Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

From cartoons to boardrooms comes the statement, "It's not personal. It's just business."Just a Job? Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life offers a provocative perspective on ethics at work. The book questions the notions that doing ethics at work has to be work, and that work is somehow a sphere where a different set of rules applies. This problematic line between work and life runs through the ways we commonly talk about ethics, from our personal relationships to the domains of work, including the organization, the profession, and the market. Talk about ethics is far more than "just talk," and this book shows how and why it matters.Drawing from the fields of communication and rhetoric, the authors show how the very framing of ethics--even before we approach specific decisions--limits the potential roles of ethics in our work lives and the pursuit of happiness, and treats it as something that is meaningful only at special moments such as when faced with dilemmas, or as the last chapter in a business book. Separating ethics from life, we put it beyond our daily reach.The authors argue against ethical myopia limited to spectacular scandals or comprehensive professional codes. Instead, they propose a master reframe of ethics based on a new take on virtue ethics, including Aristotle's practical ideal of eudaimonia or flourishing, which tells new stories about the ordinary as well as extraordinary aspects of professional integrity and success. By reframing ethics as not special, they elevate it to its rightful position in work and personal life.Generously illustrated with examples and ideas from scholarly as well as popular sources, this book asks us to reconsider the meaning of and path toward the "good life."

Business & Money

Cheney, George

Lair, Daniel J.

Ritz, Dean

Kendall, Brenden E.

Business Culture

Oxford University Press

From cartoons to boardrooms comes the statement, "It's not personal. It's just business." Just a Job? Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life offers a provocative perspective on ethics at work. The book questions the notions that doing ethics at work has to be work, and that work is somehow a sphere where a different set of rules applies. This problematic line between work and life runs through the ways we commonly talk about ethics, from our personal relationships to the domains of work, including the organization, the profession, and the market. Talk about ethics is far more than "just talk," and this book shows how and why it matters. Drawing from the fields of communication and rhetoric, the authors show how the very framing of ethics--even before we approach specific decisions--limits the potential roles of ethics in our work lives and the pursuit of happiness, and treats it as something that is meaningful only at special moments such as when faced with dilemmas, or as the last chapter in a business book. Separating ethics from life, we put it beyond our daily reach. The authors argue against ethical myopia limited to spectacular scandals or comprehensive professional codes. Instead, they propose a master reframe of ethics based on a new take on virtue ethics, including Aristotle's practical ideal of eudaimonia or flourishing, which tells new stories about the ordinary as well as extraordinary aspects of professional integrity and success. By reframing ethics as not special, they elevate it to its rightful position in work and personal life. Generously illustrated with examples and ideas from scholarly as well as popular sources, this book asks us to reconsider the meaning of and path toward the "good life."

Values at Work is an analysis of organizational dynamics with wide-ranging implications in an age of market globalization. It looks at the challenges businesses face to maintain people-oriented work systems while remaining successful in the larger economy. George Cheney revisits the famous Mondragón worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives in the Basque Country of Spain to examine how that collection of innovative and democratic businesses is responding to the broad trend of "marketization."The Mondragón cooperatives are changing in important ways as a direct result of both external pressures to be more competitive and the rise of consumerism, as well as through the modification of internal policies toward greater efficiency. One of the most remarkable aspects of the changes is that some of the same business slogans now heard around the globe are being adopted in this set of organizations renowned for its strongly held internal values, such as participatory democracy, solidarity, and equality. Instead of emphasizing the special or unique qualities of the Mondragón experience, this book demonstrates the case's relevance to trends in all sectors and across the industrialized world.

