M. David Ermann

Pinto “Madness” as a Flawed Landmark Narrative: An Organizational and Network Analysis

For two decades, the Pinto case has been the “landmark narrative” used to support the construction of amoral corporate behavior. We argue that critical flaws in this narrative flow from a misplaced emphasis on “decision-makers” in a single organization, and from ignoring organizational, industry, and legal/regulatory contexts. Using original documents and recent interviews, we argue that there never was a “decision” to market an unsafe vehicle. Instead, the Pinto is better understood as a routine outcome of distinct organizational subunits, embedded in a larger network of interorganizational relationships. We conclude that attention to the network level of analysis can help explain other cases of “sensible bloodshed” that derive from the routine workings of social institutions.

The Operative Goals of Corporate Philanthropy: Contributions to the Public Broadcasting Service, 1972-1976

In the past decade American corporations have donated approximately one percent of their net profits to charitable causes, for a total exceeding one billion dollars annually since 1972. In an effort to understand the relationship of corporate wealth to corporate power, this paper infers the operative goals of such apparent generosity. It reviews four years of contributions to a significant recipient, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and finds no support for explanations which emphasize the greater social responsibility of donor corporations. It finds support for the hypothesis that contributions to national cultural recipients such as PBS are efforts by corporations having difficulties with public relations to influence the opinions of their critics. Apparent philanthropy may be one way that profit is transformed into social influence.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and its Campaign Against Marketing Infant Formula in the Third World

In 1974, the National Council of Churches created a new organization, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), to advise and guide church groups regarding the ethical implications of their investments. Within two years, ICCR and its constituents became devoted to stopping multinational corporations from marketing infant formula in Third World countries. ICCR participants found the infant formula issue attractive because it resonated with their changing breast-feeding preferences and growing concerns about world hunger, and because it was documentable, emotional, tied to visible physical harms, and causally explained by the marketing practices of intransigent corporations. Organizationally, ICCR found that the infant formula issue generated funding and bolstered commitment from groups with limited commitment to ICCR.

Forcing the Factory of the Future: Cybernation and Societal Institutions.

Part I. The Workshop Versus the Factory: 1. Introduction: explaining factory evolution 2. Past production paradigms: the workshop, Taylorism and Fordism 3. Productivity for prosperity: industrial renewal and Cold War politics Part II. Technologies of Control: 4. Technological evolution and the pathology of batch production 5. Numerical control, work organisation and societal institutions Part III. Cybernation and flexibility: 6. The cybernated factory and the American dream 7. An American deviant: FMS at Alpha 8. Easy-peasy Japanesey: flexible automation in Japan 9. Revolution from above: FMS in Britain 10. The third Italy and technological dualism 11. Conclusion: the struggle continues.

Computers, Ethics, and Society.

From the Publisher: Ideal for students in sociology, philosophy, and computer science courses, Computers, Ethics, and Society serves as a reminder that although technology has the potential to improve or undermine our quality of life, it is society which has the power to ultimately decide how computers will affect our lives. Computers, Ethics, and Society, now in its second edition, provides a stimulating set of interdisciplinary readings specifically designed to understand these issues. The readings examine current computer problems, discussing them at a level that can explain future realities.

The Predatory Society: Deception in the American Marketplace.

In this study, Paul Blumberg has collected over 600 essays written by workers who disclose in elaborate detail the shortcuts, deceptions, and tricks of the trade their employers perpetrate on the public. Working in a wide variety of business enterprises - supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, petrol stations, fish markets, and many more - these workers reveal the hidden recesses of the American market place. According to the authors thesis, these deceptive practices are part of the dual nature of capitalism: the generation of wealth for which the system is renowned, and the temptation to deceive in the interests of profit. The worker testimony to this duality is always revealing, and frequently disturbing.