Facing Public Interest

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as private business since business activities have widespread and sometimes far-reaching impacts on the community. The side-effects of entrepreneurial decision making - increasing unemployment, for instance, or pollution - increasingly expose corporations to the public gaze, with management in the limelight.
Facing Public Interest opens up new vistas on business policy and corporate communications facing public interest. The relationship between private enterprise and public interest is subjected to an ethical examination, highlighting the role of the general public as a locus of morality for business and the guiding concept of a corporate dialogue between management and the concerned public. Instructive case studies are also presented.
The volume not only proposes corporate dialogue: it puts into practice. Business leaders, representatives of citizens' groups, public affairs consultants, and academics discuss the topics thoroughly and thoughtfully in the best contributions to the seventh conference on the European Business Ethics Network, held at the University of St. Gallen in September 1994.

Auteur
Dr. Peter Ulrich promovierte am Lehrstuhl von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Arnold Picot an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München. Heute ist er als Seniorberater in einer Unternehmensberatungsgesellschaft in München tätig.

Résumé
The relationship between private enterprise and public interest is subjected to an ethical examination, highlighting the role of the general public as a locus of morality for business and the guiding concept of a corporate dialogue between management and the concerned public.

Contenu
Business in the Nineties: Facing Public Interest.- Clash of Civilizations or World Peace through Religious Peace.- The Responsibility Enterprises Have Regarding the Big Problems of Our Time.- Public Expectations Toward Private Industry: Greenpeace's Expectations of Companies with Regard to their Ethical and Political Responsibilities.- The General Public as the Locus of Ethics in Modern Society.- Business in Response to the Morally Concerned Public.- Entrepreneurial Performance and Public Accountability.- The Concerned Public: A Management Challenge.- Business Policy and Corporate Dialogue in the Banking Field.- Customer Focus in ABB Switzerland's Communication Policy: An Ethical Challenge.- Business Policy and Corporate Dialogue: Future Challenges.- What Happens if Small Challenges Big?.- Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Management in Crisis Situations.- Dialogue between Corporations: Ethically Conscious Public Relations Management as Promoter of Industry-wide Agreement on Ethical Policies.- A Survey of Moral Conflicts among Norwegian Public Relations Professionals.- Corporate Responsibility and Hazardous Technology: An Example of the Interaction Process Between Industry and Society.- Environmentally Responsible Business Strategy: Packaging Company's Response to a Critical Challenge.- Experiences with Corporate Dialogue: The Case of the Ciba-Geigy Incinerator for Special Waste.- The Marketing Dilemma: Marketers Between Consumer Wants and Ecological Requirements.- Are Economic Realities Forcing EC Europe to Abandon Social Democracy in the Workplace? Perspectives from the Boardroom in Six Member States.- Family Issues of Employees: The Case of Excel Industries, Inc A Conflict with Public Perceptions in the United States.- Responsibility in Management: AnIssue for Personnel Development in Major Companies?.- Contributors.