Is restructuring an underhanded way to make the rich richer and the poor poorer? Or is it necessary, although bitter, medicine for an ailing economy?
In The Ethics of the New Economy: Restructuring and Beyond, professionals from the fields of philosophy, ethics, management, as well as those representing the groups affected by restructuring, tackle thorny ethical issues. Referring to concrete case studies, these timely essays discuss a variety of topics, including justified and unjustified restructuring; employers’ obligations during the restructuring process; equity issues; the rise of part-time employment; the effects of restructuring on communities; the internal risks faced by restructuring corporations; deprofessionalization in health care; the consequences of restructuring in the developing world; philanthropy and cause-related marketing; corporate “judo” and restructuring; and responsible and irresponsible restructuring.

Leo Groarke, Principal of the Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier University, has been the senior administrator of the campus since 2000. He has studied at the University of Calgary, Simon Fraser University, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Western Ontario, and received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Western in 1982. He has published many articles on the history of ideas, the theory of argument, social issues, peace and conflict, visual argument, and the role of higher education in contemporary society. His previous books include Greek Scepticism (McGill-Queen's), Good Reasoning Matters! (Oxford, with Christopher Tindale), and The Ethics of the New Economy (WLU Press).

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It is surprising how little these questions have been investigated by philosophers, given the environment of pervasive downsizing and restructuring through which we have been living. This volume, edited by Leo Groarke, is a valuable exception to the relative philosophical silence of these topics. He has brought together papers by academics and other professionals in philosophy, business, education, health sciences and social policy information, encouraging a reworking of these in order to create a unified volume in which a well-ordered set of ethical questions about restructuring are posed and explored....The resulting collection expresses a variety of perspectives on the questions addressed, and should make the materials accessible to policy makers and business professionals as well as to teachers of applied ethics....This book shows well how ethical thinking can engage with the economic realities in which we work and live, and how it is important for a clear understanding of those realities.

Brenda M. Baker, <i>Philosophy in Review</i>

[T]he questions [this book] raises are both important and too little discussed. In rescuing these questions from the neglect in which they have too often languished, the authors present a powerful challenge to those who see the changes which have been taking place either as inevitable or as morally unproblematic.

Alistair M. Macleod, Queen's University