Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:40:02.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Organization Ethics from a Perspective of Praxis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Richard P. Nielsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Organization ethics praxis is theory and method of appropriate action for addressing ethics issues and developing ethical organizations. The perspective of praxis (theory and method of action) is important and different from the perspectives of theoria (theory of understanding), epistemology (ways of knowing), and ontology (ways of being/existing). Praxis is the least developed area within the field of organization ethics. Differences between theoria and praxis are considered within the context of Kohlberg—Gilligan developmental ethics where part of the controversy may be unnecessary due to Kohlberg’s concentrating on epistemology and theoria, but not praxis; and, Gilligan’s considering aspects of praxis with epistemology and theoria. Differences between epistemology and praxis perspectives are considered in the contexts of two cases: Socratic “double-loop” action-learning conversations the night before the Challenger explosion; and, “triple-loop״ action-learning in a cross-cultural Boston—Indonesia child worker safety, acid-washed jeans case.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , April 1993 , pp. 131 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arendt, Hannah. (1964) Eichmann in Jerusalem. New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Argyris, C. and Schon, D. A. (1974) Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Argyris, C. and Schon, D. A. (1988) “Reciprocal integrity: creating conditions that encourage personal and organizational integrity,” in Suresh, Srivastva and Associates (1988) Executive integrity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . (4th c. B.C., 1955) The Nocomachean ethics. Trans. Thomson, J. A. K.New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Belenky, Mary Field, Clinchy, , Blythe, McVicker, Goldberger, , Nancy, Rule, and Tarule, Jill Mattuck. (1986) WomentS ways of knowing. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Benson, G.C. (1989) Codes of ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 8, 305–319.Google Scholar
Bentham, J. (1789, 1897) An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Bird, F., Westley, F., and Waters, J. A. (1989) The uses of moral talk: why do managers talk ethics? Journal of Business Ethics, 8, 75–89.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. (1971) Praxis and action. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Boisjoly, R. P., Curtis, E. F. and Mellican, E. (1989) Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger disaster. Journal of Business Ethics, 8, 217–230.Google Scholar
Bond, K. M. (1989) Bibliography of business ethics and business moral values. Omaha, Nebraska: Creighton University.Google Scholar
Brady, N. (1986) Aesthetic components of management ethics. Academy of Management Review, 11 (2), 337–344.Google Scholar
Business Roundtable. (1988) Corporate ethics. New York: Business Roundtable.Google Scholar
Cadbury, Edward. (1912) Experiments in industrial organization. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Calas, Marta and Smircich, , Linda, . (1990) “Feminist inquiries into Business ethics” in Women ‘s studies in business ethics. Charlotesville: Olsson Center For Applied Ethics, University of Virginia.Google Scholar
Clarke, Lee. (1988) Explaining choices among technological risks. Social Problems, 35, pp. 22–35.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. (1989) The ethics of international business. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dukerich, Janet M., Nichols, Mary Lipitt and Elm, Dawn R., and Vollrath, David A. (1990) Moral reasoning in groups: leaders make a difference. Human Relations, 43, 5, pp. 473–93.Google Scholar
Ethics Resource Center. (1988) Xerox programs in business ethics and corporate responsibility. Business Roundtable. (1988) Corporate ethics. New York: Business Roundtable.Google Scholar
Ewing, D. (1977) Freedom inside the organization. NY: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Ewing, D. (1983a) Case of the rogue division. Harvard Business Review, 61, May-June, 166–168f.Google Scholar
Ewing, D. (1983) Do it my way or you’re fired. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Ewing, D. (1989) Justice on the job: resolving grievances in the nonunion workplace. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Ewing, D. (1991) Due process systems as an approach for integrating ethics into the organization. Address given to Boston College Faculty Workshop On Integrating Ethics Into The Organization, February 15, 1991.Google Scholar
Folger, Robert and Konovsky, Mary A. (1989) Effects of procedural and distributive justice on reactions to pay raise decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 1, pp. 115–30.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward and Gilbert, Daniel R. (1988) Corporate strategy and the search for ethics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
French, R. (1984) Corporate moral agency. In Business ethics: readings and cases in corporate morality. (Eds.) Michael Hoffman, W. and Jennifer, Mills Moore. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
French, R. (1979) The corporation as a moral person. American Philosophical Quarterly, July, 207–215.Google Scholar
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1975, 1986) Truth and method. New York: Crossroad.Google Scholar
Gadamer, H.-G. (1970) Sprache und verstehen. Zeitwende, 6, 364–377. Translator, Lawrence, F..Google Scholar
Gauthier, D. (1986) Morals by agreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. (1982) In a different voice: Psychological theory and womenfs development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goodpaster, K. E. (1991) Business ethics and stakeholder analysis. Business Ethics Quarterly, January, pp. 53–74.Google Scholar
Goodpaster, K. E. & Mathews, J. B. (1982) Can a corporation have a conscience? Harvard Business Review, January-February, 132–141.Google Scholar
Greenleaf, Robert. (1977) Servant leadership. New York: Paulist Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jurgen. (1983, 1990) Moral consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (1966, 1972) “The end of philosophy and the task of thinking,” in On time and being. Translated by Joan, Stambaugh. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (1927, 1962) Being and time. Translated by John, Macquarrie and Edward, Robinson. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
James, William. (1907) Pragmatism : A new name for some old ways of thinking. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1907, pp. 290, 297–98.Google Scholar
