When Aspirational Talk Backfires: The Role of Moral Judgements in Employees’ Hypocrisy Interpretation

Journal of Business Ethics 181 (4):827-845 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) aspirations by companies have been identified as a motivating factor for active employee participation in CSR implementation. However, a failure to practise what one preaches can backfire and lead to attribution of hypocrisy. Drawing on a qualitative study of an award-winning sustainability pioneer in the cosmetics sector, we explore the role of moral judgement in how and when employees interpret word–deed misalignment in CSR implementation as hypocritical. First, our case reveals that high CSR aspirations by companies raise employees’ moral expectations. Second, we develop a framework that explains variations in employees’ hypocrisy interpretations based on consequentialist and deontological forms of moral judgement. Our research advances a contextual view of hypocrisy, not as an objective characteristic of an organisation, but as an outcome of interpretative processes of perceived motives and results in CSR implementation. Our framework thereby explains why even highly committed organisations may face accusations of hypocrisy.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Hypocrisy as Either Deception or Akrasia.Christopher Bartel - 2019 - Philosophical Forum 50 (2):269-281.
The Commitment Account of Hypocrisy.Benjamin Rossi - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (3):553-567.
Hypocrisy: Ethical Investigations.Béla Szabados & Eldon Soifer - 2004 - Peterborough, CA: Broadview Press.
Hypocrisy is Vicious, Value-Expressing Inconsistency.Benjamin Rossi - 2020 - The Journal of Ethics 25 (1):57-80.
Moral Hypocrisy.Jessica Isserow - 2020 - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Here's how to hack hypocrisy.Susanna Siegel - 2020 - Tampa Bay Times, October 30.
Pure Hypocrisy.Tony Lynch & A. R. J. Fisher - 2012 - Philosophy in the Contemporary World 19 (1):32-43.
The status of moral status.Benjamin Sachs - 2011 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 92 (1):87-104.
Hypocrisy and Moral Authority.Jessica Isserow & Colin Klein - 2017 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 12 (2):191-222.
Moral judgments and emotions: A less intimate relationship than recently claimed.Thomas Pölzler - 2015 - Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 35 (3):177-195.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-09-30

Downloads
15 (#809,217)

6 months
6 (#202,901)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?