Search results

1 – 10 of over 24000
Article
Publication date: 7 March 2016

Cameron Sabadoz and Lindsay McShane

The purpose of this paper is to bring the concept of “meeting the gaze of the other” into conversation with the organizational accountability literature. This is done by…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to bring the concept of “meeting the gaze of the other” into conversation with the organizational accountability literature. This is done by integrating “the gaze” phenomenon with Darwall’s (2006) distinction between de jure and de facto authority. In the context of accountability, only de jure accountability entails meeting the gaze of the stakeholder, in that it requires organizations to grant stakeholders the moral authority to hold them to account. Drawing on this work, this paper aims to critically examine the distinction between de jure and de facto in current organizational accountability theorizing and in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

A content analysis of the “letters to the stakeholders” from the Global 100 firms’ accountability/social responsibility reports. Specifically, this paper examines the frequency with which leading companies acknowledge de facto vs de jure accountability, the nature of these statements and toward which stakeholder group they are directed.

Findings

Most firms acknowledge de facto accountability, but few grant de jure standing, making it more likely that firms will ignore claimants they prefer not to morally engage. De jure relationships that are acknowledged tend to be restricted to certain stakeholders such as employees, customers and shareholders. In addition, there are differences in the granting of de jure accountability across industry sectors.

Social implications

This work highlights the importance of acknowledging de jure accountability when engaging with stakeholders, and importantly, it highlights how to integrate consideration for de jure accountability into theorizing on organizational accountability. This analysis suggests that acknowledging de jure accountability vis-a-vis stakeholders can lead to more positive ethical decision-making and stronger relationships. Organizations are encouraged to strengthen their ethical decision-making by granting moral standing to their stakeholders.

Originality/value

Organizational accountability is typically treated as a single construct, yet de jure accountability (vs simply de facto accountability) has been linked to particularly powerful moral effects. This paper examines the critical distinction between de facto and de jure accountability. It makes a compelling case for the importance of acknowledging the gaze of organizational stakeholders.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 November 2021

Teng Zhang and Andrew T. Soderberg

Drawing on moral foundations theory (MFT), this paper aims to examine the relationship between community-level political ideology, organisational performance and leader tenure by…

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on moral foundations theory (MFT), this paper aims to examine the relationship between community-level political ideology, organisational performance and leader tenure by proposing and testing an “ideology-authority hypothesis” wherein political ideology moderates the relationship between organisational performance decline and leader tenure in organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used archival data pertaining to the performance of teams from the National Basketball Association (NBA), the tenure of the head coaches and the voting record of the communities in which the teams are located. The authors used hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) to test the relationships among these variables at multiple levels.

Findings

The results provided empirical support for the “ideology-authority hypothesis”. Specifically, the magnitude of team winning percentage decrease from the previous season is positively associated with the tenure of the head coach in teams located in more conservative communities but not in teams located in more liberal communities.

Originality/value

This study examines leadership stability and change by highlighting the moral foundation of authority/subversion. The findings also illustrate the importance of a community-level variable – the general political climate of the community in which an organisation is embedded – in organisational decision-making.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 April 2019

Melvin Prince, Attila N. Yaprak and Dayananda Palihawadana

This paper aims to develop a model that explains the moral bases of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism as purchase dispositions. The authors build their work on…

1515

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a model that explains the moral bases of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism as purchase dispositions. The authors build their work on moral foundations theory and the social theories of Emile Durkheim.

Design/methodology/approach

Theory-building from general theories of motivation is grounded in cultural norms, and empirical research is conducted to test theoretical propositions.

Findings

The focus is on the theoretical implications of binding or individualism morals of consumers within social groups. Consequently, variables in the model relate to ethical themes of community, autonomy and divinity. This theory posits that, for a variety of considerations, loyalty has a direct and positive effect on consumer ethnocentrism and on consumer cosmopolitanism. Serendipitously, other moral foundations have negative effects. The authors theorize that negative relationships exist between authority and consumer cosmopolitanism, and between sanctity and consumer ethnocentrism. This model also illustrates that consumer ethnocentrism positively predisposes favorable domestic product judgments.

Research limitations/implications

New ethical factors in consumer dispositions affecting product purchase decisions are explored. Hypotheses can be empirically replicated and moderated in future research.

Practical implications

Marketers can use the variables of personal values, moral foundations and gender role identity to fashion marketing communications and to target selective consumer segments.

Social implications

The persuasion process of social marketing will be enhanced by understanding relevant motives.

Originality/value

The use of the fine-grained moral foundation antecedents to predict consumer predispositions of ethnocentrism and cosmopolitanism is without precedent.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 September 2014

Sarah A. Tobin

This paper uses the case of Islamic banking in Amman, Jordan, to assess the wide moral range of expectations, levels of satisfaction, and means of evaluating banks’ “Islamicness.”

Abstract

Purpose

This paper uses the case of Islamic banking in Amman, Jordan, to assess the wide moral range of expectations, levels of satisfaction, and means of evaluating banks’ “Islamicness.”

Design/methodology/approach

The information is gathered from interviews conducted during over 21 months of ethnographic research and one month in participant observation and research access as an intern at the Middle East Islamic Bank (MEIB) in Amman, Jordan.

Findings

I found three modes for evaluating “Islamicness” when actors decide whether or not to become customers of Islamic banks.

Research implications

These modes demonstrate that Islamic banking is no longer the cultural protectionism of a relatively homogeneous community of Muslims. Rather it is a fraught and tense field for actors’ debates about types of moralities in the markets and modes of moral assessments of “Islamicness.”

