The Foundations of Organizational Evil

Numerous reprehensible corporate, governmental, and nonprofit activities over recent years have highlighted the existence of organizational evil. Unlike other works on the topic, this book fully develops the concept of organizational evil, conceptually weaving the interchange between evil individuals (microlevel) who ultimately create the organizational environment that is evil, and the macrolevel elements of policy, culture, and manipulations of the social environment. The Foundations of Organizational Evil argues that the existence and maintenance of an evil organization is a complex interaction of individuals, organizations, and environmental factors. The book achieves five distinct objectives: it gives professionals, scholars, and students a broad understanding of evil from a conceptual and practical vantage; it provides a scientific paradigm for interdisciplinary research and theory; it serves as a synthesis linking the divergent, interdisciplinary perspectives on evil into a cohesive whole, making it the seminal work in the field; it provides a better understanding of the potential relationships between organizational evil and various aspects of organizational functioning; and it integrates a philosophical and pragmatic understanding of organizational evil into a coherent approach to management and administration in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

Carole L. Jurkiewicz is the Woman's Hospital Distinguished Professor of Healthcare Management and the John W. Dupuy Endowed Professor in the Public Administration Institute of the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University. Her work focuses on organizational performance as a function of employee ethicality and organizational structure. She has published widely in the areas of organizational and individual performance, ethics, power, and leadership. She also brings to her academic career many years of experience as an executive in private and nonprofit organizations, and as a consultant to governments.