Ethical Dilemmas in Management

182 Pages·2008·1.82 MB·English

by  Christina Garsten, Tor Hernes

Ethical Dilemmas in Management
This exciting new text engages with the issue of ethical dilemmas encountered in
different organizations. Rather than exploring the definition of ethical conduct, this
book focuses on the way in which the process of organization produces dilemmas
of ethical behaviour. Using illustrative accounts from corporate settings as a basis,
the book explores the conditions that lead to ethical dilemmas and the strategies
organizations adopt to deal with these dilemmas or steer away from them. The
book suggests that ethical dilemmas are often dealt with by directing attention
away from the core problem, rather than engaging with and solving them.
This is a fascinating text, which raises important questions and provides a
deeper understanding of the dynamics of ethical processes. A company’s ethical
behaviour is a major criterion by which the company, its products and services
are judged and is therefore crucial to sound management in today’s organizations.
Ethical Dilemmas in Management is essential reading for all students of business
and management and ethics.
Christina Garsten is Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Anthro-
pology at Stockholm University, Sweden.
Tor Hernes is Professor in the Department of Organization at Copenhagen Business
School, Denmark.

Ethical Dilemmas in
Management
Edited by
Christina Garsten and
Tor Hernes
First published 2009
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2009 Editorial matter and selection, Christina Garsten and
Tor Hernes; individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ethical dilemmas in management / edited by Christina Garsten and Tor Hernes.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Management—Moral and ethical aspects.
2. Business ethics. I. Garsten, Christina. II. Hernes, Tor.
HF5387.E776 2008
174'.4—dc22 2008016078
ISBN 0-203-89156-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-43759-8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-43760-1 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-89156-2 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-43759-2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-43760-8 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-89156-8 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations viii
List of contributors ix
Foreword xiii
1 Introduction: dilemmas of ethical organizing 1
ChrIstIna Garsten and tor hernes
From (ir)responsibility to accountability 1
Some deeper questions 2
Faith in formal standards and structure 4
The power of dilemmas 6
2 risk, responsibility and conscience 11
tore Bakken
Introduction 11
Morality and responsibility 12
The morality of risk 15
The risk of morality 17
Conscience and responsibility 19
The conscience of the individual 20
The conscience of society 22
Conclusion 25
3 White as snow or milk? 28
tor hernes, Gerhard e. sChjelderup and anne lIve vaaGaasar
Companies and presentation 28
Discourse as structures of things 29
The making of a dairy corporation and its changing discursive structure 31
Cleanliness and ethics 34
vi Contents
TINE’s discursive strategies for handling ethical dilemmas 35
Conclusion 39
4 does rule-based moral management work? 42
steve MCkenna
Diane 43
Compco’s moral code 44
The narrative 45
Discussion 47
Conscience 50
5 Challenges to leader integrity 53
steven l. Grover and roBert MoorMan
How leader integrity works 53
Challenges 58
Summary and conclusion 61
6 transparency tricks 64
ChrIstIna Garsten and MonICa lIndh de Montoy a
Introduction: transparency – a tale of our times 64
Making things visible 67
Articulating ethical dilemmas 69
Visibility and accountability 71
Concluding notes: transparency and ethical reflexivity 74
7 the power of activism 79
deBora l. spar and lane t. la Mure
Introduction 79
The business of NGOs 80
A calculus of response 84
Unocal in Burma 86
Nike 90
Novartis 92
Conclusions: probing the power to persuade 95
8 thoughts and second thoughts about enron ethics 103
ronald r. sIMs and johannes BrInkMann
Introduction 103
The history and culture of Enron 104
Contents vii
The culture at Enron 105
Leadership mechanisms and organizational culture at Enron 107
Attention 107
Reaction to crises 108
Role modelling (how leaders behave) 109
Allocation of rewards 110
Criteria of selection and dismissal (how leaders hire and fire
employees) 111
Conclusion 112
9 No smoke without fire? 117
todd BrIdGMan
Business schools and CSR 118
Constituting the business school and its conscience 121
Articulation 1: The vocational/professional school 122
Articulation 2: The academic department 124
Articulation 3: The commercial enterprise 125
Conclusion 128
10 overmanagement and the problem of moral consciousness 132
hervé laroChe
Judgemental pressure and overmanagement 133
Strong involvement and overmanagement 137
Overmanagement and moral consciousness 141
11 tying some ends together 148
ChrIstIna Garsten and tor hernes
Discursive structures and how to make sense of them 150
Lightning rods 152
Demarcation 153
Articulation 155
Visibilization 157
Conclusion 158
Index 161
Illustrations
Figures
10.1 Judgemental pressure and overmanagement 137
10.2 Strong involvement and overmanagement 141
10.3 Overmanagement and moral underconsciousness in the
organization 145
Tables
8.1 Typology of moral culture types and transitions 114
9.1 Summary of three articulations of the business school 122
Contributors
Tore Bakken is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Innovation and
Economic Organization at the Norwegian School of Management, Oslo,
Norway. He has published books and articles within the field of modern systems
theory. His current empirical work includes a study of risk communication in
food production, and an examination of the notions of mind and social reality
in John Searle’s philosophy of language and Niklas Luhmann’s sociology of
communication.
Todd Bridgman is Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour at the victoria
Management School, victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He
completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and held research fellow-
ships at Judge Business School and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.
His PhD examined the changing relationships between business school faculty
and non-academic organizations, and developed Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse
theory as a framework for organizational analysis. The PhD was judged best
doctoral dissertation in 2005 by the critical management studies interest group
at the Academy of Management and it also won the 2006 Emerald/EFMD
outstanding doctoral research award in the category of organizational change
and development.
Johannes Brinkmann is Professor of Business ethics in the Department of
Strategy and Logistics at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo,
Norway. During the last ten years, he has published articles in the Journal of
Business Ethics and other business ethics journals, most recently related to the
insurance industry and ethics.
Christina Garsten is Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Anthro-
pology, and Research Director at Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research
(Score), Stockholm University. Her research interests lie in the anthropology of
organizations and markets, with a current focus on new forms of regulation and
accountability in the labour market and in transnational trade. Her particular
research concentrations are the varieties of cultural articulation at the interface
of market and community: organization and sociality. She has published in the
areas of organizational culture, flexibilization of employment, and corporate