Originality/value

The amplification of the individual and individual choice and authority in the moral assessments of Islamic banking may ultimately serve to unseat prior dichotomous theoretical framings of morality’s presence or absence as “Islamic” or “not Islamic” and “good” and “bad.” By unleashing to individuals the construction of morality in the markets, moral rights and wrongs, and moral evaluations, fragmentation of moral consensus in market practices will occur.

Details

Production, Consumption, Business and the Economy: Structural Ideals and Moral Realities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-055-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1991

Spencer J. Maxcy and Stephen J. Caldas

An increasingly popular argument proposes that the problems inpublic schooling may be solved through stronger, more morallyimaginative leadership. School administrators ought to…

Abstract

An increasingly popular argument proposes that the problems in public schooling may be solved through stronger, more morally imaginative leadership. School administrators ought to set forth a vision growing out of this moral responsibility, and may be trained to utilise moral imagination in directing teachers and students towards certain moral visions. A critique of the argument is presented and alternative (and conflicting) meanings of “moral imagination” surveyed. Four models of moral imagination are located: as discovery; as moral authority; as faculty of mind, and as super science. It is argued that each of these conceptions has inherent difficulties. The logical relationship of these views is explored. The notion of “school leadership” is traced in the literature as it has been attached to “moral imagination”. The work of W. Greenfield is examined and a philosophy of school administration, with certain assumptions, regarding values and authority, that reveal key difficulties for the unfettered use of “moral imagination” in school administration, is found. It is concluded that “moral imagination” ought to be replaced with “critical imagination”, coupled with “democratic value deliberation” and by so doing a richer leadership will result, leading to the empowerment of teachers and a fuller serving of the public good.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1992

John Conway O'Brien

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…

1134

Abstract

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 19 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2016

Christine M McDermott and Monica K Miller

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between moral disengagement, individual differences (i.e. need for cognition (NFC), faith in intuition, legal…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between moral disengagement, individual differences (i.e. need for cognition (NFC), faith in intuition, legal authoritarianism) and responses to vigilantism.

Design/methodology/approach

US university students were surveyed.

Findings

NFC reduced support for vigilante justice while legal authoritarianism increased support for vigilante justice. Both relationships are mediated by moral disengagement, which also increases support for vigilante justice.

Research limitations/implications

The present study provides a starting point for further research on individual differences and responses to vigilantism.

Practical implications

Results expand on the understanding of the function of individual differences in a morally charged decision-making task. Content has implications for academics and legal practitioners.

Originality/value

Vigilante justice is embedded within American culture. However, vigilantism is currently illegal, and recent instances of what might be considered vigilante justice (e.g. George Zimmerman, David Barajas) have highlighted the controversy surrounding such extralegal violence. Little research has focussed on the moral quandary posed by vigilantism.

Details

Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-6599

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 September 2012

Asta Cekaite

Purpose – Within the growing field of interactional research on children's interactions, the present study explores how social and moral order are established through embodied…

Abstract

Purpose – Within the growing field of interactional research on children's interactions, the present study explores how social and moral order are established through embodied practices in a multilingual kindergarten classroom. It explores the interactions of immigrant children (with very limited knowledge of Swedish as a second language) and the systematic formats of teachers’ questions employed during children's disputes and tattling (children's reports of peer group conflicts and accusations of untoward behaviour).

Methodology – The study is based on a video-ethnography (50 hours of recordings) in a multilingual kindergarten class for 6-year-olds in Sweden. The analytical approach combines Conversation Analysis (CA) with analysis of multimodally mobilized actions.

Findings – The analyses highlight how interactional meaning-making in conflict situations is accomplished with very limited linguistic resources. Children's tattle telling cornered teachers into the position of being a neutral authoritative agent who acted on their responsibility to resolve the conflict. Teachers reorganized tattle telling into a multiparty interrogation. Different interrogative formats were employed to establish a ‘factually correct’ description of the event. Teachers used open questions (‘what happened?’), ‘why’ and ‘yes/no’ interrogative formats. ‘Why’ questions were lexically designed to implicitly confirm the culpability of the accused child. ‘Yes/no’ questions invited the child's ratification of the teacher's version of the event.

Research implications – It is argued that research on children's social order will gain from understanding that conflict resolution in educational settings is a multilayered social practice that both presents a locus where the institutional order is (re)established and a locus where children's peer group concerns are played out.

Details

Disputes in Everyday Life: Social and Moral Orders of Children and Young People
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-877-9

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 16 May 2017

Abstract

Details

Responsible Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-416-3

Book part
Publication date: 25 November 2021

Jenni Frumer and Jennifer Moss Breen

This chapter describes the experience of a tenured, senior professional leader (chief executive officer [CEO]) of a nonprofit human service organization. Although strongly…

Abstract

This chapter describes the experience of a tenured, senior professional leader (chief executive officer [CEO]) of a nonprofit human service organization. Although strongly supported by the board, she was harassed by a small group of board members and a couple of their friends (nonboard members), who insisted she take actions that would circumvent legitimate board process. Their actions would have resulted in “underground communications” and unilateral decisions. By speaking up and calling them out, the board became divided and conflicted, culminating in the resignation of the CEO. The scholarly commentary that follows the story adds a framework for explaining how important it is to maintain a moral compass, to hold fast to personal integrity, and to refuse to keep silent in the face of adversity. By sounding the alarm, the chaos and disruption exposed the plan to take power and control from the board. Being courageous may not be intentional or include actions of choice; it stems from the belief that it is the right thing to do… therefore, acting on moral courage can mitigate remorse. You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity (Epicurus).

Details

Women Courageous
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-423-4

1 – 10 of over 24000