Business Ethics

In this chapter, we analyse the debate around the implementation of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in Higher Education, Funding and Research Centres (HEFRCs). We will illustrate some proposals about how to implement RRI in HERFCs in a good way. Open and inclusive governance is key to fruitful implementation of RRI in these organizations. Governance in this context refers to ways of steering processes in a desirable direction, in this case in the direction of responsible research and innovation that is (...) ethically acceptable and socially desirable. We will present and assess different models of governance and aim to provide ethical governance of research and innovation (R&I) inspired by the most convincing ideas emerged in the current debate. (shrink)

This paper examines the reactions of stakeholders to firms’ ESG information and how these reactions impact firms’ financial performance. We further explore how firms’ ESG performance and public attention moderate these relationships. Using a longitudinal dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2014 to 2023, we find that firms with vague ESG information are associated with increased financing constraints, diminished brand value, and reduced government environmental subsidies. Interestingly, these negative consequences are milder in firms with unusually poor ESG performance. Our findings (...) also reveal that stakeholders’ adverse responses deteriorate these firms’ future performance. Moreover, public attention as an information intermediary is a double-edged sword: heightened public scrutiny alleviates stakeholders’ negative reactions to vague ESG information but intensifies them when a firm’s ESG performance is extremely poor. These results remain robust across alternative measures, models, and sample selection treatments. Overall, our study demonstrates that vague ESG information elicits adverse responses from stakeholders and weakens firm performance. These effects, however, are contingent upon a firm’s ESG performance and the level of public attention it receives. (shrink)

Gender bias in leadership and decision-making is a well-documented and pervasive topic that continues to garner significant attention in academic research and business literature. In this paper, by exploiting a unique proprietary dataset of 550 mid-corporate loan applications managed by a major European bank, we explore how the use of soft information influences lending decisions of female loan officers as compared to their male counterparts. We find that use of soft information reduces information asymmetry which helps female officers in making (...) diligent lending decisions resulting in increased granted credit with a lower default probability. We also investigate gender affinity within the banking organisation and find that female loan approvers are more likely to be supportive of their subordinate female loan officers by approving more credit to the loan applications handled by female loan officers. Finally, we examine the possible mechanisms that can explain these results, and find that female loan officers are able to better collect and use soft information as they cultivate and maintain deeper firm-bank relationships with their clients due to higher threat of losing or being penalized in their jobs for any possible errors. We also rule out any other possible explanations such as differences in workload, work experience, loan officers’ optimism, managerial ability, and screening capabilities between female and male loan officers. Our findings carry important policy implications, reflected in the optimal allocation of capital in the economy and the reduction of gender-related exclusion, which is vital in creating an equitable society and fostering a more ethical and inclusive workplace. (shrink)

We examine the impact of family firms’ historical ownership on corporate fraud. Our results show that restructured family firms from state-owned enterprises are more likely to violate and commit more fraud than entrepreneurial family firms. This finding is robust to the difference-in-difference-in-differences estimation, an instrument variables regression, fixed effects research design, and propensity score matching (PSM) approach analysis. Mechanism analysis shows that restructured family firms result in lower financial performance, high labor redundancy, inefficient investments, and cash volatility. Therefore, restructured family (...) firms have a stronger incentive to conceal these problems through corporate fraud. Furthermore, the effects of family firms’ historical ownership on corporate fraud are weakened for a more extended period after SOE ownership reform and the restructuring approach adopted by equity takeover. (shrink)

The Russia–Ukraine war has challenged our understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Whereas CSR is traditionally associated with business self-regulation that benefits business and society, the conflict has revealed new forms of what we call “partisan CSR.” Based on comprehensive data from Fortune Global 500 firms, this study discovers that in particular Western, but also some non-Western, corporations have engaged in partisan CSR activities, ranging from (1) strengthening Ukraine’s economy, to (2) enhancing security and protection for Ukrainian citizens, (3) providing (...) military support, (4) weakening Russia’s economy, and (5) supporting Ukraine in symbolic ways. By comparison, several mostly non-Western firms, e.g. from Asian countries, have chosen to be “neutral”, while, in some cases, exploiting economic opportunities arising from the conflict. This study also discusses major drivers of these CSR responses, including political climate, resource availability and economic dependency, isomorphism, and regulatory requirements. Our findings suggest a shift from political CSR to partisan CSR, which we expect to become more important with growing geopolitical divides and territorial conflicts. (shrink)

Entrepreneurship has been highlighted as one of the major forces in addressing significant economic, social, and environmental challenges. These challenges have raised new ethical questions, leading to an explosive growth of research at the intersection of ethics and entrepreneurship. This study provides an overview of the evolution of the scientific literature on the interplay between ethics and entrepreneurship to propose a research proposition with standardized protocols and a broad time limit. Specifically, in a hybrid literature review, 516 articles from peer-reviewed (...) journals indexed in Scopus were analyzed. The review revealed that the field mainly comprises six themes. Through the analysis of each theme, gaps are identified and structured and used to build theoretical proposals for future research agendas applied to current societal challenges. Understanding the link between entrepreneurship and ethics guides practices improves decisions, addresses challenges, promotes sustainability, enhances academia, and builds trust, fostering a responsible, beneficial entrepreneurial environment for society and the economy. (shrink)

