Search

Article Information


Business and the Generation Gap
McGuire, Joseph W.
13/2  (Winter 1970): 78-82

This article focuses on the propriety of profit as a goal for business in context of generation gap. The author illustrate two examples from American university experiences, the dichotomy which young people perceive between the avid pursuit of the profit motive and their idealistic, humanitarian, upright, righteous belief in the social ethic. The profit ethic is based firmly on self-interest. All businessmen are engaged in the pursuit of the dollar and those amenities that accompany money, such as status, comfort, luxury, and prestige. Businessmen are self-centered, wrapped up in themselves and their own welfare. o the businessman the size of his profits is contingent upon the width of the gap between revenues and costs, so it behooves him to be constantly aware of costs, and to search continually for greater efficiencies whereby costs can be reduced. The believer in the social ethic observes the requirement for efficiency as one of the fundamental causes of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. The social ethic adherents believe that the profit ethic leads men into petty dishonesties and hypocritical postures. In their drive for profits businessmen are constantly tempted to abandon their souls. Even the best companies demand false smiles, subservience and white lies in the name of profit.

 

California Management Review

Berkeley-Haas's Premier Management Journal

Published at the University of California for more than sixty years, California Management Review seeks to share knowledge that challenges convention and shows a better way of doing business.

Learn more
Follow Us