To recap: we have defined the instrumental approach as one that sees profit as the ultimate motivation for engaging in CSR. However, and this can be rather tricky, the instrumental approach does not require that companies should not engage themselves in ethical projects, or deny to adopt (seemingly) high standards on some moral issues (such as equal opportunity, or worker’s rights) that might entail a short-term loss of profit. Doing so might be profitable in the long run. What the instrumental approach does entail is that the final standard of evaluation is all-things-considered profit. The bottom line is the (economic) bottom line,
not some other standard. Note a complication here. Some scholars advocate what might seem like an instrumental approach, but do so on quite explicit moral terms. For example, Friedman’s (1970) famous saying, that the social responsibility of companies is to increase profit, might be thought to be in line with the instrumental approach. However, Friedman’s position is based on libertarian ethical arguments, and is thus, at least in one sense, in accordance with the ethical approach. That being said, the Friedman position seems to elude or bypass our definition of the ethical approach: according to his line of thought, it can never be morally acceptable
not to maximize profit (within the limits of law.) However, note that the argument is—or at least purports to be—a moral argument. In that sense, we believe that it is best labelled as an ethical approach. Whether or not the Friedman’s position rest on a feasible or desirable argument depends on the defensibility of the specific libertarian background theory and is hence beyond the scope of this article.