The ethics of workforce drug testing and HRM

19 page(s

Ethical discriminations? Representing the reprehensible

This paper reflects upon the ‘goodness’ or ‘ethics’ of Critical Management/ Critical Organisation Studies (COS) research practices. I argue that academic representations of others entail an ethical responsibility to the researched, a responsibility that COS is, as yet, insufficiently exploring. Reflecting upon my own research with those who have colluded in discrimination and Stanley and Wise’s (1979) research on obscene telephone callers, I explore the nature and limits of responsibility when researching those who have acted reprehensibly. I end by arguing that COS “owe(s) some responsibility to ‘the researched’ of all kinds, whether we morally approve of them or not” (Stanley and Wise 1993:177)

Pathology, power and profits...in paperback

Joel Bakan’s The Corporation is an accessible and engaging critique of the corporation written for a non-specialist, mass audience. It has been published in the UK to coincide with the release of the multi-award-winning documentary of the same name in UK cinemas

A right to respond? Monopolisation of \u27voice\u27 in CMS

This paper explores the power effects of, and possible justifications for, the differential \u27voice\u27 and \u27silence\u27 accorded to academic and non-academic subjects within Critical Management Studies (CMS). I explore these issues through a discussion of the practice of \u27giving voice\u27 to some subjects critiqued in CMS journal articles by providing them with the opportunity to publish a \u27response\u27. I question the justification for extending this right only to academic subjects, and use this example to provoke CMS to question further its institutional orientation to issues of voice and silence in relation to the non-academic research subject

The devil in high heels : drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss

This paper contributes to critical voices on the issue of organisational responses to drugs and employee drug use. It does so by exploring some of the symbolism residing at the heart of organisations&rsquo; relations with drugs and drug taking. Our focus is recent media coverage of, and organisational responses to, the UK tabloid media&rsquo;s expos&eacute; of fashion supermodel Kate Moss&rsquo;s cocaine use. We use this case to explore symbolic relationships between drugs, sex and femininity, and organisation. Through highlighting these symbolic connections we question further the rationality of organisational responses to the &lsquo;spectre&rsquo; of drugs and the issue of employee drug use. We conclude by suggesting that workforce drug testing regimes might be fruitfully seen as mechanisms for scapegoating and sacrifice in order to protect the organizational moral order.<br /

The normalisation of 'excessive' workforce drug testing?

In 'The normalization of 'sensible' recreational drug use' Parker, Williams and Aldridge (2002) present data on illegal drug use by adolescents and young adults in the UK. They argue that it is both widespread and largely socially benign - ie, normal. We contrast this 'normalisation' thesis with evidence of an increase in the introduction of drug policies -- and drug testing -- in British organisations. Such policies construct employee drug use as excessive enough to necessitate heightened management vigilance over workers, in order to preserve corporate interests. These contrasting representations of drug use inspire our discussion. We deploy the normal/ excessive couplet to unpick drug taking, to examine organisational drug policies and to comment upon emerging and potential resistance to these policies. Our contribution is to suggest that each of these activities can be understood as simultaneously normal and excessive, in an area where orthodox and critical analyses alike tend to be far more dualistic

The normalisation of \u27excessive\u27 workforce drug testing?

In \u27The normalization of \u27sensible\u27 recreational drug use\u27 Parker, Williams and Aldridge (2002) present data on illegal drug use by adolescents and young adults in the UK. They argue that it is both widespread and largely socially benign - ie, normal. We contrast this \u27normalisation\u27 thesis with evidence of an increase in the introduction of drug policies - and drug testing - in British organisations. Such policies construct employee drug use as excessive enough to necessitate heightened management vigilance over workers, in order to preserve corporate interests. These contrasting representations of drug use inspire our discussion. We deploy the normal/ excessive couplet to unpick drug taking, to examine organisational drug policies and to comment upon emerging and potential resistance to these policies. Our contribution is to suggest that each of these activities can be understood as simultaneously normal and excessive, in an area where orthodox and critical analyses alike tend to be far more dualistic. <br /

Enchantment in Business Ethics Research

This article draws attention to the importance of enchantment in business ethics research. Starting from a Weberian understanding of disenchantment, as a force that arises through modernity and scientific rationality, we show how rationalist business ethics research has become disenchanted as a consequence of the normalisation of positivist, quantitative methods of inquiry. Such methods absent the relational and lively nature of business ethics research and detract from the ethical meaning that can be generated through research encounters. To address this issue, we draw on the work of political theorist and philosopher, Jane Bennett, using this to show how interpretive qualitative research creates possibilities for enchantment. We identify three opportunities for reenchanting business ethics research related to: (i) moments of novelty or disruption; (ii) deep, meaningful attachments to things studied; and (iii) possibilities for embodied, affective encounters. In conclusion, we suggest that business ethics research needs to recognise and reorient scholarship towards an appreciation of the ethical value of interpretive, qualitative research as a source of potential enchantment

Who is it that would make business schools more critical? Critical reflections on critical management studies

We suggest in this paper that whilst exploring how to make business schools more critical we must also turn a critical and reflexive lens upon ourselves, critical management thinkers. Our endeavour is outlined here as a ‘reflexive journey’ in which we turn upon ourselves, academics who identify as ‘critical’ thinkers, the theories we use to analyse others. Our focus is upon critical management education. We use three vignettes drawn from our previous research. One is of graduands from the postgraduate programmes on which two of us teach, the second an analysis of knowledge transfer programmes in which we have participated, and the third a study of the construction of academic identities. The first study shows the academic teacher may become an internalized, judgemental gaze, the second that what we see as a critical approach may be construed by our students as another ‘truth’ that fails to encompass the complexities of organizations and management, and the third encourages us to ask some questions about our own positions. This causes us to ask some uncomfortable questions about our own positions as critical management scholars and the ways in which we conceptualize business schools and our colleagues who work in them

The elephant in the room: critical management studies conferences as a site of body pedagogics

This article explores conferences as an inter-corporeal space wherein body pedagogics are enacted, enabling the acquisition of techniques, skills and dispositions that allow newcomers to demonstrate their proficiency as members of a culture. The bodies of conference participants constitute the surface onto which culture is inscribed, these normalizing practices enabling academic power relations to be constructed and identities internalized. An autoethnographic analysis of critical management studies (CMS) conferences forms the basis for identification of the bodily dispositions of control and endurance which characterize the proficient CMS academic. The article considers the potential silencing effects associated with these practices that generate a between-men culture that excludes difference and reinforces patriarchal values. It concludes by reviewing the implications of body pedagogics for understanding how other organizational cultures are constructed