Based on a qualitative study of Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride, this article explores collaboration between the local organiser and its corporate partners, focusing on the tensions involved in this collaboration, which emerge from and uphold relations between the extremes of unethical pinkwashing, on the one hand, and ethical purity, on the other. Here, pinkwashing is understood as a looming risk, and purity as an unrealizable ideal. As such, corporate sponsorships of Pride are conceptualized as inherently impure—and productive because of their very (...) impurity rather than despite it. Analytically, we identify and explore three productive tensions where the first involves emergent normativities for what constitutes good, right, or proper corporate engagement in Pride, the second revolves around queer(ed) practices and products that open normativities, and the third centres on the role of internal LGBTI+ employee-driven networks whose activism pushes organisations to become further involved in Pride, developing aspirational solidarity. Reading across literatures on corporate activism and queer organisation, we introduce Alexis Shotwell’s notion of constitutive impurity to suggest that the potential for ethical corporate Pride partnerships arises when accepting the risk of pinkwashing rather than seeking to overcome it. (shrink)

This paper puts forth a critical perspective on remedy for business-related human rights abuses. It reflects on the purpose of remedy in Business and Human Rights and argues that effective remedy should address the multiple root causes of abuses to prevent reoccurrences rather than focus on surface issues and isolated cases. To develop a theoretical framework to conceptualize preventative remedy that addresses multiple root causes, this research draws on Fraser’s radical democratic conception of justice and participatory parity. According to the (...) principle, justice is achieved through social arrangements that enable all actors to engage with one another as peers. To conceptualize effective remedy as participatory parity, the paper examines three dimensions—cultural, economic, and political—where injustices or root causes of abuses must be addressed to realize participatory parity. The paper analyzes the illustrative case of the Fair Food Program through the lens of Fraser’s framework. Analysis reveals effective enforcement as necessary to realize participatory parity and address the three dimensions of justice in the context of severe power asymmetries. In the theorized framework, remedy aims to address the multiple root causes of business-related human rights abuses toward prevention and empower rightsholders to engage meaningfully in remedial processes. (shrink)

Possessing slack resources enables businesses to invest in innovative and stakeholder-focused initiatives. Therefore, we posit that higher slack resources encourage businesses to allocate these resources to improve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Moreover, as a central sustainability governance mechanism, we hypothesize that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee supports investing slack resources in ESG initiatives. Using data from Nasdaq-100 firms, we find initial support for a positive effect of slack resources for ESG. However, further analyses reveal that slack (...) resources become detrimental to ESG after an economically relevant threshold, indicating an inverted U-shaped effect of slack resources. Additionally, despite their generally positive effect, we uncover that CSR committees cannot effectively enhance the benefits of low or moderate slack levels for ESG nor prevent the detriments of elevated slack levels for ESG. Therefore, our study significantly contributes to the ongoing discourse surrounding slack resources, ESG, and the usefulness of CSR committees. These findings hold significant implications for ethical resource allocation, urging firms and their decision-makers to reconsider the dual-edged role of slack resources in the unique ESG context and support the CSR committee in realizing its potential for promoting sustainability and ethical practices within the organization. (shrink)

We take an ethics theory perspective to examine rule violations and workarounds in the UK construction industry in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK construction sector remained largely operational during lockdowns in the UK, providing an opportunity to explore the ways in which construction workers made ethical decisions in situ, related to health and safety at work, and COVID-19 rules. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with participants from 11 organisations (3 major construction companies and 8 subcontractors) during November (...) 2021 to January 2022. Our qualitative analysis focused on coding responses based on the use of moral disengagement tactics, and the dimensions of moral intensity (magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, proximity and, concentration of effect). We found instances of ethical dilemmas, including conflicts between compliance with organisational health and safety rules, and following COVID-19 rules. Our analysis showed that rule violations were often justified based on moral disengagement tactics, particularly cognitive reconstrual, obscuring personal agency, disregarding consequences and vilification of the victims. Furthermore, moral intensity played a significant role in making ethical decisions about violating rules. Moral intensity was most influential (across dimensions) for moral disengagement based on cognitive reconstrual (e.g., justifications for choosing to follow one set of rules over another). Social context was highly influential in workers’ ethical decisions, including organisational and group social norms, but wider societal attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic, also played a significant role. We discuss the implications for business ethics theory, policy and practice, including recommendations for businesses and policymakers. (shrink)

Corporate debt default risk poses significant challenges in the business world, requiring a multifaceted approach for effective mitigation. This study, grounded in an ethical decision-making framework, investigates the influence of Confucian culture on shaping ethical corporate culture and managers’ moral capacity and its subsequent impact on corporate debt default risk. Our findings indicate that companies deeply influenced by Confucian culture tend to exhibit lower debt default risks. Specifically, companies that embrace Confucian values demonstrate an enhanced ethical corporate culture and heightened (...) individual moral capacity. These factors play crucial roles in the ethical decision-making process, thereby reducing the likelihood of engaging in risky financial behaviors. Further analysis reveals that the inhibitory effect of Confucian culture on debt default risk is particularly pronounced in enterprises operating within regions characterized by poor integrity environments and weak product market competition. This inhibitory effect can lead to a reduction in the cost of corporate debt financing and the risk of stock price crashes. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the interplay between culture, business ethics, and corporate risk management. (shrink)

This paper investigates Street Fight Radio’s consumer community’s resistance to neoliberal financial consumer responsibilization. Extant scholarship critiques consumer responsibilization on ethical grounds for placing too much responsibility on consumers at the expense of institutional actors. It also describes some forms of aversion to parts of the responsibilization process among individuals and short-lived consumer collectives. However, it falls short of analyzing community-driven resistance to financial consumer responsibilization writ large, or consumers’ efforts to responsibilize other stakeholders. Our netnographic and ethnographic study of (...) Street Fight Radio (SFR), a populist grassroots political comedy radio show and podcast with a strong anti-neoliberal consumer community, addresses these previous theoretical limitations. Drawing from Foucault’s counter-conduct concept, we show how SFR’s consumer community bolsters and sustains community-level resistance to financial consumer responsibilization. It encourages consumers to push for collective protections from markets and responsibilize other actors to address systemic, structural precarity. Our analysis makes novel contributions by theorizing the role of community in sustaining resistance to consumer responsibilization and by demonstrating the role of precarious consumers’ performative staging of supposedly excessive, irresponsible consumption in reorienting consumer ethics. (shrink)

Although the concept of social value has been present in business literature for over a century, it lacks definitional consensus, is often imprecise, and has not been sufficiently theorized. With social value becoming more prevalent across business scholarship domains, the lack of conceptual clarity and consistency hampers substantive research progress. We conduct an integrative review of 288 articles drawn from 60 peer-reviewed journals covering a wide spectrum of business domains. We synthesize the review findings into a polythetic typology that identifies (...) five distinct approaches to understanding and managing social value in business. The proposed typology of social value organizes and consolidates the theoretical and conceptual heterogeneity of the social value concept providing much-needed clarity and structure for future research. It allows scholars to structure and unify various conceptualizations into a more holistic yet nuanced understanding, and the necessary (but currently lacking) clarity to enable new theorizing and guide future research. The proposed typology further offers new ways of thinking about social value and provides direction to managerial practice on the desirability and feasibility of implementing different social value approaches into firms’ core business operations and strategies. (shrink)

What do firms owe to those around them in terms of consideration, restraint, and active support? This question—which I’ll call the question of “firm responsibility”—first rose to prominence in the modern context in the 1950s. While questions about what one entity owes to others and how it may impose on them are essentially questions about moral responsibility, the debate about firm responsibility has been conducted almost exclusively in terms of social responsibility until quite recently. I argue below that we need (...) a different approach. The paradigm of corporate social responsibility is failing, if it has not already failed, and scholars and practitioners alike should shift to the paradigm of corporate moral responsibility. I begin with a brief discussion of paradigms and how they function in the social sciences, especially regarding the social institutions of government and business (Sect. “Paradigms”). With that established, I outline the paradigm of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and argue that it is failing (Sect. “Corporate Social Responsibility”), then present the paradigm of corporate moral responsibility (CMR) and note the ways in which it compares favorably (Sect. “Corporate Moral Responsibility”). Briefly, CMR is a more coherent and ultimately more familiar paradigm, far better developed with stronger justifications and clearer options for analogous development. Beyond these benefits, I argue in (Sect. “Corporate Political Responsibility”) that the paradigm of CSR both encourages and obscures the intrusion of private firms into arenas traditionally reserved to governmental authority—a move to what would be better described as corporate political responsibility (CPR, sometimes called political CSR). It is highly controversial to allow such an intrusion, much less to claim that it is obligatory, but our reliance on the paradigm of CSR makes it hard to even realize that it is happening, much less to articulate and discuss the concern. In contrast, adopting the paradigm of CMR brings the long-standing distinction between moral and political theory into play. Doing so highlights the radical nature of this intrusion and gives us the language we need to describe it, debate it, and manage it if we choose to pursue it. Further, properly distinguishing between CMR and CPR reveals the possibility of an under-explored field that lies between the two (for both human and corporate moral agents)—what I have here called communal responsibility, for lack of a better term. I conclude by acknowledging the clear parallels between the claims I have developed here and Friedman’s claims in his (in)famous article. (shrink)

This editorial introduces the special issue “Managing Speech Rights” in the journal Philosophy of Management. The papers in this special issue use a philosophical lens to consider not just how speech rights are actually managed but how they ought to be managed. This special issue examines how managerial actions, decisions, and decision-making processes affect the exercise of speech rights and considers the conditions under which free speech should be understood as justifiably limited, morally permissible, or even actively encouraged as a (...) matter of bestpractice. This editorial sets the discussion in a broader context by highlighting the importance and the timeliness of discussing the uses and limits of the right to free speech within organizations, introducing the papers enclosed in this special issue, and finally drawing avenues for further research. (shrink)

This article presents the results of a journey into the work of French philosopher Simone Weil, Oppression and liberty and The Need for roots, in order to identify the conditions and limits to the implementation of freedom of expression. This research project aims at identifying the ethical foundations of freedom of expression in a contemporary context where globalization, the media and social networks facilitate a fast dissemination of numerous individual and collective expressions, while the law cannot discern when to privilege (...) freedom of expression over other human rights. The result of our analysis of Weil notions of “need of the soul” and “obligations towards human being” enable to understand why freedom of expression is individual and not collective and under which conditions it should be protected: as an essential need of our intelligence, rooted in every human being, that must be respected absolutely at an individual level. This principle also makes it possible to legitimize the limitation of certain collective expressions conveyed by organizations, in their external and internal communication, and the authorization of the individual voice of certain stakeholders when they speak out in favor of justice and truth. (shrink)

Many businesses police employees’ extramural political speech and beliefs. They refuse to hire potential employees or will fire and blackball current employees for what they say and believe about politics. This paper argues that business managers should, with a few narrow exceptions, forbear from doing so. It grants that some political speech and beliefs, such as racist speech, can indeed be wrongful and presumptive grounds for disassociating with others. However, I argue that we cannot even in principle, even roughly, determine (...) what makes some beliefs bad enough to merit such blackballing. Further, I argue that people in general, and business managers in particular, are likely to be unreliable in practice in assessing which speech or beliefs are unacceptable. Accordingly, businesses should forbear from policing speech because they are likely to be incompetent and unreliable at such policing. (shrink)

Employers often encourage, incentivize, or even require their employees to engage in politics in a variety of ways. For example, employers often encourage employees to vote, press employees to support particular political candidates or policies, require employees to participate in political events, or ask employees to contact elected officials to advocate for the employer’s interests. Such practices are all forms of employer mobilization. This essay considers the threat that employer mobilization poses to employees’ speech rights, specifically employees’ right against compelled (...) speech. I argue that employer mobilization practices are liable to infringe on employees’ right against compelled speech when three conditions are met: (1) the employer asks or encourages employees to express a particular political message that is inconsistent with some employees’ beliefs and values; (2) the employer forces some employees to express the employer’s message; and (3) the employees are not employed in a role or an organization in which expressing or supporting such messages is an essential part of the job. (shrink)

Claiming that citizens have a “right to free speech” signals to those in free and democratic societies that speech is a freedom that should be protected. Claiming this right, however, does not explain the limits of that right, such as who can speak and what they can and cannot say within organizations. Unlike other articles that describe the legal limits of speech rights, I provide an account of how speech rights can be ethically justified inside and outside of organizations. I (...) first make three assumptions about how strong common interests in speaking and owning things eventually became moral rights and then legal rights within free societies. I also explain how an organization’s property rights and right to make and dissolve contracts can justify managers in limiting free speech. Using principles from rights, fairness, and justice, I further describe when managers should and should not limit speech based on organizational roles and speech content. In some cases, employees could argue that speech limits are unfair if employees in similar circumstances are not allowed to speak on similar topics. I conclude by analyzing whistleblowing as employee speech that managers may try to limit using property rights or consequentialist arguments, but that society protects as a requirement of justice. (shrink)

Recently, scholars have shown a growing interest in exploitative leadership, which refers to leaders pursuing their own interests by exploiting followers. While the accumulated evidence demonstrates a wide array of negative consequences of exploitative leadership, we explore why and when leaders are exploitative, thus offering insights into the prevention of exploitative leadership behavior. Drawing on trait activation theory, we propose that leaders with a Machiavellianism trait are more (versus less) likely to exhibit exploitative leadership due to activated (versus decreased) self-serving (...) cognition when they weakly (versus strongly) perceive that they are accountable for their decisions and behaviors at work (i.e., accountability). To test our hypotheses, we collected three waves of survey data from 195 leaders and 587 followers. The results of multilevel analysis show that the interaction of leaders’ Machiavellianism and accountability is related to exploitative leadership via leaders’ self-serving cognition. Specifically, the relationship between leaders’ Machiavellianism and exploitative leadership via leaders’ self-serving cognition is stronger when accountability is lower but is nonsignificant when accountability is higher. The present research provides important theoretical and practical insights into the determinants of exploitative leadership. (shrink)

Food waste presents an escalating environmental and social challenge to the establishment of a sustainable marketing system and the long-term development of our society. Given the substantial volume of food wasted due to the rejection of close-to-expiry food, this study explores how visual perspectives influence consumers’ reactions to close-to-expiry food. Specifically, we find that a third-person (vs. first-person) perspective in advertisements enhances consumers’ positive reactions to close-to-expiry food. This effect is driven by the heightened level of other-focus elicited by the (...) third-person perspective and is mitigated when consumers’ level of self-construal misfits with visual perspectives in terms of the direction of other-focus elicited or when the food item is far from expiry. These findings contribute to research on close-to-expiry food marketing, visual perspectives, other-focus, and consumer ethics. Furthermore, the current research provides critical implications for various stakeholders and society as a whole. (shrink)

This literature review draws on Foucault’s concept of problematization to examine how academic discourse “stages” debates on whistleblowing. By staging these debates, different streams of literature assign distinct roles and “scripts” to whistleblowing, shaping the practice of whistleblowing and the subjectivity of the whistleblower. Each stream produces a unique “piece” of whistleblowing—ranging from calculable organizational mechanisms to governance tools, legal regulations, and disruptive acts of ethical resistance. The discussion sheds light on how these pieces are performed in organizational settings, regulatory (...) frameworks, and social contexts, demonstrating how governing takes place through problematization. The conclusion advocates for a transformative understanding of whistleblowing as a critical practice that challenges norms and fosters systemic change. (shrink)

Genetic Modified Organisms (GMO) became a flagship of agro-neoliberalism in Brazil, despite the opposition of environmentalists and social movements advocating other forms of production. GMO status quo seems inevitable and unquestionable, overcoming resistance and avoiding systemic change in the Brazilian context. In this research, we aim to uncover the formation of GMO hegemony through a decolonial perspective. Relying on longitudinal analysis, we identified that the GMO hegemony is grounded and undissociated with North–South dependency relations in both the productive and the (...) epistemological realms, producing productive and epistemic subalternisation. These dependency relations are based on discourses that normalise a subaltern position and enable perverse structures that take away control of food production and undermine alternative ways of confronting inequality, poverty and exclusion, phenomena that call for further studies in Business Ethics and Critical Management realms. (shrink)

Governments, institutions, and brands try various intervention strategies for countering growing cyberbullying, but with questionable effectiveness. The authors use hypocrisy induction, a technique for subtly reminding consumers that they have acted contrary to their moral values, to see whether it makes consumers more willing to support brand-sponsored anti-cyberbullying CSR campaigns. Findings demonstrate that hypocrisy induction evokes varying reactions depending on regulatory focus, mediated by guilt and shame. Specifically, consumers who have a dominant promotion (prevention) focus feel guilt (shame), which motivates (...) them to overcome their discomfort by supporting (avoiding) an anti-cyberbullying campaign. Moral regulation is drawn as a theoretical underpinning to explain various consumer reactions to hypocrisy induction, the moderating role of regulatory focus, and mediating role of guilt and shame. The research contributes to the literature and provides practical implications by explaining when and why brands can use hypocrisy induction to persuade consumers to support social causes through the lens of moral regulation theory. (shrink)

Virtues and character strengths are often assumed to be universal, considered equally important to individuals across cultures, religions, racial-ethnic groups, and genders. The results of our surveys and laboratory studies, however, bring to light subtle yet consistent gender differences in the importance attributed to character in leadership: women considered character to be more important to successful leadership in business than did men, and women had higher expectations that individuals should demonstrate character in a new leadership role. Further, the gender of (...) the research participant affected character ratings such that male respondents viewed a female leader who exhibited agentic behaviors in a professionally challenging situation less positively than a male leader who displayed the same agentic behaviors. The data also showed that male participants rated almost every dimension of character displayed by the female leader lower than did female participants. Our findings suggest that the question as to what extent gender differences may bias the assessment of virtues and character strengths is an important one, and one for which the practical implications for individuals in organizations need to be studied in more detail. (shrink)

This study investigates how the presence, and subsequent repeal, of a tax incentive for a prosocial behavior influences fairness perceptions and tax compliance for those who are and are not eligible for the incentive. Results of a multi-round experiment with 309 U.S. taxpayers show that individuals who engage in the prosocial behavior of making a charitable donation do not exhibit moral licensing behavior. Instead, those who give, versus do not give, engage in higher levels of tax compliance. In fact, we (...) even observe consistency for those with the most motivation to morally license—those who donate to charity but also perceive the tax system as unfair. In addition, tax system fairness perceptions only influence the compliance decisions of individuals who do not engage in the prosocial incentivized behavior. Finally, we also show that a tax incentive for charitable giving is effective. Those who are eligible for a charitable-giving related tax incentive are more likely to give to charity than individuals who are ineligible for such an incentive; additionally, these incentivized activities decrease by one-third when the incentive is repealed. The study results add to the literature on moral licensing, charitable giving, and tax fairness and have several policy implications. We confirm that tax incentives are, on the margin, effective at encouraging prosocial behavior and that perceiving the tax system as unfair can reduce the tax compliance for some individuals. In particular, our results suggest that focusing scarce audit resources on non-donators may be an efficient way to detect non-compliance. (shrink)

Ethics and compliance officers (ECOs) are organizational agents who are responsible for ensuring employees’ ethical and legally compliant behavior. In their ethical organizational roles, ECOs impose ethical expectations on others. In our study, we find that doing so provokes a challenging interpersonal dual threat dynamic where ECOs are perceived as threatening and feel threatened in return, which is a dynamic that ECOs must navigate to be successful. To better understand how ECOs navigate this dynamic, we explore the ethical role identity (...) work that ECOs engage in and demonstrate how ECOs make sense of and respond to the threat dynamic that occurs as they enact their roles. We found two types of identity work: (1) tensions that pull role incumbents toward personalized or impersonalized approaches in their interactions with others and (2) tactics that address the threats and tensions. We also find that ECOs’ identity work facilitates ethical and identity growth for the role incumbent. To make these contributions, we employ grounded theory methods and draw primarily upon a rich qualitative dataset of interviews with ethics and compliance officers. The model we derived from our research contributes to the behavioral ethics literature by illustrating the challenges yet growth possible in enacting ethical organizational roles. (shrink)

Extant studies have shown that socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) brings beneficial effects on employees’ work outcomes. However, little attention has been given to the effect of SRHRM on employee resilience from a balanced perspective. This study draws on conversation of resources theory to examine how and when SRHRM influences employee resilience from a balanced perspective. Using two scenario-based experiments and one multi-wave field study, results show that SRHRM can enhance employee resilience by increasing work meaningfulness, but it can (...) also deplete employee resilience by draining resources. Moreover, organization-set performance goal weakens the positive relationship between SRHRM and employees’ work meaningfulness. Organization-set performance goal also magnifies the positive relationship between SRHRM and employees’ resource depletion. This study presents theoretical and practical implications on how organizations can precisely promote employee resilience. (shrink)

Some theories suggest that women anticipate negative consequences (i.e., backlash) for counter-stereotypical actions and take steps to avoid those consequences. We propose that women may expect gender-based backlash for voicing, or contributing ideas that challenge the status quo, and thus engage in more silence (withholding those contributions) than men. However, we also propose that women anticipate gender backlash, and hence engage in more silence, only when other group members’ behavior signals that deviating from prescribed gender norms is risky. In two (...) studies with over 3000 participants, we found that incivility increased women’s expectation that voicing would lead to gender backlash. In turn, women engaged in more silence than men in uncivil groups, but we found no gender difference in silence in civil groups. Our findings reveal that certain situations differentially alert people to interpersonal risks, thus influencing their decision to withhold contributions. (shrink)

To remain competitive, organizations need an engaged workforce. Although ample research has been carried out on the antecedents of employee work engagement, a comprehensive understanding of how and when voice climate is associated with employee work engagement is currently lacking. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examines the pathway by which voice climate affects employee work engagement. Two studies were conducted to test the proposed linkages. More specifically, in field and experimental studies, we find evidence that (...) voice climate reduces employees’ intention to engage in counterproductive work behavior (CWB), which, in turn, fosters their engagement in their work. In addition, ethical leadership and religiosity were found to act as boundary conditions in the relationship between voice climate and intention to CWB and work engagement. (shrink)

How can educators equip business students to adopt an ethics of care perspective? An ethics of care perspective requires moral imagination of the self, the other, the self-other relationship, and displacement of motivation towards others. It stands in contrast to the deeply embedded firm-centric managerial perspective in business schools. Without a structured approach, students may struggle to adopt a care perspective. I propose three specifically designed narrativizing exercises that can act as vehicles for moral imagination for care by increasing student (...) awareness of tensions between the self and others and motivating a harmonizing of these tensions. Autobiographical narrativizing surfaces discordance between a student’s managerial and non-managerial selves and invites an imaginative recomposition of these selves. Vicarious narrativizing occurs through stories of others, creating pathways between students' self-perspectives and that of others. Embodied narrativizing is a whole body and mind exercise in narrativizing the mental, visceral, and behavioural experiences during preparation for an upcoming interaction with another, along with narrativizing the actual interaction embedded in the other’s context. These three forms of narrativizing present complementary risks and benefits and cumulatively enable moral imagination for a care perspective. (shrink)

The business, management, and entrepreneurship (BME) education provided by universities is believed to influence the way in which organisations are managed in the business world. In recent decades, it has been criticised for its focus on profit and short-term goals, while new approaches inspired by the humanities, particularly religious and spiritual traditions, have been proposed. Although research in this area is growing, it is scattered. In this study, we systematically review the existing literature to deepen our understanding of this emergent (...) stream of research. From a sample of 216 papers, 51 articles from 1996 to 2023, selected from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, are analysed. Overall, the findings highlight that the literature on this topic is predominantly theoretical and suggest that some of the wisdom embedded in religion and spirituality might be considered to inform different discussions in BME courses, with a prominent application of sacred and ancient texts in the teaching of business ethics. Future research avenues are discussed in relation to a variety of themes and pedagogical and empirical approaches that can benefit scholars and advance this area of study. (shrink)

The use of female AI agents, such as vocal assistants, chatbots and robots, is on the rise, but the indiscriminate feminization of these AI agents poses novel ethical concerns about their impact on gender relations in society. This conceptual article argues that AI agents, even virtual ones, can display sexed cues (bodies, faces, and voices) beyond mere gendered cues (e.g., names, pronouns, hairstyle) and questions how assigning artificial female gender and sex to AI agents can harm women and transform gender (...) power dynamics. Grounded in the Social Shaping of Technology and Technofeminism with an existentialist feminist lens, this work parallels the scrutiny that the use of gendered and sexed cues in female advertising models has faced over past decades to critique the deceptive practice of linking artificial gender and sex in female AI agents. It suggests that by restricting a narrow view of gender to a narrow view of biological sex, the use of female AI agents limits women’s self-concepts by binding their identities to deceptive, narrow body/face/voice-centric scripts, while facilitating covert manipulation, enforcing harmful stereotypes, amplifying objectification, and exacerbating gender power imbalances. This research offers ethical guidelines for the further development of AI agents based on transparency, justice, and care, addressing this new form of surveillance capitalism and sexual oppression, and providing insights to create a more authentic, equitable, and caring technological landscape. (shrink)

Unlike the many services already transformed by artificial intelligence (AI), the financial advice sector remains committed to a human interface. That is surprising as an AI-powered financial advisor (a robo-advisor) can offer personalised financial advice at much lower cost than traditional human advice. This is particularly important for those who need but cannot afford or access traditional financial advice. Robo-advice is easily accessible, available on-demand, and pools all relevant information in finding and implementing an optimal financial plan. In a perfectly (...) competitive market for financial advice, robo-advice should prevail. Unfortunately, this market is imperfect with asymmetric information causing generalised advice aversion with a disproportionate lack of trust in robo-advice. Initial distrust makes advice clients reluctant to use, or switch to, robo-advice. This paper investigates the ethical concerns specific to robo-advice underpinning this lack of trust. We propose a regulatory framework addressing these concerns to ensure robo-advice can be an ethical resource for good, resolving the increasing complexity of financial decision-making. Fit for purpose regulation augments initial trust in robo-advice and supports advice clients in discriminating between high-trust and low-trust robo-advisors. Aspiring robo-advisors need to clear four licensing gateways to qualify for an AI Robo-Advice License (AIRAL). Licensed robo-advisors should then be monitored for ethical compliance. Using a balanced score card for ethical performance generates an ethics rating. This gateways-and-ratings methodology builds trust in the robo-advisory market through improved transparency, reduced information asymmetry, and lower risk of adverse selection. (shrink)

