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Now in its fifth year, Philosophy of Management is the leading  forum for philosophically informed thinking about management in theory and practice.  Through its pages, conferences, seminars and discussion list it defines and develops the field of philosophy of management. 

 

Journal readers and members of this global community include  thinkers, scholars, teachers, consultants and practitioners in 20 countries.  The Journal  is  for philosophers working in all traditions,  for management thinkers concerned with the philosophical foundations and validity of their subject and practising managers seeking to engage with the philosophical issues raised by what they believe and do.  Contributors have included leading  philosophers, management scholars, consultants and managers.

 

It is independent, international, refereed and appears  three times a year. Each issue contains on average 75 A4 (8¼"x11½") pages and 35-40,000 words. It is an indispensable means of keeping abreast of this developing  field.

 

The Journal sponsors a range of conferences and events and the international ManagementPhilosophers Discussion List set up following our first international conference.

 

Australian special issue on Fakes, Copies and Originals now available...Esa Saarinen is Oxford keynote speaker...Martha Nussbaum Capable Management interview...David McLellan to guest edit special Marx issue...

 

 

Third International Conference

Philosophy of Management 05

6 - 10 July 2005

St Anne's College

Oxford

 

Keynote Address

Communicating and Philosophising with Managers

Esa Saarinen

Professor of Systems Sciences, Applied Philosophy and Creative Problem-Solving

Helsinki University of Technology

http://www.esasaarinen.com/?kieli=en

 

 

 

 

 

Programme Details

 

Registration Form

 

 

"Esa Saarinen has broken new ground for philosophy in the corporate world and work life at large. He has been a key driver in establishing philosophy as a recognized force in the context of modern Finnish management thinking. Serving as a lecturer and a coach for Finnish companies and organisations for over a decade, Saarinen has become a leading figure in the field of mental coaching and philosophy of life in Finland. Saarinen has worked extensively with Nokia since 1995."

 

Volume 4 Number 3 Now Available

 

To order single copies and article reprints   

click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lucky Country

Frontispiece picture of Australia by Alexander Pinnington 2001

An Australian special issue, Volume 4 Number 3 takes Fakes, Copies and

Originals as its theme.

 

Writing from Queensland Guest Editor Ashly Pinnington introduces the issue as follows.

 

All seven papers in this issue on Fakes, Copies and Originals consider matters of

reproduction and origination. They consider the interplay between culture meanings

and financial capital, and share in common a concern for further developing the

cultural wealth of society.

The initial two papers concentrate on fakes, copies and their relationship to the original.

The first paper on the myth of the Australian bush seeks to understand how the concept

of the ‘original’ creates problems of identity. Traditional images and stories of the bush

and its settlement are by and large faking origins, which define the boundaries for social

conformity and non-conformity. Its line of argument to a great extent is reversed in the

second paper on the philosophy of the copy and the art of colonial organisation, which

claims that inventiveness and origination is invariably underpinned by voluminous and

habitual acts of copying and reproduction.

The next three papers mark a move away from contemplating relationships between

fakes or copies and their originals. In contrast, their preoccupation is with the tyranny of

the original - its traditions and assumed ideals. Finance capital’s emancipation

continues to be a significant source of inspiration for many contemporary business and

management initiatives such as: privatisation of public sector industries, entrepreneurial

business careers for women and corporate governance of business corporations. The

respective papers on the three above topics propose limits be placed on the absolute

free play of capital while arguing from different political perspectives on how best to

channel the potential excesses of the original. The third paper on privatisation of the

electricity industry argues for improved understanding of corporate company strategies

rather than turning to industry or market-based analyses whereas the fourth paper on

women in business prefers a more deliberate and collective approach to improving the

economic status of women through intervention by the government and unions.

Similarly, the fifth paper on corporate governance argues for increased rather than less

paternalism in the regulation and governance of business.

