Dr. David G. Dick Presents Research Paper at the Annual Society for Business Ethics Meeting

Suppose it’s wrong to hold stock in a company engaged in immoral practices. Assuming it is, shouldn’t you get rid of your tainted stock? But doesn’t that just transfer it to someone else, who you’ve now made guilty of the very thing you were?

This is the “Puzzle Concerning Divestiture,” first posed by Steven Cahn in 1987. It seems to prove that if it’s wrong to hold immoral stock, then investors might just be trapped, since keeping that stock is wrong, but selling it is wrong as well. This puzzle is now more than 30 years old and has resisted solution all this time despite the several papers written about it.

At this year’s annual meeting for The Society for Business Ethics, in Boston, MA, CCAL Fellow David G. Dick presented his paper “Two-and-a-half Solutions to the Divestiture Puzzle.” This paper, co-authored with Philosophy graduate student Brent Odland, shows that there is not only one, but two distinct solutions to this seemingly unsolvable puzzle. Tainted shares can be cleaned if the company reverses the practices that stain their shares. When this is not possible, tainted shares can be destroyed by simply closing the company. Whether this puzzle should be solved in these ways is a separate question, but there is no longer any doubt that it can be solved. The full paper is being prepared for publication.

Thanks to CCAL’s support, Research Fellow David G. Dick was able to not only attend and present his own recent work to an audience of interested scholars, but also represent the high-quality work being done at CCAL and at the Haskayne School of Business. Reinforcing and forging new connections with colleagues from Europe, Canada, and the United States, CCAL’s presence at the annual Society for Business Ethics meeting introduces its own research to a vital and vibrant research network, while simultaneously connecting the school the newest work in business ethics being carried out at institutions from around the world. These institutions include the Trinity Business School at Trinity College Dublin, the Harvard School of Business, and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1980, The Society for Business Ethics meets annually alongside the Academy of Management conference and brings together scholars from all over the world in a variety of disciplines to “keep thinking and discussion surrounding business ethics alive and well.” It is a draw for business ethics scholars of the highest caliber to present some of the most innovative and exciting new research in business ethics.