Academic and public debate is continuing about whether digital nomadism, a new Internet-enabled phenomenon in which digital workers adopt a neo-nomadic global lifestyle, represents ‘real’ emancipation for knowledge workers—or if it is, instead, the opposite. Based on a field study of digital nomadism, and accepting a pluralist approach to emancipation, we analyse the ‘emancipatory project(s)’ that digital nomads engage in. This analysis, following Weberian idealtypes, employs a tripartite structure: unsatisfactory conditions (what people want to overcome); emancipatory means (actions taken); and (...) emancipatory ends (desired outcomes). We critically compare digital nomadism to the traditional descriptions of emancipatory projects in nation-state contexts, as found in prior literature, using the same analytical framework. Juxtaposing these idealtypes, we discuss similarities and differences and analyse their inherent assumptions, logics and ethical stances. We conclude that digital nomadism generates an emancipation that is very much ‘real’ for digital nomads, whose experience cannot be disregarded, but with a ‘postmodern’ ethos that is at odds with modernity and its ethos originating from the Enlightenment. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:Human rights have not played an overwhelmingly prominent role in CSR in the past. Similarly, CSR has had relatively little influence on what is now called the “business and human rights debate.” This contribution uncovers some of the reasons for the rather peculiar disconnect between these two debates and, based on it, presents some apparent synergies and complementarities between the two. A closer integration of the two debates, as it argues, would allow for the formulation of an expansive and demanding (...) conception of corporate human rights obligations. Such a conception does not stop with corporate obligations “merely” to respect human rights, but includes an extended focus on proactive company involvement in the protection and realization of human rights. In other words, the integration of the two debates provides the space within which to formulate positive human rights obligations for corporations. (shrink)

Using a relational leadership lens, this study aims to gain a deeper understanding of empathic conversations with a focus on leadership ethics. It adopts an entitative perspective in relational leadership and examines leadership conversations as a two-way influence relationship, highlighting their interdependencies and collective role in the co-construction of meaning. Data from facial expression software and perception surveys are analyzed. The results of this study reveal the influence of gendered leadership on emotions, emotional bonding moments triggered by humor, and cultural (...) dynamics in leadership conversations. Leaders’ feeling-based questions and participants’ willingness to share their emotions, coupled with emotion synchronization, create a constructive space where both feel invited, cared for, and valued. The study shows that emotional bonds foster the expression of generosity, care, and responsibility, enhancing satisfaction for both leaders and participants. Overall, this study enriches relational leadership theory and practice by underscoring the connection between empathy and leadership ethics. (shrink)

Family business ethics are uniquely shaped by family influence and a strong emphasis on preserving socioemotional wealth. Although research in this area has grown rapidly in recent years, it remains fragmented and underdeveloped. Advancing the field requires a more integrated approach that consolidates existing concepts and dimensions. This paper synthesizes current knowledge and proposes an integrative framework for studying ethical issues in family firms that encompasses ethical determinants, processes, and outcomes. We also examine how existing research contributes to the family (...) business ethics literature and outline directions for future study. (shrink)

Management and organisation studies (MOS) increasingly recognises the interconnected and globalised nature of business dynamics, yet nuanced power disparities concerning stakeholders from the Global South often remain under-examined. Such power differentials can have ethical implications for researchers studying transnational business relations including the potential for epistemic violence within research endeavours. We argue for a more nuanced understanding of power in ‘transnational interfaces’: spaces where Global North and Global South actors meet and negotiate capitalist relationships. Drawing on Chibber’s (2013) landmark revisiting (...) of postcolonial theory, we interrogate how simplistic binaries such as ‘oppressed’ vs. ‘empowered’ or ‘insider’ vs. ‘outsider’ obscure ethical and structural complexities of transnational capitalism. Through a case study of the Bangladesh Accord, established in response to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, the article follows Chibber in asking what a Marxian analysis of the relationships of those negotiating the Accord reveals regarding power dynamics. In calling for analysis of the class, labour and capitalist relationships embedded in this instance of transnational capitalism, and not just taking postcolonial theory as a discursive or cultural corrective that risks flattening into identity politics, we also address an ethical tension inherent in MOS research, wherein scholars must navigate their own embeddedness within the capitalist system while critically examining its power dynamics. By arguing for Marxian analysis alongside postcolonial theory, the article contributes to ongoing discourse in MOS about how scholars can explore ethical questions of representation, justice and responsibility when researching capitalist dynamics involving relationships between Global South and Global North actors. (shrink)

To reveal the processes that underlie the effects of brand activism campaigns, this article reports on three studies that examine why brand activism may generate negative responses from consumers. Drawing on attribution theory and agenda-setting theory, a first experiment reveals that consumers associate brand activism campaigns with either instrumental or normative corporate motives. Perceptions of instrumental (normative) motives influence consumers’ responses negatively (positively). A second experiment clarifies that brands that quickly take a stand on sociopolitical issues after specific events appear (...) less instrumental and evoke positive purchase intentions. This effect is especially strong if the issues have not attracted much media coverage. A third experiment proposes concrete time frames for efficient brand activism campaigns. Finally, the research provides marketing managers with advice on how to benefit from brand activism advertising. (shrink)

