Commentary on “Self-Regulation - Business and the Professions”

Abstract

Dr. Louis G. Lombardi poses the question whether self-regulation can be developed as a viable way to solve serious social and business problems, such as the need to maintain mechanisms for ensuring product safety. After analyzing the standard reasons advanced for distinguishing business from the professions, the image of professionals united in service to others, the need to establish realistic minimal moral demands and mechanisms for enforce ment, the author concludes that self-regulation is a viable option, but only after some general misconceptions have been swept away. Lombardi recognises that the professions that have traditionally possessed self-regulatory codes of ethics the Hippocrates Oath for example ~ are service oriented and the extra knowledge possessed is about what is good for the client. In contrast, business is traditionally product oriented and business persons are supposed to focus attention on impersonal goals. Lom bardi suggests that, in reality, many professionals must be drawn to their chosen occupations due to the desire for wealth and social status, objectives that are similar to the stereotypical goals of business. To self-interested professionals and perhaps to business, a code of ethics creates a tone that influences individual behavior and public expectations. Lombardi quotes from codes of ethics for physicians and lawyers to build an argument that the ethical demands are generally not so strenuous as to be beyond the expectations of the typical individual. Applying this argument to business, Lombardi suggests that the success or failure of a self-regulatory program may depend on whether it requires effort, to the detriment of self interest, or merely normally accepted behavior. Thus the burden on a busi ness that is concerned with safety issues is likely to be far greater than the burden on a business that accepts the need to meet industry standards for non-deceptive advertising. Lombardi suggests that self-regulation need not alter the goals sought by participants in the economic system so long as self-interest is pursued within the limits represented by minimal moral requirements. Additionally, while stating that sanctions or mechanisms for enforcement are essential to the