Reclaiming the System. Moral Responsibility, Divided Labour, and the Role of Organizations in Society. Oxford u

Oxford: Oxford University Press (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The world of wage labour seems to have become a soulless machine, an engine of social and environmental destruction. Employees seem to be nothing but 'cogs' in this system - but is this true? Located at the intersection of political theory, moral philosophy, and business ethics, this book questions the picture of the world of work as a 'system'. Hierarchical organizations, both in the public and in the private sphere, have specific features of their own. This does not mean, however, that they cannot leave room for moral responsibility, and maybe even human flourishing. Drawing on detailed empirical case studies, Lisa Herzog analyses the nature of organizations from a normative perspective: their rule-bound character, the ways in which they deal with divided knowledge, and organizational cultures and their relation to morality. The volume examines how individual agency and organizational structures would have to mesh to avoid common moral pitfalls and develops the notion of 'transformational agency', which refers to a critical, creative way of engaging with one's organizational role while remaining committed to basic moral norms. The volume goes on to explore the political and institutional changes that would be required to re-embed organizations into a just society. Whether we submit to 'the system' or try to reclaim it, Herzog argues, is a question of eminent political importance in our globalized world.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Collective moral responsibility.David T. Risser - 2009 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Role Responsibility.Peter Cane - 2016 - The Journal of Ethics 20 (1-3):279-298.
Moral responsibility.Garrath Williams - 2010 - Oxford Bibliographies Online.
Moral Responsibility.Christopher Cowley - 2013 - Bristol, CT: Routledge.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-12-12

Downloads
14 (#846,545)

6 months
9 (#144,939)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Lisa Maria Herzog
University of Groningen

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references