Management Ethics: Contemporary Contexts

Ethics has become big business but have businesses become ethical? This is a central question for today’s managers.

Managing ethics is critical in an era characterized by unprecedented corporate power and a myriad of competing ethical traditions. Giving new insights into the understanding of ethics for today’s organization practice and managerial behaviour, this timely volume, edited by well-respected industry authorities, provides an overview and critique of ethics as they relate to contemporary challenges and issues (such as globalization, sustainability, consumerism, neo-liberalism, corporate collapses, leadership and corporate regulation).

This book, an essential read for postgraduate students of business and ethics, is organized around the core question: What are the ethics of organizing in today’s institutional environment and what does this mean for the practice of management and the organization of business? In response to this, the contributors examine ethics as it is deeply embedded in the everyday practice of management.

Interdisciplinary contributions from the fields of sociology, philosophy, management, organization studies and public administration provide unique perspectives, while case studies and real-life examples illustrate the challenges and dilemmas faced in practice. Each chapter has a brief overview and editor’s introduction which skilfully summarizes key points and draws connections between the chapters.

Stewart R. Clegg is Professor of Management at the University of Technology Sydney.

Carl Rhodes is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Technology Sydney.