Conscience Incorporated

Pursue Profits While Protecting Human Rights

Michael H. Posner

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Economics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479825110
• Subtopic: Corporate Governance
• Index: Economics

Category Winner, 2025 PROSE Awards: Business, Finance, and Management Category

A guide for business leaders working to create socially conscious, sustainable companies—while pursuing profits

Amid growing international concerns about income inequality, labor abuses, racial injustice, and disinformation online, Conscience Incorporated examines the gaps in current corporate social responsibility measures and what more needs be done to address these challenges. The rise of new technologies such as smartphones and social media have made it easier than ever to document and spread awareness of corporate actions. Despite these developments, large corporations often fail to meaningfully address the human rights abuses linked to their business models and practices. In Conscience Incorporated, Michael Posner addresses what lies at the root of these challenges, drawing on his extensive personal experience as a human rights lawyer, State Department official under President Obama, chair of the Fair Labor Association and Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU Stern School of Business.

Drawing from research into the history of business ethics and anchoring his argument with examples of companies publicly accused of human rights abuses—Nike, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Meta, and more—Posner provides a blueprint for global business leaders to navigate human rights challenges and adopt sustainable corporate practices. Conscience Incorporated highlights the need for increased protections for outsourced workers in faraway nations, greater attention to harmful online content, and prioritization of human rights by investors. He argues that growing public awareness has not been enough to enforce ethical practices for global businesses. As a result, governments, especially in Europe, are becoming more involved in regulating global business practices in various industries.

Posner proposes a series of concrete reforms and argues compellingly for why businesses need to devote greater time and resources to protecting basic human rights. Conscience Incorporated is a powerful challenge to the status quo and advocates for a fundamental shift in the principles that govern global businesses.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Preface
• Introduction: A Call to Action
• 1 Ethics in the Age of Outsourcing
• 2 The Particular Problem of China
• 3 Human Rights and the Environment: What to Do When Worthy Agendas Collide
• 4 Short-Term Thinking, Long-Term Injustice
• 5 A New Approach to ESG Investing
• 6 The Social Nemesis
• 7 Technology as Moving Target
• 8 The Emerging Role of Governments
• 9 The FLA: An Unlikely Success Story
• 10 When CEOs Must Defend Democracy
• 11 Minding Our Own Businesses
• Conclusion: The Way Forward: Carrots and Sticks
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author