Avoiding the Separation Thesis While Maintaining a Positive/Normative Distinction

Abela, Andrew V.; Shea, Ryan

doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2254-0

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…This oversight is surprising, as it is likely that managers often encounter environmental cues to ethics and business frames simultaneously. The separation of business and ethical issues is increasingly viewed as a problematic and artificial separation (Abela and Shea, 2015;Harris and Freeman, 2008). This idea is well captured in the triple bottom line, which implies that managers must simultaneously consider the financial, environmental and social impacts of their decisions (Goebel et al, 2018; also see Rees et al, 2021).…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cracking the code: the effects of codes of conduct and decision frames on supplier selection in financially distressed firms

Durach

Parkinson

Wiengarten

et al. 2023

IJOPM

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PurposeFirms are increasingly required to make ethical choices when selecting suppliers for their supply chains, and the decisions often rest on individual purchasing managers within the firm. This study builds on the literature on ethical decision-making and the concept of decision frames to investigate the decision-making process of purchasing managers in financially distressed firms. Codes of Conduct (CoC) and how they are enforced (financial rewards and codified procedures for oversight) are studied in terms of their effectiveness in informing and guiding purchasing managers in their supplier selection decisions.Design/methodology/approachFour sequential experiments were conducted with a total of 648 purchasing managers from manufacturing firms.FindingsThe results indicate that purchasing managers in firms facing financial distress are more than four times more likely than purchasing managers in the control groups to select the less ethical supplier in favor of better operational performance. As a potential remedy, it is found that enforcing the firm's CoC help to counteract this tendency and increase ethical supplier selection decisions by 2.1- to 2.6-fold. However, CoC enforcement that invokes multiple conflicting decision frames simultaneously is more likely to impair than promote ethical supplier selection decisions, compared to situations where only one enforcement method is present.Originality/valueThese findings develop an improved understanding of purchasers' decision-making processes and shed light on how to effectively use CoCs to guide these decisions.

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Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cracking the code: the effects of codes of conduct and decision frames on supplier selection in financially distressed firms

Durach

Parkinson

Wiengarten

et al. 2023

IJOPM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Whereas the former is prescriptive, the latter is descriptive. Whether true or not, this divide has early been criticized (Freeman, 1994;Wicks, 1996;Swanson, 1999;Sandberg, 2008;Harris and Freeman, 2008), and the debate is still ongoing in spite of many commendable attempts at reconciliation (Victor and Stephens, 1994;Wicks, 1996;Scherer and Palazzo, 2007;Alzola, 2011;Wettstein, 2012;Abela and Shea, 2015). Meanwhile, each of the two worlds continues their own line in respectful distance to each other (de Bakker et al, 2005;Frynas and Yamahaki, 2016), while the lack of integration continues to complicate the development of coherent theories of management, organization and society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissecting the empirical-normative divide in business ethics

Roth

Valentinov

Clausen³

2019

SAMPJ

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Purpose This paper aims to probe the limits of the empirical-normative divide as a conceptual framework in business ethics. Design/methodology/approach A systems theory perspective debunks this divide as a false distinction that cannot do justice to the conceptual complexity of the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholarship. Findings Drawing on the systems-theoretic ideas of Niklas Luhmann and the “Laws of Form” by George Spencer Brown, the paper shows that the divide may be dissected into a four-cell matrix constituted by two other distinctions-descriptive vs prescriptive and categorical vs hypothetical-the latter of which was seminally suggested by Donaldson and Preston (1995). Practical implications The emerging four-cell matrix is shown to centrally embrace the multiplicity of normative, empirical and instrumental approaches to CSR. This multiplicity is exemplified by the application of these approaches to the phenomenon of CSR communication. Social implications A more general implication of the proposed argument for the field of business ethics is in tracing the phenomena of moral diversity and moral ambivalence back to the regime of functional differentiation as the distinguishing feature of the modern society. This argument drives home the point that economic operations are as ethical or unethical as political operations, and that both economic and political perspectives on ethical issues are as important or unimportant as are religious, artistic, educational or scientific perspectives. Originality/value In contrast to the empirical-normative divide, the perspective is shown to centrally embrace the multiplicity of normative, empirical and instrumental approaches to CSR.

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“It’s Just Business”: Understanding How Business Frames Differ from Ethical Frames and the Effect on Unethical Behavior

2021

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Avoiding the Separation Thesis While Maintaining a Positive/Normative Distinction

Abstract: While many scholars agree

Cited by 5 publications

References 56 publications

Cracking the code: the effects of codes of conduct and decision frames on supplier selection in financially distressed firms

Cracking the code: the effects of codes of conduct and decision frames on supplier selection in financially distressed firms

Dissecting the empirical-normative divide in business ethics

“It’s Just Business”: Understanding How Business Frames Differ from Ethical Frames and the Effect on Unethical Behavior

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