George Cheney - Böcker

Should business strive to be socially responsible, and if so, how? The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility updates and broadens the discussion of these questions by bringing together in one volume a variety of practical and theoretical perspectives on corporate social responsibility. It is perhaps the single most comprehensive volume available on the question of just how "social" business ought to be. The volume includes contributions from the fields of communication, business, law, sociology, political science, economics, accounting, and environmental studies. Moreover, it draws from experiences and examples from around the world, including but not limited to recent corporate scandals and controversies in the U.S. and Europe. A number of the chapters examine closely the basic assumptions underlying the philosophy of socially responsible business. Other chapters speak to the practical challenges and possibilities for corporate social responsiblilty in the twenty-first century. One of the most distinctive features of the book is its coverage of the very ways that the issue of corporate social responsibility has been defined, shaped, and discussed in the past four decades. That is, the editors and many of the authors are attuned to the persuasive strategies and formulations used to talk about socially responsible business, and demonstrate why the talk matters. For example, the book offers a careful analysis of how certain values have become associated with the business enterprise and how particular economic and political positions have been established by and for business. This book will be of great interest to scholars, business leaders, graduate students, and others interested in the contours of the debate over what role large-scale corporate commerce should take in the future of the industrialized world.

The concept of 'professionalism' has gained everyday resonance in the twenty-first century, especially given recent corporate scandals. However, George Cheney argues, as much as it may be discussed, professionalism has lost much of its broader social and community-related implications, as the trends of careerism, consumerism, and contingent employment have challenged and eroded collective senses of professional responsibility. In addition, professionalism has become depoliticized, even as it has continued to manifest certain racial, class-oriented, and gender biases in many contexts. In Professional Ethics, Cheney will explore everyday practices in contemporary professional ethics. Specifically, he analyzes the broad patterns of our talk about 'being a professional' in contemporary industrialized societies and in global elite networks. Above all, he aims to produce a thematically unified, theoretically informed, and accessibly written account of the ways we understand not only specific ethical issues at work (e.g., advance notification of corporate layoffs, or conflicts of interest in commerce and politics) but also the ways we frame professional ethics today. Throughout, Cheney passionately describes the limited roles and absences of ethics in professional decisions and behavior today, and lays out the groundwork for a resurrection of professional citizenship. This volume should appeal to practicing managers, academics, and upper-division and graduate students in communication and business ethics.

The concept of 'professionalism' has gained everyday resonance in the twenty-first century, especially given recent corporate scandals. However, George Cheney argues, as much as it may be discussed, professionalism has lost much of its broader social and community-related implications, as the trends of careerism, consumerism, and contingent employment have challenged and eroded collective senses of professional responsibility. In addition, professionalism has become depoliticized, even as it has continued to manifest certain racial, class-oriented, and gender biases in many contexts. In Professional Ethics, Cheney will explore everyday practices in contemporary professional ethics. Specifically, he analyzes the broad patterns of our talk about 'being a professional' in contemporary industrialized societies and in global elite networks. Above all, he aims to produce a thematically unified, theoretically informed, and accessibly written account of the ways we understand not only specific ethical issues at work (e.g., advance notification of corporate layoffs, or conflicts of interest in commerce and politics) but also the ways we frame professional ethics today. Throughout, Cheney passionately describes the limited roles and absences of ethics in professional decisions and behavior today, and lays out the groundwork for a resurrection of professional citizenship. This volume should appeal to practicing managers, academics, and upper-division and graduate students in communication and business ethics.

Despite the Great Recession, slightly different forms of global capitalism are still portrayed as the only game in town by the vast majority of people in power in the world today. Unbridled growth, trade liberalisation, and competition are advocated as the only or best ways of organizing the contemporary world. Unemployment, yawning gaps between rich and poor, political disengagement, and environmental devastation are too often seen as acceptable ‘side effects’ of the dominance of neo-liberalism.But the reality is that capitalism has always been contested and that people have created many other ways of providing for themselves. This book explores economic and organizational possibilities which extend far beyond the narrow imagination of economists and management theorists. Chapters on co-operatives, community currencies, the transition movement, scrounging, co-housing and much more paints a rich picture of the ways in which another word is not only possible, but already taking shape. The aim of this companion is to move beyond complaining about the present and into exploring this diversity of organisational possibilities. Our starting point is a critical analysis of contemporary global capitalism is merely the opening for thinking about organizing as a form of politics by other means, and one that can be driven by the values of solidarity, freedom and responsibility.This comprehensive companion with an international cast of contributors gives voice to forms of organizing which remain unrepresented or marginalised in organizational studies and conventional politics, yet which offer more promising grounds for social and environmental justice. It is a valuable resource for students, activists and researchers interested in alternative approaches to economy and society in a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields.

The Handbook of Communication Ethics serves as a comprehensive guide to the study of communication and ethics. It brings together analyses and applications based on recognized ethical theories as well as those outside the traditional domain of ethics but which engage important questions of power, equality, and justice. The work herein encourages readers to make important connections between matters of social justice and ethical theory. This volume makes an unparalleled contribution to the literature of communication studies, through consolidating knowledge about the multiple relationships between communication and ethics; by systematically treating areas of application; and by introducing explicit and implicit examinations of communication ethics to one another. The Handbook takes an international approach, analyzing diverse cultural contexts and comparative assessments. The chapters in this volume cover a wide range of theoretical perspectives on communication and ethics, including feminist, postmodern and postcolonial; engage with communication contexts such as interpersonal and small group communication, journalism, new media, visual communication, public relations, and marketing; and explore contemporary issues such as democracy, religion, secularism, the environment, trade, law, and economics. The chapters also consider the dialectical tensions between theory and practice; academic and popular discourses; universalism and particularism; the global and the local; and rationality and emotion. An invaluable resource for scholars in communication and related disciplines, the Handbook also serves as a main point of reference in graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses in communication and ethics. It stands as an exceptionally comprehensive resource for the study of communication and ethics.

