Models of the Organization

Based on Chapter 8, Velasquez, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases

This page revised April 29, 2003

I. The "Rational" or Formal Model (Metaphor: Machine, Army)

A. The rationality here is instrumental rationality.

1. Reason seeks to adopt means solely in terms of the efficiency in promoting the end.
2. Ends are set outside the organization (profits, the market demand for a certain line of products)

B. The organization is likened to a machine. The individual is treated as a cog in the machine.

C. Other

1. The organization has the formal pyramidal structure--Commands move down, information moves up.
2. Individuals are glued to the organization through contracts.

D. Problems and paradoxes

1. Voluntariness of the contract is contradicted by the lack of autonomy of a cog
2. Alienation of labor, job dissatisfaction, etc.

II. The "Political" or "Factional" Model

A. The "rationality" is the "tit for tat" model of Polemarchus in Plato's Republic

1. We should help our friends and harm our enemies.
2. We may manipulate ("use") those who are not our friends for the sake of our faction.
3. The end is the increased power and satisfaction of one's faction.

B. The organization is conceived as a field of coalitions competing for scarce resources, power, etc.

C. Ethics is concerned with stating limits on permissible manipulation of others:

1. The principle of promoting the total good.
2. The principle of respecting the rights of others.
3. The principle of treating others in accord with distributive justice.

III. The Caring Model (Metaphor: Family)

A. The guiding principle is appropriate care:

1. Care focuses on particular persons.
2. Care is undertaken as an end in itself.
3. Care involves individuals engrossed in caring for other particular individuals.
4. Care is growth-enhancing.

B. The organization is conceived as a network of connected selves.

C. Potential problems

1. Excessive caring: invasion of privacy, favoritism (injustice)
2. Insufficient caring

IV. The Civic Model. Metaphor: New England Town Meeting

A. At the heart of the civic model is deliberative rationality

1. Goal is the common good
2. Fundamental equality and mutual respect among participants.
3. We can deliberate about what makes up the common good and about what promotes it, but not about whether we should promote the common good.
4. Good action is valuable in itself as well as in its results. (Undercuts alienation.)

B. Employees are to corporation as good citizen is to the community.

C. Ethical considerations

1. Works best with long-term employees.
2. Great salary differentials between co-deliberators must be avoided.
3. Requires high level of integrity (good character) among the co-deliberators
4. Not all employees will be co-deliberators; one must still treat them with appropriate respect, caring, etc.
5. The pursuit of the organizational common good must be compatible with the common good of the larger community, with justice, and with respect for rights of those outside the organization.