When the snake sheds its skin: how corporations are revealing their true nature
Article by Loki Thornton
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
For decades, corporations have gained power that rivals nation states by creating the illusion that they’re a friend of humanity. Through shallow displays of corporate social responsibility (CSR) corporations have convinced us they care about the wellbeing of all of society, they have even been so successful at humanising themselves that the law now legally recognised as persons[1]. However, the once ‘record high acts of corporate social responsibility’ have declined under pressure from profit hungry shareholders[2]. Additionally, the current political climate and erosion of workers’ rights have provided corporations the opportunity to maximise profits by abandoning their earlier promises of CSR[3]. The shift in their values brings into question not only if they were ever genuine or merely seeking profit, but also the very nature of corporations. As Bakan (2024) argues, the corporations ‘moral lack’, their absence of ethical responsibilities when pursuing profit and orientation towards commercial self-interest, reveals the true nature behind their carefully crafted image of social concern[4]. Thus like a snake shedding its skin, corporations are ditching the facade of CSR and good ethics to reveal their single goal, profit.
Since their inception, corporations have had the sole purpose of making profit. This was made explicit in Dodge vs Ford Motor Co, where the judge ruled that the primary function of a business is to make profit[5]. But with such selfish motivations how have they maintained a positive public image? The answer to this is Corporate Social Responsibility, a business model where companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their actions. Bakan (2004) argues this model lets corporations build a facade of goodwill and charity to appear as benevolent and socially responsible while concealing their monetary motivations[6]. A clear example of this is the oil and gas company Shell in 1995, where they produced the report ‘Profits and Principles’ aiming to present Shell as concerned for human rights, the environment and balancing financial success with ethical responsibilities[7]. However, in reality it was reacting to the intense backlash of the Brent Spar case[8], where they wanted to sink an oil storage tank into the ocean to avoid the cost of bringing it back to land, leading to protests spearheaded by Greenpeace and a boycott of Shell stations. With their reputation damaged and profits down, Shell used CSR as a tool to rebuild their image and cover up the harm they caused. Bakan (2004) would argue this is evidence of the corporation’s fundamental psychopathic nature, mimicking morality purely as a strategy for self-preservation[9]. CSR therefore contradicts corporations’ profit-driven nature, serving mainly to distract the public from the harm they cause. But now with corporations shedding this CSR disguise they are more openly exploiting the power they have amassed.
Corporations’ pursuit of profit has been unrelenting and has only intensified under leaders like Donald Trump, who have enabled corporations to disregard human rights and abandon their promises of CSR. For example, when corporations abandoned their DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs after federal mandates were reversed[10]. Bakan (2004) argues this is evidence that corporations only use CSR to appeal to us, their amoral disposition means they lack the ability to care about anything but profit and must present themselves in ways that hide this from us, DEI initiatives were never genuine but a way to present themselves as virtuous[11]. Corporations are pathologically inclined to pursue profit even at the cost of exploiting workers, abandoning their ethics when profit from exploitation of workers outweighs the profit of a progressive brand perception. Importantly, this pattern of exploitation extends beyond the global north and is even more severe in developing nations.
Countries with weak labour laws are increasingly targeted by corporations to enable deeper exploitation, this often goes unpunished leaving victims without justice. In 2013, the Rana Plaza, a multistorey factory complex, collapsed killing over a thousand people[12]. The factory was poorly built and when cracks appeared in the building workers were only sent home for a day before being forced back to work under threat of withheld wages. This tragedy was entirely preventable had those in charge taken appropriate precautions, both in the building’s construction and in the labour practices within. Bakan’s (2004) analysis helps explain the occurrence of extreme exploitation in developing countries: corporations inherently pursue profit without moral restraint which naturally draws them to developing countries that can easily be exploited for maximum profit[13]. Tragedies like the Rana Plaza disaster are not anomalies, but the inevitable outcome of a system that values profit over life.
As corporations shed the illusion of CSR revealing their true profit-driven nature, it is important that we stay aware and critical because when profit becomes the sole measure of success, exploitation becomes inevitable. Holding corporations’ accountable means challenging both individual scandals and the systems that allow them to avoid accountability for the exploitation they create.
[1] VATREG02100 – Basic principles of registration: meaning of person – HMRC internal manual – GOV.UK
[2] UK Corporate Social Responsibility Hits Record High
[3] Global Rights Index – International Trade Union Confederation
[4] Reflection: Corporate Capitalism’s Moral Lack – ProQuest
[5] Dodge vs Ford: The Case That Defined Corporate Purpose – LegalClarity
[7] Profits and Principles: Four Perspectives on JSTOR
[8] Brent Spar: The sea is not a dustbin – Greenpeace International
[10] All The Major Companies And Orgs Dumping Their DEI Programs (Full List)
[12] Fashion Revolution Week: What was the Rana Plaza disaster and why did it happen? | The Independent | The Independent
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