Moral Blindness in Business

In this book, Jacob Dahl Rendtorff investigates moral blindness in business and public administration based on Hannah Arendt's concept of banality of evil in her famous report on the Nazi-criminal Adolf Eichmann trail in Jerusalem in 1961. Moral blindness and evil in management is instrumental wrongdoing inflicted upon human beings as a violation of their dignity and humanity. Organizational evil in business, bureaucracies and public administration is analysed with focus on obedience to authority and systemic role conformity of managers and administrators. This includes the critical question about how concepts of banality of evil and moral blindness can explain ethical insensibility and lack of moral understanding in business and administration. Rendtorff proposes a humanistic vision of management and ethical leadership. Moral thinking, responsibility and moral judgment is essential in management and governance in business and administration.

This book is a must-read for academics and practitioners studying and working in philosophy of management, business ethics, political philosophy, administration ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Presents theoretical discussion of the concept of moral blindness with systematic review of the literature in the field Offers a comprehensive treatment of the implications of moral blindness for business and management and public administration Uses the insight of Hannah Arendt to understand some contemporary phenomenon of violence and domination in administration and management

Autorentext
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff is Professor of Philosophy of Management at Roskilde University, Denmark. Rendtorff's research includes philosophy, ethics, business ethics, bioethics and social theory. Rendtorff has published many articles and books, including Cosmopolitan Business Ethics: Towards a Global Ethos of Management (2017) and Philosophy of Management and Sustainability. Rethinking Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development (2019).

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part 1: Foundations and history of theory of moral blindness.- Chapter 2: For the Love for the world. The banality of evil in the light of Arendt's political and social theory. - Chapter 3: Judgment's Historical Responsibility: Hannah Arendt and our conception of the Holocaust.- Chapter 4: Adolf Eichmann as the prototype of the evil manager and administrator.- Part 2: Systematic elements of the concept of moral blindness in social theory.- Chapter 5: Interpretations of evil in modern philosophy and social theory: What significance for ethics and philosophy of management?.- Chapter 6: Moral Blindness and Modernity. Interpretations and developments of Arendt's concept of banality of evil.- Chapter 7: Moral Blindness and Modernity. Interpretations and developments of Arendt's concept of banality of evil.- Part 3: Towards a management philosophy of judgment and ethical formulation competency.-Chapter 8: Totalitarianism, practical reason and judgment: Philosophical foundations for business ethics and philosophy of management.- Chapter 9: Perspectives for Responsibility, Moral Thinking and Imagination in Management and Public Administration.- Chapter 10: Political philosophy of responsibility for democratic societies. Judgment in Politics, Management and Administration.- Chapter 11: Conclusion: Towards Moral Thinking Unlimited.

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