Better Together. Management, morals and co-operation in times of globalisation

Abstract

In this paper, the author reacts to strong public criticism of managers of large corporations and international conglomerates, which announce high profits and at the same time massive lay-offs of workers. Managers a accused of lacking ethical standards and the right training or blame inadequate legal framework conditions and wrong policies allowing capital to dominate labour. The effects of worldwide co-operation among enterprises on the thinking and action of many managers are discussed and models of investor-driven conglomerates are compared with user-driven co-operation typical for social economy and co-operative enterprises, which are presented as examples of value-based management, from which enterprises focussed on short term increase of shareholder value could learn.