Using Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason for Managerial Decision-Making

Chad Kleist ()

Journal of Business Ethics, 2013, vol. 112, issue 2, 352 pages

Abstract: This article will offer an alternative understanding of managerial decision-making drawing from Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason rather than simply Being and Nothingness. I will begin with a brief explanation of Sartre’s account of freedom in Being and Nothingness. I will then show in the second section how Andrew West uses Sartre’s conception of radical freedom from Being and Nothingness for a managerial decision-making model. In the third section, I will explore a more robust account of freedom from Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason. I will attempt to show that freedom is not simply a matter of choosing (or not choosing) to perform an action, but entails external constraints—including other people. Finally, I will provide the implications of this account of freedom for managerial decision-making. I will show that it’s unreasonable to place full responsibility and/or blame on managers given their constraints. This does not absolve them from responsibility, but better accounts for the way in which we ought to hold them responsible. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Keywords: Jean-Paul Sartre; Moral decision-making; Existentialism; Freedom; Responsibility; Critique of dialectical reason (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1266-x

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