Philosophical Dilemmas of a Post-Corporate Society

Gerald Davis, Associate Dean for Business + Impact, Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker Professor of Business Administration, Professor of Management and Organizations, University of Michigan

Ubiquitous information and communication technologies are radically changing what organizations look like, and in many cases rendering formal organizations unsustainable. As ongoing organizations are replaced by supply chains and pop-up enterprises, we face renewed philosophical questions around ontology (what counts as a “firm?”), epistemology (can organizations know things?), and ethics (who can and should be held responsible in a world of dispersed enterprise?). Organization theorists have a number of advantages in helping construct both new theories and new institutions to help channel the economic forces unleashed by ICTs for human benefit.