Toward a Theory of the Ethics of Bureaucratic Organizations
This essay articulates a crucial and neglected element of a general theory of the ethics of bureaucratic organizations, both private and public. The key to the approach developed here is the thesis that the distinctive ethical principles applicable to bureaucratic organizations are responses to the distinctive agency-risks that arise from the nature of bureaucratic organizations as complex webs of principal/agent relationships. It is argued that the most important and distinctive ethical principles for bureaucratic organizations express commitments on the part of bureaucrats that function to reduce the agency risks that are inherent in such organizations. This approach to the ethics of bureaucratic organizations is shown to be more illuminating than those that concentrate exclusively or primarily on determining the conditions for corporate responsibility or on the idea that the ethical obligations distinctive of bureaucracies are role-derived.
Duke Scholars
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- Applied Ethics
- 5001 Applied ethics
- 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
- 2201 Applied Ethics
- 1503 Business and Management
- 1501 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
Citation
Published In
DOI
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Applied Ethics
- 5001 Applied ethics
- 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
- 2201 Applied Ethics
- 1503 Business and Management
- 1501 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability