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Planning, consciousness and conscience

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Abstract

Contemporary perspectives on conciousness provide us with a powerful metaphor for the corporate planning process; although organisations ultimately differ, in systems terms, from organisms.

Like consciousness, planning has survival value and confers operational advantages.

Whereas individuals' actions may be guided by conscience, in pursuit of ideals, corporate acts often lack these qualities. It may be that no diffuse planning process is capable of accomodating ideals and ethical standards, they are ‘beyond’ Corporate Consciousness. Therefore, the pursuit of corporate objectives will often conflict with individuals' ideals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Business Administration, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Alan E. Singer (Lecturer)

Authors
  1. Alan E. Singer
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Additional information

He published various articles in the MagazineAccountancy, among others: ‘Facing the Facts’ (October 1983), ‘Motivation & Budgeting’ (March 1982) and ‘Taking “Right-Minded” Decisions’ (October 1981).

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Singer, A.E. Planning, consciousness and conscience. J Bus Ethics 3, 113–117 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02388812

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02388812

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