A Critique of Business School Narratives and Protagonists
The Contribution of Fiction to Organizational Ethics
ISBN: 978-1-78350-949-2, eISBN: 978-1-78350-948-5
Publication date: 12 September 2014
Abstract
This chapter offers a critical evaluation of the narrative of the entrepreneur-adventurer common in business schools today. It suggests that this narrative stands in the way of meaningful ethics integration in business education in part because it fails to encourage or even acknowledge insights that are “felt” rather than merely intellectually registered. Philosopher-writers like Henri Bergson, William James, and Friedrich Nietzsche agree that a large part of experience escapes purely theoretical frameworks. We need nontheoretical, evocative narratives to make visible those parts of reality that are easily overlooked when we are focused on the practical and utilitarian side of existence. These philosophical theories, combined with the concept of “felt knowledge,” help determine where the current business narrative falls short and serve as a foundation for a few suggestions about how this narrative might be changed from within.
Keywords
Citation
Slegers, R. (2014), "A Critique of Business School Narratives and Protagonists", The Contribution of Fiction to Organizational Ethics (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 153-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620140000011008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited