TY - JOUR T1 - Metaphors, models and organisational ethics in health care JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 340 LP - 345 DO - 10.1136/jme.26.5.340 VL - 26 IS - 5 AU - Jennifer McCrickerd Y1 - 2000/10/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/26/5/340.abstract N2 - Crucial to discussions in organisational ethics is an evaluation of the metaphors and models we use to understand the organisations we are discussing. I briefly defend this contention and evaluate three possible models: the current corporate model, an orchestrator model which puts hospitals in the same class as malls and airports, and a community model. I argue that the corporate and orchestrator model push to the background some important organisational ethics issues and bias us inappropriately towards certain solutions. Furthermore, I argue that the community model allows these to be more easily brought up. I also respond to the likely challenge that hospitals really are corporations by arguing that this is not relevant to evaluations of the appropriateness of the corporate model. ER -