The Contingency of Business: Narrative, Metaphor, and Ethics

The purpose of this paper is to discuss rival views of business and business ethics in terms of narrative. I want to show that we can tell various stories about business, and that our worldview narratives shape our accounts of business. These narratives not only involve description, but contain norm...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Randels, George D. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 1998
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 1998, Volume: 17, Issue: 12, Pages: 1299-1310
Further subjects:B Distinct Genre
B Business Ethic
B Metaphor
B Rival View
B Economic Growth
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The purpose of this paper is to discuss rival views of business and business ethics in terms of narrative. I want to show that we can tell various stories about business, and that our worldview narratives shape our accounts of business. These narratives not only involve description, but contain normative ramifications. We can only act within the world that we perceive. To evaluate competing narratives, I suggest dialectical comparison of the narratives with important values. The second part of the paper discusses five distinct genres of worldview narratives and their implications for business: homo economicus, libertarian, conservative, liberal, and religio-philosophical.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1005837615070