THE CORPORATE CONSCIENCE

Another lightweight sermon on the social responsibility of giant corporations, those ""critical components of our democracy."" First the hackneyed shockers: General Motors is economically as big as Sweden but perpetuates an ingrown oligarchy; other corporations -- brace yourself -- often unduly influence the political process and ""even help to create many of the ills that exist!"" The corporate conscience, however, needn't lacerate itself over wages, working conditions and such -- that was twenty years ago -- nor, apparently, over crises outside the plant gate like unemployment, poverty and Third World collapse. What's in order are minority hiring and ecology and crime control -- all potentially profitable, Linowes stresses. Corporations should make a ""compatibility analysis"" of their consciences, then plug into something called the Socio-Economic Operating Statement. ""It's frustrating work,"" says the Bank of America president, brushing off the ethical dandruff of fellow capitalists, ""but we are going to keep at it.