This paper aims to integrate insights from psychoanalytic theory into business ethics research on the sources of ethical failures within organizations. We particularly draw from the analysis of sources and outcomes of neurotic processes that are part of human development, as described by the psychoanalyst Karen Horney and more recently by Manfred Kets de Vries; we interpret their insights from a stakeholder theory perspective. Business ethics research seems to have overlooked how “neurotic management styles” could be the antecedents of unethical (...) behavior within organizations. After showing the connection between five managerial neuroses and the corresponding potential ethical failures within organizations that have been already identified within business ethics research, we suggest three organizational strategies to counteract these failures. First, we argue that managers should pay greater attention at the complexity of human motivation, avoiding the simplistic view of compliance‐based approaches. Second, we discuss the importance of developing a conversation around values within organizations, enabling healthy individual growth and limiting the emergence of neurotic processes. Finally, we discuss the role of the business ethicist in facilitating such a process, suggesting a parallel between the role of the business ethicist and that of the psychoanalytic therapist. (shrink)

This paper aims to integrate insights from psychoanalytic theory into business ethics research on the sources of ethical failures within organizations. We particularly draw from the analysis of sources and outcomes of neurotic processes that are part of human development, as described by the psychoanalyst Karen Horney and more recently by Manfred Kets de Vries; we interpret their insights from a stakeholder theory perspective. Business ethics research seems to have overlooked how “neurotic management styles” could be the antecedents of unethical (...) behavior within organizations. After showing the connection between five managerial neuroses and the corresponding potential ethical failures within organizations that have been already identified within business ethics research, we suggest three organizational strategies to counteract these failures. First, we argue that managers should pay greater attention at the complexity of human motivation, avoiding the simplistic view of compliance‐based approaches. Second, we discuss the importance of developing a conversation around values within organizations, enabling healthy individual growth and limiting the emergence of neurotic processes. Finally, we discuss the role of the business ethicist in facilitating such a process, suggesting a parallel between the role of the business ethicist and that of the psychoanalytic therapist. (shrink)

This research paper approaches the following question through the hypothetico-deductive model: How is it that some companies have survived the crisis while others have not? Such question is expanded on herein: How is it that a company that suffers a cyclical crisis in the broader context of a systemic crisis is able to survive? Looking into the conditions concerning the likelihood of survival in the face of a crisis, it all points to the ethical side of the issue, thus prompting (...) a complementary and final question: To what extent can an organizational culture based on strong moral foundations foster the survival of companies in times of crisis? The first part of this study, covering economic cycles, conducts a taxonomic analysis that recognizes and relates the different types of crisis –entropic vs. dialectic; structural vs. cyclical; system vs. company crisis– and provides an account of some of the reasons that the literature on the subject uses with the aim of explaining the current crisis. The second part will cover a classification as well as a systematic description of the reasons and causes of the cyclical crises, so as to be able to identify the human factor, which is not only the most common root-cause of organizational crises but also the key to overcoming them. The third part focuses on the ethical aspects of the matter at hand, and proposes some hypotheses covering the strategic conditions and cultural requirements that would be more likely to foster company survival in environments as hostile as the one we face nowadays. The article ends by offering a series of practical proposals that, in the authors’ view, may be a useful guide for companies to strengthen their defense mechanisms when faced with prospective crises and recessions. Finally, some potential lines of research for future projects are suggested. In employing various tools such as quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, we sought to conduct an empiric verification of whether the hypotheses that were part of this qualitative analysis were consistent. (shrink)

This study suggests a conceptual proposal to analyse the ethics of resistance in organisations, drawing on Foucault’s practising self as a refusal and Schaffer’s ethics of freedom in opposition to the legitimacy of managerial control and the ethics of compliance. We argue that ethics is already part of such politics in the form of ethico-politics on the basis of participation in political action in organisations. Hence, the practising self as resistance in the face of the status quo of managerial power (...) in an ongoing dialectical process with others and for others comprises our conceptual proposal as an ethics of resistance. Acknowledging dialectics as the driver of the continuous reconstruction and co-construction of politics and praxis, we propose an ethics from the bottom up with a critical and radical perspective. Our contribution is based on opening up an ethico-political space for those who are ignored or suppressed in the ethics and organisations literature. (shrink)

Conflict handling by managers gives rise to significant emotional and cognitive experiences for affected employees and has far-reaching effects on the effectiveness of a group and an organization. In this conceptual paper, we argue that despite many claims made by managers in their self-reports that they engage in either dominant or compromising conflict-handling strategies when managing conflict within a group, they may be perceived by employees as adopting neglect or avoidance behaviors. We examine how such perceived managers' avoidance styles could (...) influence employees' perceptions with regard to justice, trust, and politics within an organization. (shrink)