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Towards a Post‐Dualistic Business Ethics: Interweaving Reason and Emotion in Working Life
Author(s) -
Bos Rene ten,
Willmott Hugh
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6486.00258
Subject(s) - morality , bureaucracy , dualism , dominance (genetics) , hierarchy , sociology , business ethics , epistemology , action (physics) , capitalism , normative ethics , environmental ethics , political science , philosophy , law , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , politics , gene
We highlight and challenge the dominance of rationalist assumptions in business ethics that promote and legitimize a privileging of reason over emotion as a source of moral action. We ask whether it is possible for business ethics not only to challenge this hierarchy but to avoid its reversal. We start by exploring some origins of reason‐based ethics and relate these to ideas about organization. Here we hint at some popular examples of this kind of ethics and discuss two of its more important sources of inspiration: Kant and Weber. Next, we consider the relationship between bureaucracy and morality before evaluating Bauman’s ideas about morality in bureaucratic organizations. We argue that Bauman fails to challenge the dualism between reason and emotion as he inverts the hierarchical relationship between them. Contending that this hierarchization should be abandoned, we explore how the preceding discussion illuminates business ethics and address some consequences of our anti‐dualist position.