Strengthening "Giving Voice to Values" in business schools by reconsidering the "invisible hand" metaphor

The main contention of this paper is that our ability to embed a consideration of values into business school curricula is hampered by certain normative parameters that our students have when entering the classroom. If we don't understand the processes of valuation that underpin our students' reasoning, our ethics teaching will inevitably miss its mark. In this paper, we analyze one of the most prevalent metaphors that underpin moral arguments about business, and reveal the beliefs and assumptions that underpin it. By revisiting the content of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" metaphor, we show that the moral content of the metaphor has been significantly misconstrued through its subsequent reception in economic theory. The "Giving Voice to Values" (GVV) pedagogy aims to enable students to act on their tacit values and address the rationalizations that they may encounter for not acting on these values (Gentile in Giving voice to values. How to speak your mind when you know what's right, Yale University Press, Yale, 2010a; Discussions about ethics in the accounting classroom: student assumptions and faculty paradigms, Darden Business Publishing, 2010b. http://store.darden.virginia.edu/Syllabus%20Copy/Discussions-about-Ethics-in-Accounting_S.pdf; Educating for values-driven leadership across the curriculum: giving voice to values, Business Expert Press, New York, 2013). We believe our analysis can strengthen the employment of GVV in three ways: (1) understanding tacit blockages to moral action, i.e., how students' belief in the moral efficacy of the invisible hand could undermine their own sense of moral duty; (2) addressing common rationalizations that may emerge from different assumptions about morally appropriate courses of action in the workplace; and (3) resolving values conflicts on how to act

Entrepreneurship rediscovered (in Agambenesque contemplation): inoperable, bare, and glorious?

In this paper, we perform a genealogical analysis of the emergence of managerial entrepreneurship by drawing on Agamben's analysis of the theological imaginaries that underpin our understanding of agency within a broader political economy. We believe a selective reception of certain dimensions of the divine household have led to a covering over of equally valuable imaginaries, which could offer another conceptualization of the 'entrepreneurial'. We therefore have to perform two tasks. Firstly, to strip the entrepreneurial of its managerial garb, by highlighting the way in which the managerial apparatus have appropriated entrepreneurship. Secondly, we have to explore what the denuded entrepreneurial may look like, and how it operates. We end the paper by exploring the dynamics of this entrepreneurial becoming and its implications for Organization Studies

The pursuit of happiness in ethical consumption; trade-offs, values and endless ends

Whilst the moral 'problem' could be considered to be increasing the chances of everyone to start life with an equal chance of achieving happiness (Rorty 1999), in a consumer culture in which ethical consumption is both a part and a consequence (Newholm and Shaw 2007), the potential for unhappiness is rife. Whilst consumers may be morally culpable for their actions (Schwartz 2010), they are faced with their consequences without the benefit of the guidance of 'grand narratives' (Cherrier 2007; Bauman 1993). Further, this may be characterised by uncertainty (Hassan et al. 2013), rationalisation, dependency and realism (Eckhardt, Belk and Devinney 2010), or recognition of the role of ethical consumption in relieving guilt from the middle classes and as a source of profit (Littler 2011). Others have suggested the ethical consumer is a 'myth' (Devinney, Auger and Eckhardt 2010), as consumer decision-making is entirely context-specific and based on complex individual trade-offs. Consequently ethical consumption is often framed in terms of its numerous failures (Littler 2011). Unhappy times indeed

Talent management: the good, the bad, and the possible

In this essay we offer a critical investigation of talent management practices (TMP), which is an increasingly influential concept in contemporary organisations. We try to show how these organisational practices could have both a negative and a positive ethical impact on those identified as ‘talent’ within organisations. A critical analysis of how talent is defined, and how this impacts on individuals’ capacities for ethical reflection, allows us to highlight the ethical ambiguity inherent in talent management. We then highlight examples of some ‘bad’ consequences of TM, and explore some ‘good’ counter-examples. To highlight what may be ‘possible’ in talent management, we propose a more constructive relationship between talent management and ethics based on two dimensions: 1) the acceptance of ambiguity and personal struggle and 2) the development of more qualitative approaches to performance that could enable a better understanding of and sensitivity towards the broader context within which organisations function

Reconceptualizing CSR in the media industry as relational accountability

In this paper, we reconceptualize CSR in the media industries by combining empirical data with theoretical perspectives emerging from the communication studies and business ethics literature. We develop a new conception of what corporate responsibility in media organizations may mean in real terms by bringing Bardoel and d’Haenens’ (European Journal of Communication 19 165–194 2004) discussion of the different dimensions of media accountability into conversation with the empirical results from three international focus group studies, conducted in France, the USA and South Africa. To enable a critical perspective on our findings, we perform a philosophical analysis of its implications for professional, public, market, and political accountability in the media, drawing on the insights of Paul Virilio. We come to the conclusion that though some serious challenges to media accountability exist, the battle for responsible media industries is not lost. In fact, the speed characterizing the contemporary media environment may hold some promise for fostering the kind of relational accountability that could underpin a new understanding of CSR in the media

Sharing vocabularies: towards horizontal alignment of values-driven business functions

This paper highlights the emergence of different ‘vocabularies’ that describe various values-driven business functions within large organisations and argues for improved horizontal alignment between them. We investigate two established functions that have long-standing organisational histories: Ethics and Compliance (E&C) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). By drawing upon research on organisational alignment, we explain both the need for and the potential benefit of greater alignment between these values-driven functions. We then examine the structural and socio-cultural dimensions of organisational systems through which E&C and CSR horizontal alignment can be coordinated to improve synergies, address tensions, and generate insight to inform future research and practice in the field of Business and Society. The paper concludes with research questions that can inform future scholarly research and a practical model to guide organizations’ efforts towards inter-functional, horizontal alignment of values-driven organizational 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'

Corporate governance and employees in South Africa.

Focusing on employees as stakeholders, we analyse corporate governance initiatives in South Africa encouraging and requiring companies to look beyond their shareholders' interests. Successive non-binding codes and the provisions of the recent Companies Act 2008 promoting this have been lauded by many commentators. The 2008 Act provides certain opportunities for employees and their representatives to exercise influence at the margins. We nevertheless question how far current corporate governance initiatives are adequate to promote employee interests. On the basis of three case studies of how companies have responded to employees as stakeholders, we conclude that in fact more stringent regulation is required