Moral Intuitions about Social Inequality and Individual Responsibility: A European Comparison.

Responsabilité individuelle; Inégalités;

Handicap et accès à l\u27emploi - efficacité et limites de la discrimination positive

L’existence d’une plus faible qualification observée en moyenne chez les personnes handicapées dépend du type de handicap et est liée en partie au phénomène de discrimination du côté de la demande de travail qui, intériorisé par les personnes handicapées, entraîne un sous-investissement éducatif de leur part. Par ailleurs, du fait de l’inadaptation de l’environnement, le handicap peut induire une moindre productivité. Ceci peut alimenter le cercle vicieux de la croyance plus générale selon laquelle la relation décroissante entre handicap et productivité est systématiquement observée. Dans cet article, nous étudions l’existence d’une discrimination potentielle des personnes handicapées sur le marché du travail. Nous analysons plus particulièrement les jugements des individus relativement au handicap et à l’accès à l’emploi à partir de deux enquêtes d’opinion : une enquête qualitative qui permet d’évaluer les dispositions qu’ont les individus à discriminer les personnes handicapées, selon le type de handicap et une enquête sur échantillon représentatif qui évalue plus globalement les politiques d’emploi fondées sur la discrimination positive à l’égard des personnes handicapées. Il apparaît ainsi que même si la volonté d’intégrer est bien réelle, une fraction non négligeable des individus préfèrent que les personnes handicapées travaillent dans des lieux réservés plutôt qu’en milieu ordinaire d’une part et que les personnes atteintes de « handicap psychique » sont particulièrement discriminées d’autre part

Social Inequality Factors in the contexts of Education and Health: A European Comparison Based on An Experimental Questionnaire.

Education; Santé; Inégalités;

On legitimacy in impact assessment: An epistemologically-based conceptualisation

Impact assessment (IA) is carried out as an ex ante process to inform decision-making. It includes requirements for engagement with stakeholders (including the public) regarding actions proposed by a proponent. A key issue with the various stakeholders involved is the perceived legitimacy of the IA, which can have implications both for the reputation of the proponent, and the likelihood of conflict over the decision. But the understanding of legitimacy in the IA literature has changed over time in line with an ontological shift from positivism (that scientifically generated information leads to better informed decisions) to the post-positivist acknowledgement of the limitations of scientific method whereby assumptions must be subject to transparency, deliberation and openness. This has led to an epistemological shift towards greater subjectivism which, we suggest, has created new opportunities (which have been realised in political decision-making) to subvert knowledge through the increased use of the Internet and social media. To address the potential for such subversion of legitimacy, we seek to conceptualise legitimacy in the IA context through framing IA around a critical realist ontology and a reliabilist virtue epistemology. This allows us to identify ‘knowledge legitimacy’ as an equally important component of IA legitimacy along with organisational legitimacy. We conceptualise knowledge legitimacy through literature review drawing on rich understandings of knowledge from IA and other fields of research in order to develop a four-dimensional typology. This includes the dimensions of: knowledge accuracy; knowledge restriction; knowledge diffusion; and knowledge spectrum. This is the first theoretically grounded attempt to understand legitimacy in IA. It is hoped that it will provoke discussion in the IA community to further advance theoretical understandings of IA and legitimacy of practice

Sustainable development and well-being: a philosophical challenge

This paper aims at gaining a better understanding of the inherent paradoxes within sustainability discourses by investigating its basic assumptions. Drawing on a study of the metaphoric references operative in moral language, we reveal the predominance of the 'well-being = wealth' construct, which may explain the dominance of the 'business case' cognitive frame in sustainability discourses (Hahn et al. in Acad Manag Rev 4015:18–42, 2015a). We incorporate economic well-being variables within a philosophical model of becoming well (Küpers in Cult Organ 11(3):221–231, 2005), highlighting the way in which these variables consistently articulate a combination of 'objective' and 'subjective' concerns. We then compare this broad understanding of well-being with the metaphors operative in the sustainable development discourse and argue that the sustainability discourse has fallen prey to an overemphasis on the 'business case'. We proceed to draw on Georges Bataille to challenge the predominance of these value priorities and to explore which mindshifts are required to develop a more comprehensive understanding of what is needed to enable 'sustainable development'

The impact of changes in stakeholder salience on CSR activities in Russian energy firms: a contribution to the divergence / convergence debate

This empirical paper examines the drivers underpinning changes to socially-responsible behaviours in the Russian energy sector. Responding to recent requests to contextualise CSR research, we focus on the changing set of stakeholders and developments in their saliency as reflected in corporations’ CSR activities. Based on interviews with more than thirty industry professionals, our findings suggest that Russian energy companies’ CSR is strongly stakeholder driven, and organisations adapt their activities according to their dependence on the resources that these salient stakeholders possess. We challenge the proposition that CSR in Russia arises from purely endogenous, historical, paternalism or neo-paternalism. We identify stakeholders that now shape CSR in the Russian energy sector, both endogenous (institutional and contextual forces relevant to the national business system) and exogenous (relating to the organisational field of the energy industry - international by nature). We thereby contribute to the convergence / divergence debate within CSR theory by demonstrating that both national business systems and the organisational field must be taken into account when analysing the forces that shape CSR strategies in any one country

Small Business Social Responsibility:A Critical Multilevel Review, Synthesis and Research Agenda

Small-business social responsibility (SBSR) related research is rapidly increasing in quantity, but is found in divergent literatures and disciplines. It is time to offer a comprehensive review that identifies, synthesizes and integrates previous research, and highlights the knowledge gaps and the way forward. This methodical search of the literature helped to identify 115 multidisciplinary peer-reviewed academic articles appearing in high-quality journals over the 1970–2016 period. Using a systematic and in-depth content analysis technique, the authors reviewed the articles and identified the theories used, the national contextual focus and the methodological orientations in these articles. They also identified the predictors, outcomes, mediators and moderators of SBSR at the institutional, organizational and individual levels of analysis. This review helps to identify significant knowledge gaps in terms of the theoretical orientation, the national contextual focus, the core content under study, and the methods used. The authors offer numerous suggestions across these topics to help address the knowledge gaps and raise important questions for future research. The primary contributions of this paper are: delineating and summarizing a multilevel analysis of an emerging literature on SBSR; integrating contributions from a wide range of management disciplines and geographical contexts; extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field; and informing directions for future research. The authors propose a research agenda that is theoretically relevant and innovative, and call for context- and size-aware research on SBSR, using small-business-specific methodologies and measurements. © 2017 British Academy of Management and John Wiley & Sons Lt