ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF BIG BUSINESS GOALS AND PURPOSES

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 343, p. 1-9

Abstract

Instead of profit maximization as a single goal of big business org-theory, game-theory, & behavioral-sci views indicate that the objectives of modern enterprise are plural & complex. Org theory emphasizes the coalition character of big business, suggesting that with many participants comes variety in goals. Games in theory & in experiment reveal that players often carry to circumstances of rivalry & bargaining ideas of fairness & mutual restraint. The normative aspects of business affairs changing role expectations concerning big business make available a behavioral basis for discussion of nonprofit goals. These views of business goals offer analytical frameworks by which soc responsibility & ethics can be studied. Such behavior thus is not an odd mutation in a world of profit maximization. It reflects the coalition dimension of big business & the soc environment in which decisions are made. To complicate things, these models also indicate the importance of profit, efficiency, innovation goals in business, confronting participants in big business & the people of the US with dilemmas of choice. These choices are serious, for with them comes simultaneous impact upon the instit'al arrangements of the US economy. AA.