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A Phenomenological Approach to Inquiring into an Ethically Bankrupted Organization: A Case Study of a Japanese Company

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Abstract

This study introduced a phenomenological approach to the study of the companies that committed corporate crimes. The author first developed the epistemology of normative control which is based on the philosophical ground of phenomenology, sociology of knowledge, ethnomethodology, Habermas's normative theories, and Foucault's normalizing discourse in the context of organizations. He, then, showed the procedures for conducting a qualitative and phenomenological empirical case study of an aggressive Japanese company whose name appeared in the media for its scandal in Tokyo. The inquiry revealed the generative mechanism of normative control and the patterns of constructing social reality of workplaces in a Japanese company.

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For the sabbatical period August 1999–August 2000:

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Chikudate, N. A Phenomenological Approach to Inquiring into an Ethically Bankrupted Organization: A Case Study of a Japanese Company. Journal of Business Ethics 28, 59–72 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006266623545

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