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Organizational Sensemaking of Non-ethical Consumer Behavior: Case Study of a French Mutual Insurance Company

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Abstract

Researchers and managers alike are becoming increasingly interested in the topic of unethical consumer behavior. Where most studies view unethical behavior as something that is identifiable per se, the authors of the present article believe that it only exists because it has been constructed by people operating within a specific context. Hence the efforts made by this paper to explore, at the level of one specific organization, how interactions between employees and consumers might lead to the construct of unethical consumers. Based on a case study of France’s AMDM—a mutual insurance company set up to serve a client base comprising motorcyclists—the paper addresses how one group of consumers ends up being categorized as unethical by revealing the existence of a sensemaking process within the target organization. This process develops in three main phases: the nurturing of a shared ethos; the protection of employees’ recognized status; and the demonization of any group of consumers threatening this status. Managers incorporating this sensemaking process can avoid or mitigate the negative effects befalling organizations when these kinds of unethical consumer behavior are constructed.

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Notes

  1. Five criteria have been identified to assess to what extent consumer behavior can be considered as unethical (Vitell 2014): whether an advantage is being actively sought; whether the consumer is benefiting passively from an error; whether the action is perceived as illegal; the harm to the business victim; and whether the consumers in question are not involved in positive actions such as recycling.

  2. Momo Design is an Italian helmet brand with a very refined urban look contrasting with traditional motorcycle helmets.

  3. John Lobb Bootmaker is a company that manufactures and retails a luxury brand of shoes and boots mainly for men.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KEDGE Business School Marseille, Marseille, France

    Bernard Cova

  2. Université de Technologie de Troyes, Troyes, France

    Gerald Gaglio

  3. Macif, Paris, France

    Juliette Weber

  4. Université Paris Dauphine, Paris, France

    Philippe Chanial

Authors
  1. Bernard Cova
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  2. Gerald Gaglio
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  3. Juliette Weber
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  4. Philippe Chanial
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Correspondence to Bernard Cova.

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Cova, B., Gaglio, G., Weber, J. et al. Organizational Sensemaking of Non-ethical Consumer Behavior: Case Study of a French Mutual Insurance Company. J Bus Ethics 148, 783–799 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3102-1

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