Repository | Book | Chapter

This chapter presents the postmodern philosophers François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard and Gilles Lipovetsky in relation to business ethics and philosophy of management. With the emergence of the concept of postmodernism and the discussions of the relations between modernity and postmodernity since the 1980s, there has been a shift in poststructuralist philosophy and social theory. By inventing the term postmodernism, philosophy and sociology formulated new conditions for analyzing business ethics and philosophy of management. We have to be aware of the changed conditions of analysis that come from the postmodern condition. With postmodern philosophy, we need to reformulate concepts of organizational ideology, values, and narratives. Moreover, philosophy of management needs to be aware of the social condition of postmodernity, in which there are specific aspects of consumer society and of consumer culture that determine individual actions and formations of economic markets. However, when we analyze the movement from postmodernity to hypermodernity, there is also a movement towards and acceleration of postmodernity that seems to go beyond some of its initial determinations. Finally, we see an application of the insights of poststructuralism and deconstruction to the new developments of capitalism in hypermodernity.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-8845-8_11

Full citation: