The Search for the Virtuous Corporation


Book Description

The corporation is the most complex, adaptive, and resilient model of organizing economic activity in history. In an era of globalization, the transnational corporation has significant power over society. While its rights are specified through private ordering, and choice of jurisdictional home, in the event of conflict of laws, the corporation's duties and responsibilities remain contested. Notwithstanding the argument in institutional economics that all transactions take place within governance and legal frameworks, underpinned by a 'non-calculative social contract,' the terms are notoriously difficult to define or enforce. They are made more so if regulatory dynamics preclude litigation to a judicial conclusion. This Element situates the corporation – its culture, governance, responsibility, and accountability – within a broader discourse of duty. In doing so, it addresses the problem of the corporation for society and the corporation's problem in aligning its governance to changing community expectations of obligation.




The Virtuous Organization


Book Description

Throughout her life, Gabrielle Chanel was close to the greatest artists of her time, including poets Jean Cocteau and Pierre Reverdy, painters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and composer Igor Stravinsky. The creative heritage of the House of CHANEL has continued throughout the decades, from Gabrielle Chanel to Karl Lagerfeld, in the form of a dialogue established between artists and authors. The impact of these individuals and others on Chanel’s designs is explored in detail throughout the book. Paintings, sketches, letters, documents, and rare archival photographs illustrate the influence of different eras and inspirations on the clothing, jewelry, and perfumes that have shaped fashion throughout the decades. Moving from the little black dress to the women’s suit to CHANEL No5, CULTURE CHANEL explores the bold path of a brand that has always known how to express the essence of its times, a fashion house that continues to be an enduring symbol of modernity.




Strategic Management in the 21st Century


Book Description

Covering both practical and theoretical aspects of strategic management, this three-volume work brings the complex topic down to earth and enables readers to gain competitive business advantages in their marketplace. This clear, insightful, and interesting work covers all aspects of strategic management, including chapters that discuss SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, the Resource-Based View, transaction cost economics, and real options theory. Unlike other books, this three-volume work examines strategic management from different perspectives, effectively interweaving seemingly disparate subdisciplines, such as entrepreneurship and international business, with specialized foci, such as creativity, innovation, and trust. Incorporating information from contributors as varied as a proprietor of a worldwide motorcycle business to one of the most published scholars in the field of international strategic management, the practical and theoretical perspectives presented in Strategic Management in the 21st Century will benefit business strategists, professors of strategic management, and graduate students in the field.




The Oxford Handbook of Virtue


Book Description

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen a renaissance in the study of virtue -- a topic that has prevailed in philosophical work since the time of Aristotle. Several major developments have conspired to mark this new age. Foremost among them, some argue, is the birth of virtue ethics, an approach to ethics that focuses on virtue in place of consequentialism (the view that normative properties depend only on consequences) or deontology (the study of what we have a moral duty to do). The emergence of new virtue theories also marks this new wave of work on virtue. Put simply, these are theories about what virtue is, and they include Kantian and utilitarian virtue theories. Concurrently, virtue ethics is being applied to other fields where it hasn't been used before, including bioethics and education. In addition to these developments, the study of virtue in epistemological theories has become increasingly widespread to the point that it has spawned a subfield known as 'virtue epistemology.' This volume therefore provides a representative overview of philosophical work on virtue. It is divided into seven parts: conceptualizations of virtue, historical and religious accounts, contemporary virtue ethics and theories of virtue, central concepts and issues, critical examinations, applied virtue ethics, and virtue epistemology. Forty-two chapters by distinguished scholars offer insights and directions for further research. In addition to philosophy, authors also deal with virtues in non-western philosophical traditions, religion, and psychological perspectives on virtue.




The Character of the Manager


Book Description

Explores Alasdair MacIntyre's criticisms of the manager and retrieves an interdisciplinary approach to character transforming arguments. The manager as wise steward is proposed as a model for virtuous management.




Philosophy and Organization Theory


Book Description

What is the relationship between philosophy and organization theory (OT)? This title includes the papers that explore connections between several streams in philosophy and OT. It explores the question: What does a particular philosophy contribute to OT?




The Virtues of Green Marketing


Book Description

This open access book explores the idea that corporate rhetoric can be a force for good. In developing a new framework for analysis and discussion of green marketing, the authors argue that corporate environmental rhetoric can be harnessed to contribute to climate transition and a more sustainable market economy. The work explores the transformative power inherent in green promises and sets a vision of what green marketers should strive for. Engaging with selected research on organizational theory, the authors negotiate the conflicting paradigms of rhetorical theory and their relation to the study of corporate legitimation practices. The resulting theoretical framework provides an analytical scheme that can be useful in various disciplines – such as sociology, economics, law, marketing theory, and communication. It also illustrates how we can find new answers to contemporary challenges by re-imagining rhetoric. This is an open access book.




Organization, Society and Politics


Book Description

This thought-provoking book will appeal to both specialists and newcomers to Aristotle. Specialists will welcome the attention to original texts that underpin many of our ideas on politics, business studies, and other social sciences, whilst newcomers will appreciate the lucid summaries and applications that make Aristotle fascinatingly accessible.




The Heart of the Good Institution


Book Description

This book addresses the question: how can institutions develop and maintain a good purpose? And how can managers contribute to this endeavour? Twelve contributions explore this question, using MacIntyrean inquiry as a basis for exploring four main themes: Can management be considered a practice in the MacIntyrean sense? What is the role of specific virtues in the development of a virtuous institution? What are management vices and what are the conditions in which they flourish? And, can we use MacIntyrean ideas to consider the management of all forms of institutions? The volume is an international and multidisciplinary collection, with contributions from well-known writers in the field of management ethics, and innovative contributions that use MacIntyrean inquiry as a lens to examine fields such as hospitality, user generated music content and social sustainability. The papers are unified by their concern for the achievement of organizational excellence and integrity through ethical management. Unlike single author texts this edited volume brings together multiple perspectives on the topic of virtue ethics in management. In doing so, it explores the topic both more deeply and more widely than a single author can do. Because of its breadth, this book has the potential to become a turn-to research tool for those interested in virtue theory’s relevance to other academic interests such as organizational behavior (including motivation theory and social psychology), literature, contemporary social issue criticism, and business management. “Editors Harris, Wijesinghe, and McKenzie have crafted a tight, slim, and thematically consistent volume that will be indispensable to scholars and students with twin interests in business and virtue ethics. In particular, those working with MacIntyre’s ideas will find the thorough and complimentary explorations and applications of his ideas to serve, overall, as a cornerstone for their own work." Brenden E. Kendall (2014), Harris, H., Wijesinghe, G., & McKenzie, S. (Eds.). (2013). The Heart of the Good Institution: Virtue Ethics as a Framework for Responsible Management. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, in Michael Schwartz , Howard Harris (ed.) Achieving Ethical Excellence (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Volume 12) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.155 - 161




Gambling With Virtue


Book Description

Gambling with Virtue rings with the voices of women speaking openly about their struggle to be both modern and Japanese in the late twentieth century. It brings to the fore the complexity of women's everyday lives as they navigate through home, work, and community. Meanwhile, women fashion selves that acknowledge and challenge the social order. Nancy Rosenberger gives us their voices and experiences interspersed with introductions to public ideas of the last three decades that contribute significantly to the opportunities and risks women encounter in their journeys. Rosenberger uses the stage as a metaphor to demonstrate how everyday life requires Japanese women to be skilled performers. She shows how they function on stage in their accepted roles while effecting small but significant changes backstage. Over the last thirty years, Japanese women have expanded their influence and extended this cultural process of multiple arenas to find compromises between the old virtues of personhood and new ideals for self. They conform, maneuver, and make choices within these multiple stages as they juggle various concerns and desires. By the 1990s their personal choices have made a difference, calling into question the very nature of these multiple arenas.