Modern, post-modern and other critical approaches ( Subject of your Essay

Modern, post-modern and other critical approaches ( Subject of your choice) - Essay Example One such aspect affected by postmodernism in any aspect of a business, marketing in particular, involves the sphere of business ethics, because it is in the marketing function that the business makes a promise to its customers, and customers respond on the basis of this promise in the corresponding sale. If there is an aspect of business that must be as categorical and definite as possible, it is this interface between the customer and the firm. Ethics is governed by a set of norms and values that define relationships between people. In the context of business, ethical behaviour, or one that is conceived to be, is necessary to maintain trust in what is essentially a fiduciary relationship (as between transacting parties, faith that each counterparty will comply with his or her obligations). Were such a relationship governed by the subjectivity of postmodernism, then the clarity of obligations between parties – what is promised and how it should be accomplished – will be tantamount to an unenforceable matter because of a lack of definition. For this reason, there have been spirited debates about the effect of postmodernism on the conduct of business ethics. This paper shall first discuss the meaning and significance of postmodern marketing and its usefulness as a strategic business tool; thereafter, the discussion shall well on the degree to which postmodern marketing may promote or impede realization of imperatives of business ethics. Meaning of postmodernism vis-a-vis modernism Before the topic of â€Å"postmodern marketing† could be discussed, it is necessary to give a meaning to the term â€Å"postmodern† – and upon a quick scan of the available literature, the only impression that the reader is left with is that postmodernism defies definition. The term conveys something that is â€Å"after modern†. The dilemma in this term is that the layman’s connotation of â€Å"modern† is that of the here and now; therefore there can never be an after-now, because â€Å"modern† is always current and always new. As much as been said by some authors, who state that â€Å"modern would seem to be a time-descriptive term, not a fixed state, and therefore †modern† and â€Å"postmodern† had often been interchanged and are, sometimes, used to connote the same thing (Alloway, 1981). To this reader’s mind, it amusedly mirrors the similarity between â€Å"flammable† and â€Å"inflammable† that the inclusion of a prefix does not change the meaning conveyed. One’s misconceptions are set aright, however, with the explanation Firat, Dholakia, and Venkatesh (1994) about the distinction between modernism and postmodernism. Modernism does not describe the attribute of things due to their currency in time, but rather a state of mind in viewing things. In postmodernism, the individual, self, freedom, agency, and structure, all of these become â€Å"ephemera l rather than essential and fixed† (Firat, et al., 1994, p. 40). They are viewed as imaginary, as in a myth system, compared to modernism’s concept of things as essential and fixed. When something is allowed to be a myth, however, then it ceases to have a substantial reality, and instead may assume several essences, to as many who would perceive it. The reality of the thing exists in the mind of the viewer, and if this mythical reality is to be sustained over its substantive