Managing Responsibly: Alternative Approaches to Corporate Management and Governance

In the wake of financial meltdown and environmental disaster, employers increasingly demand that managers have an understanding of ethical decision making, corporate social responsibility, and values-based management. Business ethics is therefore increasingly being taught in business schools and is a rapidly developing research topic. Bringing together the thoughts of scholars who consider alternatives to the primary paradigm of self-interest maximization that is so characteristic of existing corporate governance, Managing Responsibly explores the limitations of the thinking that dominates Western corporate and business culture. Contributors then draw on non-Western traditions and experience to suggest workable inter-cultural models that can enhance organizational effectiveness in an increasingly globalised environment. With chapters written by specialists in economics, management, ethics, health sciences and history, the editors - one a historian and one a management specialist - ensure a truly interdisciplinary overall approach. Part One highlights the acute need for less self-interested approaches to management, if local and global communities and the environment are to escape ongoing damage and exploitation. Part Two draws on traditional values from Indian and Maori traditions to propose alternatives to Western models of business ethics. Part Three suggests ways of approaching the challenges of developing sustained ethical leadership in the contemporary globalised economy. This original addition to Gower's Corporate Social Responsibility Series will appeal to a wide range of teachers, researchers and higher level students of management, as well as practitioners participating in executive development programmes. It will also serve the needs of those with a more specialist interest in business ethics and in sustainable and responsible management.