Values at Work: Employee Participation Meets Market Pressure at Mondragón

Economics

ILR PRESS

Values at Work: Employee Participation Meets Market Pressure at Mondragón (Ilr Press Books)

Values at Work is an analysis of organizational dynamics with wide-ranging implications in an age of market globalization. It looks at the challenges businesses face to maintain people-oriented work systems while remaining successful in the larger economy. George Cheney revisits the famous Mondragón worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives in the Basque Country of Spain to examine how that collection of innovative and democratic businesses is responding to the broad trend of marketization. 
The Mondragón cooperatives are changing in important ways as a direct result of both external pressures to be more competitive and the rise of consumerism, as well as through the modification of internal policies toward greater efficiency. One of the most remarkable aspects of the changes is that some of the same business slogans now heard around the globe are being adopted in this set of organizations renowned for its strongly held internal values, such as participatory democracy, solidarity, and equality. Instead of emphasizing the special or unique qualities of the Mondragón experience, this book demonstrates the case's relevance to trends in all sectors and across the industrialized world.

Rhetoric in an Organizational Society: Managing Multiple Identities (Studies in Rhetoric Communication)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Univ of South Carolina Pr

Corporate Communications: Convention, Complexity and Critique

The field of corporate communications describes the practices organizations use to communicate as coherent corporate "bodies". Drawing on the metaphor of the body and on a variety of theories and disciplines, Corporate Communications: Convention, Complexity and Critique challenges the idealized notion that organizations can and should communicate as unified wholes. Clearly written with international vignettes and executive briefings, this book shows that in a complex world the management of communication needs to embrace multiple opinions and voices.

Christensen, Lars Thøger

Morsing, Mette

Marketing & Sales

Sage Publications Ltd.

The thought-provoking, timely second edition continues to offer a comprehensive, global perspective on organizational communication. The authors' multinational experience, consulting and teaching expertise, enthusiasm for their subject, and engaging style of writing create an inviting foundation for the exploration of this multifaceted topic. Each chapter demonstrates the practicality of theory and how practice contributes to the development of theory, while challenging readers to build on established knowledge to develop new approaches to the pressing problems in complex, multicultural organizations. The text is organized topically around the most important issues in organizational communication. Five themes recur throughout the chapters: the interdependence of internal and external forms of organizational communication, the "disciplinarity" and multidisciplinarity of organizational communication, global and multicultural perspectives of organizational communication, the unity of theory and practice, and critical thinking in the analysis of organizational messages and discourses. Discussions highlight language and symbolism. The authors weave analysis of the multiple levels of messages throughout the chapters; stimulate critical thinking about contemporary work and organizational life; approach the familiar as unfamiliar; ask probing questions about commonly accepted practices; and offer more imaginative ways of working together. Readers gain an appreciation for the social, political, economic, technological, and ideological contexts in organizations---and the place of organizations within the broader culture. The authors lead by example in encouraging readers to think about, talk about, and experience organizational communication in entirely new ways.

Organizational Communication in an Age of Globalization: Issues, Reflections, Practices

Reference

Zorn, Theodore E.

Ganesh, Shiv

Words, Language & Grammar

Waveland Pr Inc.

For too long, cooperatives have been considered marginal players in the global economy, and as unrealistic venues for the aspirations of new and experienced members of the labour force. This marginalization shows in business, municipal and legal discussions, and curricula, where cooperative structures are rarely mentioned, let alone presented as viable options. Cooperatives at Work presents a range of success stories in employee ownership and worker owned-and-governed cooperatives. The authors further show how such firms embody important and highly contested ideals of democracy, shared equity, and social transformation. Throughout this volume, the authors present a range of practical lessons, strategies, and resources based on their pioneering, international research. This latest volume in The Future of Work series has a strong ethical stream, consistent with yearnings for more inspired forms of business revealed in many public opinion polls. The book is future-oriented, using contemporary as well as historical examples to teach lessons that are not necessarily time-bound. It is essential for anyone seeking a window onto the future of cooperative entrepreneurial practice and grassroots democracy.

Cooperatives at Work (The Future of Work)

Noyes, Matt

Vieta, Marcelo

Do, Emi

Azkarraga, Joseba

Michel, Charlie

Human Resources

Emerald Publishing Limited

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