Corporate Corruption: The Abuse of Power: Marshall B. Clinard
From Library Journal
These two books represent opposite ends of the spectrum on ethical business practices. Liebig identifies 24 individuals who represent the best in “virtuous” leadership; Clinard looks at activities in four industries–auto, oil, pharmaceutical, and defense–as examples of all that can go wrong. Liebig spotlights leaders “who have exhibited a concern for people and our common life that is integrated with their pursuit of business success.” They include Miles Barber, Norbert Berg, Albert Duval, and James Gallagher. His work is about individuals with honesty, integrity, and trust. They accept the equality of individuals and treat them accordingly–all qualities that make for excellent business ethics. Clinard chronicles corporate abuse with an impressive list of examples. He identifies actions that would curb corporate abuse, including stronger enforcement of existing laws, stiffer corporate penalties, and conviction and imprisonment of top corporate executives. These two works, along with Essentials of Business Ethics , edited by Peter Madsen ( LJ 3/15/90), provide a multifaceted view of corporate good and bad behavior. If there is a unifying theme, perhaps it is that ethical (virtuous) leadership is essential for corporate America. All three are recommended for college courses on the subject and for all business collections.
- Michael D. Kathman, St. John’s Univ., Collegeville, Minn.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Sociologist Clinard (coauthor of Corporate Crime, 1980) is back at the same old stand, whaling away at the presumptive venality of big business, American style. Relying mainly on secondary sources, Clinard targets the automotive, energy, drug, and defense industries as leading violators of ethical canons. By the Naderite author’s jaundiced account, neither customers nor employees, host communities, and stockholders are safe from the misconduct of top US enterprises. Offering largely anecdotal evidence in support of this stand, Clinard cites twice-told tales of fraudulent cost overruns at Pentagon suppliers, illegal contributions to political campaigns, price-fixing, defiance of health/safety regulations, dumping of toxic wastes, bribery, and allied abuses of the public trust. Not too surprisingly, he has a little list of reform recommendations, which include tougher enforcement of extant laws, protection for socalled whistleblowers, federal chartering of consequential corporations, controls on the size of large companies, and means to the end of curbing cutthroat competition. Clinard’s charges make an impression by virtue of appearing in one place - but, unfortunately, the author is given to unsubstantiated pronouncements and innuendo. Cases in point: the allegation that pharmaceuticals houses have used their marketing muscle to hook American consumers on prescription drugs and the arguable contention that military contracts afford higher margins than commercial work. In the context of a prospering domestic economy, moreover, Clinard’s polemic raises an unintended issue, i.e., not whether multinationals are guilty of wrongdoing (as many obviously are), but what standards of proof may legitimately be used to impeach their collective as well as individual records. A hatchet job with a blunt instrument. (Kirkus Reviews)
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