriate corporate culture, governed by reciprocity, fairness and commitment. Such a culture can be viewed as a refined form of exploitation, however, as it involves creating an atmosphere of mutuality for profit. I shall argue against this thesis that the same attribution mechanisms which render corporate culture an effective management instrument shape the self-perception of management and engender true, rather than faked, social exchange. The market shapes firm organizations which foster mutualism rather than selfishness.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 651.

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Length: 21 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp651

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Keywords: corporate culture; theory of the firm; organizational citizenship; reciprocity;

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References

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  1. Daron Acemoglu, 2000. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 7800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Samuel Bowles, 1998. "Endogenous Preferences: The Cultural Consequences of Markets and Other Economic Institutions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 75-111, March.
  3. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics And Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753, August.
  4. Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis & Melissa Osborne, 2001. "Incentive-Enhancing Preferences: Personality, Behavior and Earnings," Working Papers 01-01-004, Santa Fe Institute.
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Cited by:
  1. Paul T. de Beer & Robert H.J. Mosch, 2007. "The waning and restoration of social norms: a formal model of the dynamics of norm compliance and norm violation," DNB Working Papers 131, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
  2. John Lewis, 2007. "Hitting and Hoping? Meeting the Exchange Rate and Inflation Criteria During a Period of Nominal Convergence," DNB Working Papers 130, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
  3. Schlicht, Ekkehart, 2004. "Marshall on Custom and Competition," Discussion Papers in Economics 369, University of Munich, Department of Economics.

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