The Handbook of Communication Ethics serves as a comprehensive guide to the study of communication and ethics. It brings together analyses and applications based on recognized ethical theories as well as those outside the traditional domain of ethics but which engage important questions of power, equality, and justice. The work herein encourages readers to make important connections between matters of social justice and ethical theory. This volume makes an unparalleled contribution to the literature of communication studies, through consolidating knowledge about the multiple relationships between communication and ethics; by systematically treating areas of application; and by introducing explicit and implicit examinations of communication ethics to one another. The Handbook takes an international approach, analyzing diverse cultural contexts and comparative assessments. The chapters in this volume cover a wide range of theoretical perspectives on communication and ethics, including feminist, postmodern and postcolonial; engage with communication contexts such as interpersonal and small group communication, journalism, new media, visual communication, public relations, and marketing; and explore contemporary issues such as democracy, religion, secularism, the environment, trade, law, and economics. The chapters also consider the dialectical tensions between theory and practice; academic and popular discourses; universalism and particularism; the global and the local; and rationality and emotion. An invaluable resource for scholars in communication and related disciplines, the Handbook also serves as a main point of reference in graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses in communication and ethics. It stands as an exceptionally comprehensive resource for the study of communication and ethics.

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.

Despite the Great Recession, slightly different forms of global capitalism are still portrayed as the only game in town by the vast majority of people in power in the world today. Unbridled growth, trade liberalisation, and competition are advocated as the only or best ways of organizing the contemporary world. Unemployment, yawning gaps between rich and poor, political disengagement, and environmental devastation are too often seen as acceptable ‘side effects’ of the dominance of neo-liberalism.But the reality is that capitalism has always been contested and that people have created many other ways of providing for themselves. This book explores economic and organizational possibilities which extend far beyond the narrow imagination of economists and management theorists. Chapters on co-operatives, community currencies, the transition movement, scrounging, co-housing and much more paints a rich picture of the ways in which another word is not only possible, but already taking shape. The aim of this companion is to move beyond complaining about the present and into exploring this diversity of organisational possibilities. Our starting point is a critical analysis of contemporary global capitalism is merely the opening for thinking about organizing as a form of politics by other means, and one that can be driven by the values of solidarity, freedom and responsibility.This comprehensive companion with an international cast of contributors gives voice to forms of organizing which remain unrepresented or marginalised in organizational studies and conventional politics, yet which offer more promising grounds for social and environmental justice. It is a valuable resource for students, activists and researchers interested in alternative approaches to economy and society in a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields.

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 the text challenges the idealized notion that organizations can and should communicate as unified wholes.

The authors pose important questions such as:

- Where does the central idea of corporate communications come from?

- What are the underlying assumptions of most corporate communications practices?

- What are the organizational and ethical challenges of attempting truly `corporate' communication?

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.

Rewarding readers with a deeper understanding of corporate communications, the text will be a `must read' for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars, in the arenas of corporate communications, organizational communication, employee relations, marketing, public relations and corporate identity management. Practitioners in these areas will be provoked to re-examine their assumptions and habits.

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 the text challenges the idealized notion that organizations can and should communicate as unified wholes.

The authors pose important questions such as:

- Where does the central idea of corporate communications come from?

- What are the underlying assumptions of most corporate communications practices?

- What are the organizational and ethical challenges of attempting truly `corporate' communication?

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.

Rewarding readers with a deeper understanding of corporate communications, the text will be a `must read' for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars, in the arenas of corporate communications, organizational communication, employee relations, marketing, public relations and corporate identity management. Practitioners in these areas will be provoked to re-examine their assumptions and habits.

This inaugural volume in the Peter Lang Conflict and Peace series brings together works that richly depict the tensions between the promise and reality of applying communication principles and theories to conflict transformation and peacebuilding around the world and in the United States. Each chapter provides concrete examples of the doing of engaged scholarship in this context. Chapter contributors explain how their on-the-ground work has contributed to theorizing in communication and beyond as well as to conflict transformation and peacebuilding practice. Importantly, they also unearth the challenges in designing and implementing techniques and practices. As a collection, this edited volume underscores the communicative nature of conflict transformation and peacebuilding in particular, and engaged scholarship, in general. The collection also reveals tensions in doing engaged scholarship that are applicable to other contexts beyond conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

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.

This book focuses on the current research on and implications of globalization for social organizations and the study of organizational communication. The chapters are wide-ranging in terms of how they approach international and intercultural issues. The authors draw on a wide range of literatures: international development, international migration, postcolonialism, and social movements. The organizations studied represent all major sectors and a variety of national and ethnic contexts and the chapters feature empirical, interpretive and critical postures toward research and engage practical as well as theoretical issues. The authors reflect on the changing shapes of organizations and institutions in today's world.

This book focuses on the current research on and implications of globalization for social organizations and the study of organizational communication. The chapters are wide-ranging in terms of how they approach international and intercultural issues. The authors draw on a wide range of literatures: international development, international migration, postcolonialism, and social movements. The organizations studied represent all major sectors and a variety of national and ethnic contexts and the chapters feature empirical, interpretive and critical postures toward research and engage practical as well as theoretical issues. The authors reflect on the changing shapes of organizations and institutions in today's world.