The last two papers address problems of consensus in the context of increasing

fragmentation of sources for agreement and sense of common origins. The sixth paper

considers what it perceives to be the general cultural malaise prevalent within many

contemporary business corporations. It seeks to identify a moral philosophy for the

business organisation that is more supportive and offers a more fulfilling working

environment. The seventh and final paper also concerns moral philosophy in the context

of a fragmented conception of human purpose and values. It leans less on considerations

of individual and collective rational self-interest, however, and proposes that problems

created by paradigm proliferation within the social sciences be ameliorated by a

concerted effort towards a morally concerned scepticism.

Issue contents

Ashly Pinnington and George Lafferty

The Bush Myth: Internationalisation, Tradition and Community in the

Australian Context

André Spicer

The Philosophy of the Copy and the Art of ColonialOrganisation

Maree Boyle and Amanda Roan

From Working Man’s Paradise to Women in Business: The Contribution of Australian

Feminism to the Understanding of Women’s Economic Position

Within Australian Society

Lucas Skoufa

Industry Reform in Australia: Privatisation/Corporatisation

of the Electricity Supply Industry

Elizabeth Prior-Jonson and Chris Nyland

Paternalism and the Governance of Managers: The Australian

Stock Exchange Approach to Improving Corporate Governance

Jeremy Aitken

Interdependency Within the Business Corporation: The

Three Musketeers or a Prisoner’s Dilemma?

Adrian Carr

Management as a Moral Art: Emerging from the Paradigm Debate

Link to article summaries and author profiles

 
 

Capable Management

Interview with Martha Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum is one of the most prolific and distinguished philosophers in the English-speaking world. Since 1995 she has been Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago appointed in the Law School, Philosophy Department and Divinity School. She is an Associate in the Classics Department and the Political Science Department, an Affiliate of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, a Board Member of the Human Rights Program and founder and Coordinator of a new Center for Comparative Constitutionalism.

 

 

 

In a wide-ranging interview in Volume 3 Number 1

Martha Nussbaum sets out some of the core ideas from

her philosophy and their implications for management.

 

To purchase this interview or the issue of which it forms

part click here.

 

It is already proving to be a powerful teaching resource introducing management students to ethical issues.
‘I don't believe that political philosophy…should leave the world as it is.'..........

‘...three abilities that all citizens should have in a complex interlocking world… would be of particular importance for managers.  First is the ability to reason critically in Socratic fashion, to test and examine one's beliefs, looking for flaws.  Second is the ability to think like a citizen of the entire world, not just of some one nation, an ability that requires a lot of learning about world history, world religions, and unfamiliar cultures.  Third is…the 'narrative imagination,' the ability to think what it is like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself…’ 

' If you are going to be an effective agent of change in any domain you have to care very strongly about something outside yourself....We need to recognize that emotions are complex, intelligent phenomena shaped by learning….We have to ask which ones are good guides and which ones are not.' 

' A true nation-state not only maximizes wealth but does certain things for its people.  We have to think about the corporation in the same way...'

'Shame I think has a certain limited good role in development when we are held up to high ideals and shamed when we do not meet them.  But I fear it is all too often used to infantilise people and put them in a stigmatised position...'

'Focusing on capabilities in the workplace rather than on something else means that you are focusing not just on satisfaction, not just on resources but on a set of opportunities to function at work...'

Volume 3 Number 1

 

To order single copies and article reprints   

click here
 

Drawing inspiration from Martha Nussbaum's theory of human capabilities this issue's theme was capable management.

 

In her Capable Management interview Martha Nussbaum offers a concept of the citizen manager and explains what her central ideas mean for management.  She argues that ‘the manager’s job is not just about making employees feel good’ and argues for an account of human flourishing linked not to mere satisfaction but to ten central human capabilities ‘that ought to be non-negotiable in a decent society’.  Managers, she urges, need also to be informed ‘citizens of the world’, passionately committed, building emotionally healthy workplaces, creating ‘conditions in which people can function well’ and ‘guided by a decent set of ethical goals’. 

