From Greed to Sustainability? The Corporation in an Era of Responsibility
A symposium and book launch organised by the Culture, Organisation and Markets Group, Keele University.
Thursday 31st May, 5-7pm
Claus Moser research Centre
Keele University
Wine reception 5-5.45pm
followed by talks and discussion 5.45-7pm:
Dr Gordon Pearson – Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Management (Gower, 2009) and The Road to Co-operation (Gower, 2012)
Professor Andrew Dobson – Commentary: Prosperity and Sustainability
All Welcome RSVP Tracey Wood:
The American Dream has clearly not delivered on its promises to everyone. Corporate greed seems to have run riot and the increasing concentration of wealth into the hands of the few has ultimately led to global financial meltdown. Risk and uncertainty has trickled down to result in widespread household poverty, job losses and the repossession of homes. The corporation itself has been described as a ‘pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies’ (Bakan, 2004: 2). This pathology embodies a short-termism which dominates the way our capital markets operate.
In this seminar we explore the contribution of two key texts written by Keele Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Gordon Pearson.
The Rise and Fall of Management: A Brief History of Practice, Theory and Context (Gower, 2009) records management’s practical development from the beginnings of industrialisation; its codification as a field of theory by the first American business schools with their aims to establish it as a high profession alongside the law and medicine; its subsequent development with empirically based knowledge and understanding of how organisations, and people in them, actually work. The corporation described by Bakan, with its destructive effects from which 99.9% of people have been victim, emerged from the dominance of neo-liberal economic theory according primacy to capital over all else, corrupting management and destroying much of the real economy. The academy might assist a revival of management’s virtue.
The Road to Co-operation: Escaping the Bottom Line (Gower, 2012) summarises some of fundamental flaws, errors, omissions and falsehoods contained in neoclassical economic theory, and indicates the damage done by the dogmatic application of absurd economic models, both to corporations and to the finite planet. The Anglo-American model of governance is the most destructive of all; alternative approaches, less dominated by economic theory, are shown to be broader in their concern, longer term in their perspective and less destructive in their effects. Practical steps towards such gains are identified with critical stakeholders, notably employees, sharing responsibilities with specific roles in future management and ownership.