Postmodern Organizational Ethics

This book explores an undeveloped area in postmodern thought: organizational ethics. Ethical debates and analyses usually focus on a particular act or action, an actor, and/or how a secular society should address any of those particular persons or events. In the postmodern age, ethical decisions and policies are characterized by moral and cultural pluralism. However, there is a second factor that complicates ethical and policy decisions even further. This book argues that in the postmodern age, ethical decisions often need to be understood as part of the decision-making of organizations and bureaucracies.

Impact of Organizational Decisions

Organizational decisions often have a direct bearing on the choices made by individuals. Two areas that exemplify postmodern issues are the areas of health care and education. For example, the decision-making of admissions officers in American higher education is influenced by decisions that have been made by the university about the size of the class and the diversity of the class. Health care organizations make policy decisions that affect every aspect of a patient’s care, from admission to treatment and the types of care that are or are not offered.

Societal and Ethical Challenges

Both education and health care are the objects of significant investment of resources. Both areas are value-laden in postmodern, pluralistic societies, and yet we do not have a comprehensive method to understand them or evaluate them. This book is of interest to bioethicists, physicians, nurses, health care policy students, educational policy experts, students, and government regulators.