Women's Studies and Business Ethics Toward a New Conversation

by Larson, Andrea; Freeman, R. Edward

• ISBN13: 9780195107586
• ISBN10: 0195107586
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-09-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This latest book in the Ruffin Series in Business Ethics is the first work to analyze the significance of gender in the ethical management of business organizations. Scholars from the fields of business ethics and women's studies come together in this book to offer fresh new perspectives on business ethics. The contributors examine the value of feminist theory and scholarship for business ethics, and from this examination four overarching themes emerge. The first theme is that corporations are socially constructed organizations that assume, in their practice and ideology, that men are the standard of measurement. Secondly, this work highlights the power of feminist critiques to bring gender into focus as a central organizing principle of economic life. The third theme explores the existence of "frames," unexamined habits of mind that are taken for granted and prevent alternative ways of thinking, especially about the role of women at the periphery of organizations. The fourth theme is that business ethics itself has been feminized in its subordinate position relative to the dominant fields in the hierarchy of business management, such as finance and strategy. Women's Studies and Business Ethics brings together some of the most important thinkers on organizations and gender issues today. The confluence of experts in these hitherto disparate fields, and the rich and lively dialogue it produces, results in a book that will be fascinating reading for scholars, students, and professionals involved in all aspects of business and management.

Author Biography

About the Editors: Andrea Larson is Assistant Professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business Management at the University of Virginia. R. Edward Freeman is Olsen Professor of Business Administration and Director of the Olsen Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden Graduate School of Business. He is also Editor of the Ruffin Series in Business Ethics.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xi
Introduction	3	(8)
Andrea Larson
R. Edward Freeman
I FEMINIST THEORY AND BUSINESS ETHICS	11	(84)
1. Feminism: How Does It Play in the Corporate Theater?	11	(19)
Robbin Derry
2. The Gendered Implications of Apparently Gender-Neutral Theory: Rereading Max Weber	30	(20)
Joanne Martin
Kathleen Knopoff
3. XXXPredicando la Moral en Calzoncillos? Feminist Inquiries into Business Ethics	50	(30)
Marta B. Calas
Linda Smircich
4. Postmodernism, Feminism, and Organizational Ethics: Letting Difference Be	80	(15)
Kathy E. Ferguson
II CRITICAL RESPONSES TO FEMINIST THEORY AND BUSINESS ETHICS	95	(32)
5. Radical Feminism and Business Ethics	95	(10)
George G. Brenkert
6. Morally Informed Iconoclasm: A Response to Ferguson's "Postmodernism, Feminism, and Organizational Ethics"	105	(4)
Thomas J. Donaldson
7. Look What Sister's Done to My Theory, Mama: A Defense of Kantian Ethics	109	(11)
Jesse Taylor
8. Meaning, Rules, and Bureaucracy: Comments on Martin and Knopoff on Max Weber	120	(7)
Edwin Hartman
III NEW DIRECTIONS FOR BUSINESS ETHICS	127	(48)
9. Phallocorporatism	127	(12)
Daniel R. Ortiz
10. Feminism in Business Ethics: Equal and Different	139	(5)
Dawn R. Elm
11. Competition, Care, and Compassion: Toward a Nonchauvinist View of the Corporation	144	(31)
Robert C. Solomon
Notes	175	(6)
Bibliography	181	(12)
Index	193