Reclaiming the System: Moral Responsibility, Divided Labour, and the Role of Organizations in Society

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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 doesnot 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 withone'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 ofeminent political importance in our globalized world. Cover Reclaiming the System: Moral Responsibility, Divided Labour, and the Role of Organizations in Society Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents 1: Introduction: Subjects and Systems 1.1. INDIVIDUALS IN ORGANIZATIONS: NORMATIVE THEORY’S BLIND SPOT 1.2. THEORIZING ORGANIZATIONS: SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY AT THE MESO-LEVEL 1.3. RECLAIMING ‘THE SYSTEM’ 1.4. STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK Part I: Moral Responsibility in Challenging Contexts 2: Moral Responsibility, Socially Embedded 2.1. INTRODUCTION 2.2. THE ATTACK ON THE RESPONSIBLE SELF 2.3. SAVING RESPONSIBILITY—IN CONTEXTS 2.4. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTEXTS 2.5. CONCLUSION 3: Moral Norms in Social Contexts 3.1. INTRODUCTION 3.2. THE PERVASIVENESS OF MORALITY 3.3. BASIC MORAL NORMS AND THE PROBLEM OF DELINEATING THE ‘OVERLAPPING CONSENSUS’ 3.4. CONCLUSION 4: Organizations: Hierarchies of Divided Labour 4.1. INTRODUCTION 4.2. THE DIVISION OF LABOUR AND THE ROLE OF HIERARCHIES 4.3. MORAL VIOLATIONS AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL FORM 4.4. EMBEDDING MORAL NORMS IN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES 4.5. CONCLUSION Part II: The Moral Challenges of Organizational Life 5: Rules and their Discontents 5.1. INTRODUCTION 5.2. RULES OF THUMB AND GENUINE RULES 5.3. THE DOUBLE-EDGED CHARACTER OF ORGANIZATIONAL RULES 5.4. PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL RULES 5.5. LIVING WITH THE ‘IRON CAGE’ 5.6. CONCLUSION 6: The Use of Knowledge in Organizations 6.1. INTRODUCTION 6.2. KNOWLEDGE IN ORGANIZATIONS 6.3. KNOWLEDGE GAPS AND THEIR MORAL RELEVANCE 6.4. KNOWLEDGE AND RESPECT 6.5. EPISTEMIC CULTURES IN ORGANIZATIONS 6.6. CONCLUSION 7: The Responsibility for an Organizational Culture 7.1. INTRODUCTION 7.2. THE INESCAPABILITY OF CULTURE 7.2.1. Adaptive Behaviour 7.2.2. Beyond Formalization 7.2.3. Mutual Visibility 7.3. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND MORAL NORMS 7.4. CULTURAL SLOPES 7.5. ‘MANAGING’ ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE? 7.6. SIGNALS AND REASONS 7.7. CONCLUSION 8: Self and Role: Transformational Agency in Organizations 8.1. INTRODUCTION 8.2. ‘SELVES’ AND ‘ROLES’ 8.3. MORAL REFLECTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES 8.4. TRANSFORMATIONAL AGENCY: MORAL STEWARDSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS 8.5. OFFERING SPACE FOR MORAL REFLECTION: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ORGANIZATIONS 8.6. CONCLUSION Part III: The Role of Organizations in Society 9: Organizations in Society: A ‘Non-ideal’ Approach 9.1. INTRODUCTION 9.2. ‘BOTTOM-UP’ REQUIREMENTS ON SOCIAL STRUCTURES 9.3. PROTECTING INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS 9.4. CHANNELLING PRESSURES ON ORGANIZATIONS 9.5. CONCLUSION 10: Organizations in Society: How Good Can It Get? 10.1. INTRODUCTION 10.2. THE RIGHT TO THE CORPORATE FORM 10.3. RECLAIMING KNOWLEDGE 10.4. MEANINGFUL WORK IN ‘THE SYSTEM’ 10.5. DEMOCRATIZING ‘THE SYSTEM’ 10.6. RECLAIMING ‘THE SYSTEM’ APPENDIX: A Note on Normative Theorizing and Qualitative Methods Bibliography Index