80 SITUATING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
that ethical issues are inescapable. As a result, conceptions of business perfor-
mance or organizational effectiveness—in theory and in practice—cannot be
restricted to a narrow, profit-dominated ‘bottom line’.
Here we have merely sketched a broad framework which recognizes this
reality. In our model, individual firms are generally reactive to social norms:
firms that want to grow need to work with existing norms. However, business
interests are powerful in the wider political-economy of societies and, when
other forces are compatible, have opportunities to reshape legitimacy notions
over time. How they do so—and the extent to which this serves the greater
social good—is an important question for the state and society.