Prof. Dr. Irk Ferenc webpage

Unpunishable sins I.

Risk Management Of Transnational Economic Organisations

Summary

Resume

According to research, the activity of multi- and transnational companies often results in damage; some of the outcome of this damage is already manifest now, while some will be manifest in the future only: in the economy, in the rate of employment, in consumption, in jobs as well as in the quality of air and drinking water. At present, there is a growing awareness of the adverse effects of these primarily or exclusively economically focused production activities on a significant part of societies and of the damage caused by them. As a consequence, mankind, at least part of it, is beginning to realize that economic development (I prefer calling it economic change) is closely related to the contradictions and injustices of production and consumption as well as to climate change.

Globalization has dramatically compressed both time and space. As a result, the negative consequences of the extra-profit oriented mentality characteristic of our age are manifold and they have a mutual impact on each other. The key players are the white-collar managing directors, who go by the name of top managers nowadays. They have to get the employees to carry out the tasks required by the owners. This puts a pressure on the managers from two sides: complying with their superiors and having their way with their subordinates. In the case of production companies, the chosen method is often exploitation – of the employees in the factory and of the consumers and/or users outside the factory. Now this can be regarded as normal around the world just like the re-colonization in the economically less developed regions and countries performed by multi- and transnational companies through the government organizations that facilitate the legal environment for their activities.

It is to be analysed what conditions are necessary and what urges, skills and attitudes make this role play possible and bearable for the managers.

Most of the activities resulting in the negative trends we have described is aimed at the creation of extra profit, which was incepted in sin. Some of the damage caused by the companies constitutes an infringement of different international agreements and recommendations, still, in several countries of the world they can be classified as unpunishable sins. The economic system of our world and the operation of most companies within that system are based on the principle of “the end justifies the means”. And let us not forget that the great majority of people and the leaders they elect through various means and methods find the above principle very convenient – at least seemingly – and they do not only accept it as a necessity but support it as well since the goals they prefer include stability, sense of security, retaining the advantages and privileges they have acquired, misuse of dominant position and the production of extra profit beyond borders.  

The question is what and who does the law including penal law serve in this network. It is obvious that the general principle of punishment that is proportional to the criminal act has failed, in relation to the trend of insecurity in assessing the quantity and the quality of the danger criminal acts pose to society.

Concerning the acts of transnational organizations portrayed in this monography, legislators are still a long way from the professional expectation of responding to international crime with international law enforcement. Now we are at a stage when in most cases a uniform standpoint based on a wide consensus on the danger that the damage caused by globalized organizations poses is yet to be formed. Now the short-term interests “annul” moral values and it is to be feared that this will continue to be the case in the long term. In the economically developed world morals is no support for the law any more at the level of macrocriminality. An example of this trend is that countries from different economic and geographical groupings do not pay the slightest attention to several different methods of production and commerce let alone prevent them although these methods are well-known in detail and are exclusively built on the principle of utility and the maximization of profit, also, they are ethically unacceptable or at least dubious. The legal environment acknowledges the present state of things, sometimes it even serves them but rarely prohibits them. The great international organizations comprising the nation states do not effectively bar the present aims and practice.

Countries where profit interests are valued as more important than life are not democratic (no matter how they define themselves) and the power centres of these states (or communities of states) that control political and/or economic resources manage the risks related to production by leaving the citizens of the present and the future to their own resources to cope with the damage and its consequences. At present, it is mostly the NGOs, which are weak in asserting their interests, that are willing to adopt a global approach based on values and manifesting itself not only on verbal statements but in concrete action. The fact that obviously it is the economically strongest states that determine our present and our future as well does not leave much room for hope for the future.

Contents

Foreword   

Introduction    

Part I.     

Chapter 1.   

Security risks in the 21st century         

The challenges of a global world  

Local problems in a global world    

Risk management of companies    

Chapter 2.  

Organizations, organizational risks, dominant position, misuse of dominant position   

The concept and types of organizations, economic organizations and companies   

On organizations and companies in more detail     

Transnational organizations      

The relationship of power and organizations   

Dominant position, misuse of dominant position    

On dominant position in general          

Dominant position, misuse of dominant position and political power  

Dominant position and economic power, misuse of dominant position in economic life  

Chapter 3.         

Man and risk   

3.1. From white collar to top manager deviance  

Historic overview         

Basic concepts  

Digression: The pitfalls of the application of law  

Digression: On elite deviance     

From white collar to manager  

3.2. The man who takes risks   

Risk, risks taking and decisions    

On a theory that explains the process of decision-making   

The role of field theory in the research of criminal causes  

Understanding the behaviour of white-collar people/managers  

Opportunity as an objective category         

Rejection of responsibility: the technique of neutralization  

Rational choice and decision       

On the theory of rational choice   

Limited rational choice  

3.3. A look at victimology  

Introductory thoughts   

On the victims of crimes by power   

Exploitation, forced labour, human trafficking    

Manager deviance – a look at victimology: the unique features of corporal environment 

Part II.   

Chapter 4.   

Management of deviance: limits and opportunities.  

The concept of deviance    

Sin, crime and danger posed to society   

Interpretation of the labelling approach   

Macrocriminality – macrocriminology   

Chapter 5.  

Organizational crime     

CRIME BY ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS – general part   

Organizational crime    

Corporate crime         

Crime committed by employees and against them  

Environmental damage and its consequences   

Chapter 6.    

CRIME BY ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS – special part  

Damage caused by special industries and its consequences  

Car industry    

Food industry   

Clothes industry    

Chemical industry    

Pharmaceutical industry   

Oil industry    

Nuclear energy industry    

Chapter 7.  

Limited control   

The dilemmas of prevention   

Government regulations and control     

The opportunities of (penal) law     

Instead of a conclusion    

Bibliography