 

In Global Warming, Justice and Future Generations, Robin Attfield also calls for a global outlook from managers.  He proposes an emissions control regime that achieves equity between peoples, generations and species. It implies that managers defining corporate responsibilities should broaden their notion of stakeholder to include those yet unborn.  And they will need to widen their remit so that as citizens of the world - corporate and personal - they take an interest in justice as well as interests.

 

Brian Donohue draws on work experience in insurance to explain how healthy, vibrant organisations differ from those in decline.  In Ethical Enquiry and Organisational Pathology he defines the difference through a model of decision making with paradigms of  integrity, exoneration and manipulation.  Decision-makers in failing organisations abandon integrity, transparency and an overt shared purpose in favour of self-protection.

 

Why ethical codes fail to deliver is the concern of consultants Andrew Bartlett and David Seth Preston.  Not Nice, Not in Control suggests the problem arises from self-deception about the effectiveness, neutrality and true role of management.  Conventional approaches to business ethics fail to address these issues, they argue, and they describe how self-deceiving  employees and managers come to identify the ‘ethical’ with the ‘effective’ and thus ‘merely support the status quo’.

 

Taking employee empowerment seriously, Erik Odvar Eriksen draws on the discourse theory of Jürgen Habermas. He suggests how organisations can equip people to reach rational and legitimate decisions in forums that promote open communication and the equal treatment of all involved. Decision Making by Communicative Design explains how a ‘good enough’ procedure can achieve decisions that meet the ethical test of democratic legitimacy as well as the pragmatic one of effectiveness.

Link to article summaries and author profiles

 

                                                                                    

                                                                                       For details of earlier issues click here

 

Published in 2004

 

Our first guest-edited issue

Organisation and Decision Process

Edited by Tony Gear and

Leonard Minkes

 

 

  Coming in 2005

 

  Special issue

  Marx, Marxism and Global

  Management

  Guest editor: David McLellan

 

Previous Philosophy of Management Events

Philosophy of Management has already mounted four conferences:

LSE in 2001

St Anne's College, Oxford 2002.

Gloucestershire Business School 2003

Royal Holloway University of London 2003

St Anne's College,Oxford 2004

 

Practising Philosophy of Management

Second International Conference
 7 - 11 July 2004

St Anne's College, Oxford

Conference Home Page Click here

Full Programme  Click here

Papers Click here
   

1 Day International Symposium

London

Thursday 6 November 2003

 

Is There Still a Public Sector Ethic?

in association with Royal Holloway College

University of London

 

 

Speakers included Mary Warnock

 Click here for conference details

 

 

1 Day International Workshop

Cheltenham  UK

Thursday 20 November 2003 

 

From Philosophy to Management and Back Again?  Philosophy and the Education of Managers

in association with University of Gloucestershire

Business School

Cheltenham, UK

Proceedings to be published.  Details to follow.

  

 

Developing Philosophy of Management - Crossing Frontiers

International Conference: Oxford  26 - 29 June 2002

 

Over 100 delegates and speakers attended the first international conference

Developing Philosophy of Management - Crossing Frontiers

at

St Anne's College, Oxford

26-29 June 2002

 

For full programme and speaker details

 

Click here for the 2002 conference home page

 

 

 

      All Oxford photos on this site courtesy of St Anne's College

Hartland House Crest

St Anne's

 

 

 

Introducing Philosophy of Management

London School of Economics 22 June 2001

 
    In June 2001 we hosted Introducing Philosophy of Management at the London School of Economics attended by 50 delegates. Speakers explored the need for philosophy of management, set out its scope, and offered different ways in which it could be practised.

Click on the thumbnail to view the conference programme

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Previous Issues

 

Philosophy of Management: The Need

 

Defining the Field

 

International and Accessible

 

Australian Symposia

 

 
   

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This page last updated 16 March 2006