Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

How Can I Become a Responsible Subject? Towards a Practice-Based Ethics of Responsiveness

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Approaches to business ethics can be roughly divided into two streams: ‹codes of behavior’ and ‹forms of subjectification’, with code-oriented approaches clearly dominating the field. Through an elaboration of poststructuralist approaches to moral philosophy, this paper questions the emphasis on codes of behaviour and, thus, the conceptions of the moral and responsible subject that are inherent in rule-based approaches. As a consequence of this critique, the concept of a practice-based ‹ethics of responsiveness’ in which ethics is never final but rather always ‹to come’, is investigated. In such an approach the ethical self is understood as being continuously constituted within power/knowledge relations. Following this line, we ask how one can become a responsible subject while also acknowledging certain limits of full responsibility. We thereby explore responsibility as a considered but unconditional openness in response to the other.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (2002). Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual. Journal of Management Studies, 39(5), 619–644. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. 1993 Postmodern Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers inc.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. 2007. Leben in Der Flüchtigen Moderne (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z., & Tester, K. 2001. Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman. Polity Press: Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borgerson, J. 2005. ‹Judith Butler: On Organizing Subjectivities.’ In C. Jones & R. Munro (Eds.) Contemporary Organization Theory, (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd).

    Google Scholar 

  • Branco, M., & Rodrigues, L. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility and Resource-Based Perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 69(2), 111–132. doi:10.1007/s10551-006-9071-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. 1999. Gender Trouble, (New York & London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. 2005. Giving an Account of Oneself, (New York: Fordham University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate Social Responsibility: Evolution of a Definitional Construct. Business & Society, 38(3), 268–295. doi:10.1177/000765039903800303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chia, R. (1995). From Modern to Postmodern Organizational Analysis. Organization Studies, 16(4), 579–604. doi:10.1177/017084069501600406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chia, R. 2003. ‹Ontology: Organization As “World-Making”. In: R. Westwood & S. Clegg (Eds.), Debating Organization: Point-Counterpoint in Organization Studies. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clegg, S. 1994. ‹Power-Relations and the Constitution of the Resistant Subject.’ In M. Jemier, D. Knights & W. Nord (Eds.) Power and Resistance in Organizations, (London: Routledge), 274–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clegg, S., & Hardy, C. 1999. Studying Organization Theory and Method. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clegg, S., Kornberger, M., & Rhodes, C. (2007). Business Ethics as Practice. British Journal of Management, 18(2), 107–122. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2006.00493.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cochran, P., & Wood, R. (1984). Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 27(1), 42–56. doi:10.2307/255956.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crane, A., & Matten, D. 2007. Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, S. 2000. ‹Resurfacing an Aesthetics of Existence as Alternative to Business Ethics.’ In S. Linstead & H. Höpfl (Eds.) The Aesthetics of Organization, (London: Thousand Oaks), 212–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. 1988. Foucault, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. 1992. Differenz Und Wiederholung, (München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag).

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. 1995. Negotiations: 1972–227, (N York: Columbia University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. 1993. Aporias, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. 1995. The Gift of Death, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. 1997. The Politics of Friendship, (London/New York: Verso).

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. 1999. ‹Hospitality, Justice and Responsibility: A Dialouge with Jacques Derrida.’ In R. Kearney & M. Dooley (Eds.) Questioning Ethics, (London: Routledge), 65–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1970. The Order of Things – an Archaeology of the Human Sciences, (New York: Random House).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1973. The Birth of the Clinic – an Archaeology of Medical Perception, (New York: Tavistock).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison, (London: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1983. ‹Afterword by Michel Foucault: The Subject and Power.’ In H. L. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.) Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 208–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1984. The Use of Pleasure. The History of Sexuality, (London: Penguin Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1985. The Care of the Self – the History of Sexuality Vol. 3, (London: Penguin Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1988. ‹Technologies of the Self.’ In L. Martin, H. Gutman & P. Hutton (Eds.) Technologies of the Self, (Amerst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press), 16–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1992. Was Ist Kritik? (Berlin: Merve).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1997. ‹The Ethics of the Concern for the Self as a Practice of Freedom.’ In P. Rabinow (Ed.) Michel Foucault, Ethic, Subjectivity and Truth, (New York: The new Press), 281–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 2001. Fearless Speech, (Los Angeles: Semiotext).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (2005). Die Heterotopian – Der Utopishe Körper (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main).

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, R., & Amstrong, A. (2003). Ethics as a Risk Management Strategy: The Australian Experience. Journal of Business Ethics, 45(4), 375–385. doi:10.1023/A:1024163831371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, E. R., & Velamuri, R. S. 2006, ‹A New Approach to Csr: Company Stakeholder Responsibility.’ In: A. Kakabadse & M. Morsing (Eds.), Corportae Social Responsibility – Reconciling Aspiration with Aplication. New York: Pelgrave McMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, L. P. 2005. Perspectives on Business Ethics, (Singapore: McGraw-Hill).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, T. (2000). Management Ethics and Corporate Policy: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Journal of Management Studies, 37(3), 349–369. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, P.: 1996, ‹Nietzsche’s Reception Today’. Radical Philosophy (November/December), 24–33.

  • Jones, C., Parker, M., & ten Bos, R. 2005. For Business Ethics: A Critical Text. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kjonstad, B., & Willmott, H. (1995). Business Ethics: Restrictive or Empowering?. Journal of Business Ethics 14(6), 445 doi:10.1007/BF00872086.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knights, D. 1990. ‹Subjectivity, Power and the Labour Process.’ In D. Knights & H. Willmott (Eds.) Labour Process Theory, (London: Macmillan), 297–335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinas, E. 1969. Totality and Infinity – an Essay on Exteriority, (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinas, E. 1981. Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence, (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinas, E. 2003. Humanism of the Other, (Illinois: University of Illinois Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Linstead, S. 2002. Text/Work: Representing Organization and Orgaizing Representation, (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Linstead, S., & Höpfl, H. 2000. The Aesthetics of Organizations. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loacker, B. 2008. ‹Performance and Creativity: Practices of Organizing within an Independent Theatre’ Performance in Context: Perspectives from Management Research. Innsbruck: Insbruck University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lunau, Y., & Wettstein, F. 2004. Die Soziale Verantwortung Der Wirtshaft. Was Bürger Von Unternehmen Erwarten. Wien: Haupt Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mansell, S. (2008). Proximity and Rationalisation: The Limits of a Levinasian Ethics in the Context of Corporate Governance and Regulation. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(3), 565–577. doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9639-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mansell, S. 2009. ‹Business Ethics and the Question of Objectivity – the Concept of Moral Progress in a Dialectical Framework.’ In: S. L. Muhr, B. M. Sørensen & S. Vallentin (Eds.), Ethics and Organizational Practice: Questioning the Moral Foundations of Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morsing, M., & Schultz, M. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: Stakeholder Information, Response and Involvement Strategies. Business Ethics: a European Review, 15(4), 323–338. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8608.2006.00460.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muhr, S. L. 2007. ‹An Ethical Encounter with the Other – Language Introducing the New into Thought.’ Djelic, Marie-Laure Vranceanu, Radu, (Cheldenham, UK: Edward Elgar).

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhr, S. L. (2008a). Othering Diversity – a Levinasian Analysis of Diversity Management. International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 3(2), 176–189. doi:10.1504/IJMCP.2008.021273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muhr, S. L. (2008b). Reflections on Responsibility and Justice – Coaching Human Rights in South Africa. Management Decision, 46(8), 1175–1186. doi:10.1108/00251740810901372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Leary, T. 2002. Foucault and the Art of Ethics, (London: Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortmann, G. 2003. Regel Und Ausnahme. Paradoxien Sozialer Ordnung. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M. 1998. Ethics & Organizations, (London: Sage Publications).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pullen, A., & Linstead, S. 2005. ‹Organization and Identity.’ London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. 1986. The Foucault Reader, (Hammonsworth: Pinguin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. and N. Rose: 2003, ‹Introduction – Foucault Today,’ in P. Rabinow and N. Rose (eds.), The Essential Foucault – Selections from Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984 (London: Routledge), pp. vii-xxxv.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. 1992 ‹Governing the Enterprising Self.’ In: P. Heelas & P. Morris (Eds.), The Values of the Enterprise Culture: The Morale Debate. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salih, S. 2002. Judith Butler, (London and New York: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, W. 2002. Auf Der Suche Nach Einer Neuen Lebenskunst: Die Frage Nach Dem Grund Und Die Neubegründung Der Etik Bei Foucault. Frakfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, W. H. 1998. Business Ethics, (Belmont, CA: Wordsworth).

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N.C. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility. Whether or How? California Management Review, 45(4), 52–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, B. (1994). An Analysis of Corporate Ethical Code Studies: “Where Do We Go from Here?”. Journal of Business Ethics, 13(1), 63–69. doi:10.1007/BF00877156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K., & Weaver, G. R. (2006). Behavioral Ethics in Organizations: A Review. Journal of Management, 32(6), 951–990. doi:10.1177/0149206306294258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valesquez, M. G. 1998. Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall).

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, R. (1993). Codes of Ethics: Bricks without Straw. Journal of Business Ethics, 2(4), 185–191. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8608.1993.tb00044.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, G. R. (2006). Virtue in Organizations: Moral Identity as a Foundation for Moral Agency. Organization Studies, 27(3), 341–368. doi:10.1177/0170840606062426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiskopf, R. 2004. ‹Management, Organisation Und Die Gespenster Der Gerechtigkeit.’ In G. Schreyögg & P. Conrad (Eds.) Managementforschung 14. Gerechtigkeit Und Management, (Wiesbaden: Gabler-Verlag), 211–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiskopf, R., & Loacker, B. (2006). ‹“A Snake’s Coils Are Even More Intricate Than a Mole’s Burrow.” Individualism and Subjectification in Post-Disciplinary Regimes of Work’. Management Review, 17(4), 395–419.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werhane, P. H. 1995. ‹Levinas’s Ethics: A Normative Perspective without Metaethical Constraints.’ In: A. T. Peperzak (Ed.), Ethics as First Philosophy - the Significance of Emmanuel Levinas for Philosophy, Literature and Religion. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wild, J. 1969. ‹Introduction.’ In: E. Levinas (Ed.), Totality and Infinity – an Essay on Exteriority. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wines, W. A. (2008). Seven Pillars of Business Ethics: Toward a Comprehensive Framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 79(4), 483–499. doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9411-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organization and Learning, School of Management, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 15, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Bernadette Loacker

  2. Department of Business Administration, University of Lund, PO Box 7080, 220 07, Lund, Sweden

    Sara Louise Muhr

Authors
  1. Bernadette Loacker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sara Louise Muhr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Louise Muhr.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Loacker, B., Muhr, S.L. How Can I Become a Responsible Subject? Towards a Practice-Based Ethics of Responsiveness. J Bus Ethics 90, 265–277 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0041-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0041-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation