A Pyramid of Professional and Business Responsibility in Croatian Dental Medicine

Hrvatski stomatolozi, posebice vlasnici/nositelji privatne prakse, zakupci prostora i opreme za obavljanje privatne prakse, pa i zaposleni u privatnoj praksi - kao i njihovi kolege u europskim i ostalim razvijenim zemljama - svaki se dan suočavaju s nizom etičkih i moralnih dvojbi koje se redovito pretvaraju u višestruki sukob interesa: a) trebaju striktno slijediti i poštovati sve zakonske, etičke i druge profesionalne norme (kao i one običajima nametnute); b) moraju biti poslovno uspješni i profitabilni; c) trebaju imati društveno poželjnu i poslovno moguću razinu društvene i ekološke odgovornosti. U članku se dokazuje teza kako bogata tradicija teorijskih i empirijskih istraživanja fenomenologije korporativne društvene odgovornosti (KDO-a), korporativne odgovornosti (KO-a), korporativne društvene i ekološke odgovornosti (KDEO-a), civilnih korporacija (CK-a), korporativnog građanstva (KG-a) i etične korporacije (EK-a) može poslužiti kao izvrsno konceptualno i teorijsko polazište za traženje odgovora na pitanje kako je moguće postići poželjnu ravnotežu između poslovne (poduzetničke), profesionalne (kliničke) i društvene (i ekološke) odgovornosti u stomatološkom obrazovanju te privatnoj i javnoj praksi dentalne medicine. Na temelju komparativne analize različitih općih teorija o korporativnoj društvenoj odgovornosti (KDO-u) koje su u posljednjih nekoliko desetljeća osmišljene i primijenjene u poslovnoj praksi i etici suvremenih tvrtki, izabrali smo onu koju smatramo najprikladnijom za primjenu u dentalnoj medicini i stomatološkoj profesiji. Radi se o piramidi društvene odgovornosti, teoriji koju je Archie B. Carroll objavio 1991. Uzimajući tu teoriju kao okvirno konceptualno polazište i primjenjujući znanja sociologije stomatološke profesije, u članku predlažemo specifičnu piramidu društvene odgovornosti za praktičare dentalne medicine u privatnom i javnom sektoru. Za razliku od opće piramide KDO-a koja polazi od teze da je ekonomska (poslovna) odgovornost uvjet i pretpostavka ostalih oblika pravne, etičke i dobrotvorne odgovornosti, brani se teza kako je u dentalnoj medicini etička odgovornost uvjet i pretpostavka svih ostalih oblika odgovornosti, a iza nje slijede: pravna, ekonomska i dobrotvorna odgovornost.Just as their colleagues in European and other developed countries, Croatian dentists, especially owners/carriers of private dental medicine practice, those leasing premises and equipment for private practice, as well as employees in private practice, encounter on a daily basis a series of ethical and moral dilemmas that regularly turn into multiple conflicts of interests: a) they must strictly follow and respect the legal, ethical and other professional norms (as well as those imposed by customs), b) they must run a successful business and be profitable, c) they must demonstrate a socially desirable and business feasible level of social and environmental responsibility. The article attempts to prove the thesis that a rich tradition of theoretical and empirical research into phenomenology of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate responsibility (CR), corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER), civil corporation (CC), corporate citizenship (CC) and ethical corporations (EC) serve as an excellent conceptual and theoretical starting point when seeking an answer to the question how is it possible to achieve the desirable balance between business, professional (clinical) and social (and environmental) responsibility in dental education and in private and public practice of dental medicine. Based on comparative analysis of different general theories about corporate social responsibility (CSR) that have been envisaged and implemented in business practice and business ethics of modern companies in the past few decades, we chose a theory that we consider the most suitable for the use in dental medicine and in dental profession. We chose the pyramid of social responsibility, a theory published by Archie B. Carroll in 1991. Using this theory as a general conceptual starting point and applying the knowledge of sociology of dental profession, we propose in the article a specific pyramid of social responsibility for practitioners of dental medicine in private and public sector. Unlike the general CSR pyramid, which starts from the thesis that economic (business) responsibility is a precondition and necessary for other forms of legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility, this article defends the thesis that in dentistry ethical responsibility is necessary and a precondition for all other forms of responsibility that follow: legal, economic and philanthropic responsibility