Kant, I. (1765, 1959) Foundation of a metaphysics of morals. (Beck, L. W., Trans.). New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Soren. (1846, 1938) Purity of heart. Translated by Douglas, Steere. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, Lawrence. (1983) Moral Stages: a current formulation and response to critics. New York: Karger.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, Lawrence. (1981) Essays on Moral Development. San Francisco: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, Lawrence. (1968) Moral development. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 10. David, L. Sills, ed. NY: Macmillan & Free Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Fred. (1984) Language as horizon in Fred Lawrence (1984), ed., The beginning and the beyond. Chico, CA: The Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, F. (1981) Translator’s introduction. In Reason in the age of science by Gadamer, H.-G.. Cambridge: MIT Press, ix–xxxiii.Google Scholar
Liebowitz, Ann G. (1991) The Polaroid due process system as an approach for integrating ethics into the organization. Address given to Boston College Faculty Workshop On Integrating Ethics Into The Organization, February 15, 1991. Ms. Liebowitz is responsible for managing the Polaroid due process system.Google Scholar
Lobkowicz, N. (1967) Theory and practice: history of a concept from Aristotle to Marx. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Locke, ,John, . (1690) Two treatises of government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolo. (1515, 1952) The prince. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. (1981) After virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. (1867, 1906) Capital: a critique of political economy. Chicago: Charles Kerr & Co.Google Scholar
McConnell, Malcolm. (1987) Challengert A major malfunction: a true story of politics, greedy and the wrong stuff. Garden City: Doubleday.Google Scholar
McCoy, Charles S. & Twining, Fred N.The corporate values program at Champion International Corporation. Business Roundtable. (1988) Corporate Ethics. New York: Business Roundtable.Google Scholar
Moore, G. E. (1903) Principia ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1993) “Varieties of Postmodernism as Monuments in Ethics Action-Learning.” Business Ethics Quarterly, 3:3, in press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1985) Presentation and discussion with former Boston area retail buyer at Boston College. The person prefers to remain anonymous.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1991b) Remembering future ethical organizational development: Kierkegaard dialogic method. Paper presented to the 1991 Meeting of the International Association For Business and Society, March.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1991a) “I Am We” consciousness and dialog as ethics method. Journal of Business Ethics, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1990) Dialogic leadership as ethics action (praxis) method. Journal of Business Ethics, 9, pp. 765–83.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1989b) Changing Unethical Organizational Behavior. Academy of Management Executive, 3, 2, May, pp. 123–30.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1989a) Negotiating as an ethics action (praxis) method. Journal of Business Ethics, 8, pp. 383–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, R. P (1988) Limitations of ethical reasoning as an action strategy. Journal of Business Ethics, 7, 723–725.Google Scholar
Nielsen, R. P. (1984) Arendt’s action philosophy and the manager as Eichmann, Richard III, Faust, or Institution Citizen. California Management Review, 26, 3, Spring, 191–201.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. (1887, 1927) The genealogy of morals. New York: The Modern Library.Google Scholar
Northrup, Herbert R. and Larson, John A. (1979) The impact of the AT&T-EEO consent decree. Philadelphia: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Okin, S. M. (1989) Reason and feeling in thinking about justice. Ethics, January.Google Scholar
Philips, Michael. (1991) Preferential hiring and the question of competence. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, pp. 161–63.Google Scholar
Plato, . (4th c. B.C., 1903) The republic. Translated by Jowett, B.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. (1971) A theory of justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reinhold, R.Astronauts’ Chief says NASA risked life for schedule. The New York Times, pp. 1, 36, 1986.Google Scholar
Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. (1986) Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Ross, W. D. (1930) The right and the good. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, Mary. (1987) The corporate ombudsman: an overview and analysis. Negotiation Journal, April, pp. 01–15.Google Scholar
Scheler, Max. (1961) Ressentiment. Translated by Lewis, A. Coser. NY: Schoken Books.Google Scholar
Socrates, . (4th c. B.C., 1903) The Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato. Trans. Jowett, B.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. C. (1989) Business and the humanities: an Aristotelian approach to business ethics. Ruffin Lectures in Business Ethics>. Charlottesville, Virginia: Olsson Center For Applied Ethics, University of Virginia.Google Scholar
Torbert, William. (1976) Creating a community of inquiry. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
United States Catholic Conference. (1986) Economic justice for all: Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy.Google Scholar
Vanesse, Richard. (1991) The Champion International organizational development approach for integrating ethics into the organization. Address given to Boston College Faculty Workshop On Integrating Ethics Into The Organization, February 15, 1991. Mr. Vanesse is a divisional Organizational Development manager at Champion International, Inc.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Diane. (1990) Autonomy, Interdependence, and social control: NASA and the Space Shuttle Challenger. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, pp. 225–57.Google Scholar
Velasquez, M. (1983) Why corporations are not morally responsible for anything they do. Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 2 (3).Google Scholar
Waters, J. A. (1978) Catch 20.5: corporate morality as an organizational phenomenon, Organizational Dynamics, Spring.Google Scholar
Werhane, Patricia H. (1985) Persons, Rights, and Corporations. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Woolman, John. (1774, 1818) The Works of John Woolman in Two Parts. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Benjamin and Thomas Kite.Google Scholar