The decision to disclose employee compensation has implications for workplace ethics, motivation, and performance. Pay transparency reduces pay disparity, fostering fairness, and ethical equity. Conversely, pay secrecy can maintain disparity but may drive increased effort. This study proposes a theoretical framework—standard-based entitlement—that explains the non-linear effects of pay disclosure. Our theory predicts that people’s compensation requests are not only a function of the information about their peers’ pay but also depend on individuals' proximity to the #1 ranking position (and other (...) meaningful standards). The results of four experiments across three studies reveal that pay transparency has heterogeneous impacts: It amplifies salary demands from top performers while dampening those of lower-ranked individuals. These results raise ethical concerns about the potential for pay transparency to exacerbate feelings of inequity and demotivation among lower-ranked employees, offering important insights for designing equitable compensation systems and organizational reward structures. (shrink)

Across two studies, we examine the role of transparency and peer punishment in promoting cooperation and addressing economic inequality in public good contributions. With global inequality rising and the wealthiest few amassing a greater share of resources, its impact on social cohesion and business environments is increasingly significant. Financial secrecy further compounds these issues by allowing for income and wealth concealment at both societal and organizational levels. Our experimental findings reveal that transparency paired with peer punishment significantly boosts cooperation, particularly (...) among advantaged individuals. In contrast, peer punishment alone proves insufficient to mitigate the adverse effects of inequality without the support of transparency. These results underscore the need for ethical governance structures that incorporate transparency, fairness, and accountability—principles essential for organizations committed to fostering trust and social responsibility in unequal settings. (shrink)

This paper presents a novel theoretical framework for understanding whistleblowing as a dynamic and recursive sequence of _épreuves_ (tests), drawing on Luc Boltanski’s sociology of critique. Traditionally, whistleblowing research has focused on either the whistleblower’s experience or the organizational response, often treating these aspects in isolation. This study bridges these perspectives by conceptualizing whistleblowing as a co-constructed process in which the actions of whistleblowers and organizations shape and reshape each other. Central to this framework are three types of _épreuves_—ethical, responsive, (...) and societal—which represent critical junctures in the whistleblowing journey. These tests determine the perceived legitimacy of the organization and their response and fuel the persistence of the whistleblower’s critique. By framing whistleblowing as a recursive process, this paper highlights how each interaction between whistleblower and organization can alter the course of events, leading to varying outcomes. The recursive model captures the complex, iterative nature of whistleblowing and offers insights into why some whistleblowing cases persist or escalate, while others are resolved or silenced. This perspective enriches our understanding of whistleblowing dynamics and provides practical implications for fostering more responsive organizational cultures and managing whistleblowing disclosures effectively. (shrink)

Leaders are often faced with the dilemma as to how to respond to employee misconduct. However, scholarly accounts of leader actions in such situations have primarily focused on punishment as a mechanism for dealing with employee misconduct. Leader leniency, an alternative response that is often adopted in practice, has been largely overlooked. Consequently, in order to provide a more complete account of leader responses to employee misconduct and to clarify whether leader leniency is effective, we investigate the potential double-edged influences (...) of leader leniency on employee task performance. Specifically, we propose that leader leniency inhibits employee task performance through the mediating role of psychological entitlement, while it also has beneficial effects on employee task performance through the mediating role of servant leadership perception. Moreover, trait moral disengagement serves as a vital boundary condition, which amplifies the negative influence of leader leniency through psychological entitlement and simultaneously mitigates its positive effect through servant leadership perception. Results from an experience sampling study and a scenario-based experiment supported our hypotheses. Our work highlights the mixed blessing of leader leniency and clarifies when and how leader leniency rehabilitates wrongdoers or instead propels them to further down the path of misconduct. (shrink)

This paper examines greenwashing practices in environmental funds. We utilize a unique data set of US equity mutual fund holdings between 2012 and 2021 to calculate the funds’ carbon footprints. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that, following their commitments to sustainability, environmental funds fail to reduce their carbon footprints relative to a matched group of conventional funds. We also find, using an event study, a significant increase in the flows of environmental funds in response to these commitments. The combination (...) of the failure to reduce carbon footprints and the surge in inflows provides evidence of greenwashing by environmental funds, raising concerns about their fiduciary duty. Our findings also show that greenwashers tend to initially have low flows and high portfolio carbon emissions suggesting that they announce their commitments to sustainability just to attract investors. (shrink)

Based on the deontological ethical perspective and concepts from blame psychology such as the defensive attribution hypothesis and culpable control, it is argued that people are predisposed to blame a transportation company when it is involved in an accident. This was tested in a scenario of an airline accident of uncertain cause, finding that respondents blamed the airline the most among a list of five blamable entities (pilots, mechanics-maintenance-inspectors, the weather, ground crew-air traffic control, and airline). Additionally, based on the (...) virtue theory of ethics and the moral character perspective of blame psychology, it was hypothesized that manipulation of the virtue of the airline (mercenary versus altruistic) would result in less blame assigned to the altruistic airline in a quasi-experiment where the other factor was outcome of the accident (safe landing with a few injuries versus crash with many fatalities). However, the two factors significantly interacted in an unexpected way. The mercenary airline suffering a crash was blamed less than the altruistic airline that crashed, while the mercenary airline that safely landed was blamed more than the altruistic airline that safely landed. The managerial implications of blame bias toward the company are addressed. (shrink)