Ethics and Entrepreneurship |
| |
| Authors: | Linda deLeon |
| |
| Affiliation: | Linda deLeon is an assistant professor at the Graduate School or Public Affairs (GSPA), University of Colorado at Denver. Prior to joining the GSPA faculty, she was Director of Human Resources for a private-sector firm in California. Her research interests include the status of women and minorities in public employment, public-sector professionals, and ethics and values in organizations. |
| |
| Abstract: | An important criticism of public entrepreneurship has been that Us precepts and practices are not consonant with democratic values. This paper examines the meaning of entrepreneurship as defined in bath the public and private sectors, suggesting that some attributes of entrepreneurs that commonly are deemed undesirable–egotism, selfishness, waywardness, domination, and opportunism–actually are functional for entrepreneurial activity. This is because entrepreneurship plays an essential role in addressing a particular type of policy problems (here called "anarchic")–those where goals are ambiguous or conflicting and where the means to achieve them are unknown or uncertain. Finally, methods are suggested for encouraging ethical entrepreneurship, whether undertaken in an anarchic setting or within an organizational matrix that is communitarian or bureaucratic. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
