Abstract
This developmental paper argues that the Post Office-Horizon scandal should be viewed as a major issue for organisational and management scholarship. The wrongful prosecution of over 700 subpostmasters/ subpostmistresses (SPMs), based on evidence from a flawed IT system (Horizon) was overseen by senior management of the Post Office, who persisted in claiming that the system was ‘robust’, and that the actions by Post Office investigators and lawyers were proper and necessary. The paper sketches a proposed conceptual and theoretical framework for investigation of the case, drawing upon (a) MacIntyre’s work on moral agency, (b) the notion of Umwelt developed by von Uexküll and of affordances developed by Gibson, and (c) the analysis of Wittgenstein in On Certainty. Some examples of the application of these ideas is presented, but limited by space. Further analysis of the copious empirical material is proposed, with a view to publication as a monograph.