From ‘Whodunit’ to ‘How’: Detective Stories and Auditability in Qualitative Business Ethics Research

Ethical considerations in today’s businesses are manifold and range from human rights issues and the well-being of employees to income inequality and environmental sustainability. Regardless of the specific topic being investigated, an integral part of business ethics research consists of deeply comprehending the personal meanings, intentions, behaviors, judgements, and attitudes that people possess. To this end, researchers are often encouraged to use more qualitative methods to understand the dynamic and fuzzy field of business ethics, which involves collecting in-depth information in real time. Qualitative methods in business ethics research, however, raise the two-fold responsibility of not only conducting such investigations fairly and appropriately, but also clearly communicating the research processes and outcomes to readers. Especially leading journals in the field such as Journal of Business Ethics have a responsibility to conduct their business (i.e., the business of high standard publishing) ethically, by making sure that their content represents clear and honest communications of research concerning a wide range of business systems. Unfortunately, the question of how to effectively facilitate transparent insight into the research process of qualitative business ethics studies is still unresolved. Both the lack of a clear communication of methods and results and the iterative nature of qualitative methods often make it difficult for the readers to properly assess a qualitative business ethics study and understand its results. We propose the use of narratives to remedy this situation. Specifically, we suggest a new classification of audits, named second-party audits, to facilitate a better understanding of research procedures ex-post for the readers. To illustrate this new narrative-based reconceptualization of audits, we use Agatha Christie’s detective novel The Murder on the Links as a frame of reference.

     

Reassessing the role of Chinese workers in problem solving: a study of transformational leadership,trust and security in ‘lean’ manufacturing

In this paper, we study leadership style and organizational culture, elements that, we argue, are conducive for Chinese shop-floor employees to participate in problem solving in ‘lean’ manufacturing. Power distance and the concern for saving face potentially hinder employees' willingness to participate in such problem solving, but our findings support the notion that transformational leadership helps to overcome these barriers. The relationships are not straightforward, however, and by examining the complexities, this research may provide insights into this dilemma.     

Linking different types of product elimination decisions to their performance outcome: ‘Project dropstrat’

The purpose of the study presented in this paper was to identify different types of product elimination decisions and to determine their relationship to the performance outcome that they achieved. The underlying hypothesis was that there is a linkage between a type of product elimination and the outcome that it achieves. This exploratory proposition was assessed against data pertaining to 156 recently discontinued products provided by an equal number of British manufacturing companies.Eight different types of product elimination decisions and four independent dimensions of the performance outcome of a product elimination decision were uncovered in our research and our findings clearly indicated that different types of product eliminations are indeed closely tied to the outcome results that they achieve. Specifically, the product elimination decisions which were the result of a proactive search for elimination candidates guided by strategic considerations were more successful than those which were the result of a passive response to a problem or crisis situation.     

Cooperation in Stakeholder Networks: Firms’ ‘Tertius Iungens’ Role

In stakeholder theory, most research on cooperation has been focused on inter-organizational collaboration field centered at the dyadic level, excluding the relational or network data. Relational or network data are important as the firms do not simply respond to each stakeholder individually but to an interaction of influences from the entire stakeholder set. The purpose of this article is to analyze the cooperation process among the firm and its stakeholders by considering the relational data and to describe the role of the firm in such cooperation processes. The empirical evidence is provided by an inductive in-depth case study on the company ‘Gas-Nat’ and its stakeholders cooperating on the ‘natural gas pipeline program’ in Argentina. To do so, I combined both quantitative sociometric data and qualitative data from grounded theory and ethnographic observations. This research suggests a stakeholder cooperation model based on structural (stakeholder’s position) and relational factors (framing process). The results indicate that stakeholder cooperation is not just determined by stakeholder position, but they can vary depending on the political opportunity structure in the network and on the framing process. It was found that network structure may create a context for selective cooperation but doesn’t explicitly determine it which is different from the previous research in stakeholder network literature. The role of the firm in the cooperation process was found as a tertius iungens role which implies to join, unite, or connect, and it is different from the existing prominent network literature of tertius gaudens.     

‘From a mother to another’: creative experiences of sharing used children’s clothing

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how consumers deliberate and incorporate concerns for sustainability in their consumption behaviours, through the lens of children’s clothing provisioning. Frustrated by the limited acknowledgement for sustainable issues within the UK mass market fashion retail sector, the participants reveal engaging with social innovation exchange initiatives, including networks of used children’s clothing. The research is informed by 28 professionally working mothers who navigate between meeting the social needs of themselves and their family with their growing knowledge for sustainability. The networks are symbolic of shared social values and building supportive communities that provided emotional and practical pathways for family provisioning. The research illustrates how societal discourse around sustainability is growing and how alternative market structures provide routes that appeal to consumers practically, socially and ideologically. Moreover, the research contributes to understanding opportunities that advance the sustainability agenda, for marketing, social innovation initiatives and progressing sustainable businesses.     

From the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ to ‘unstoppable India’: has the services sector played a role?

India shifted from an import substitution growth strategy (ISS) to an export-led-growth strategy (ELGS) in July 1991. Consequently, liberalisation was promulgated not only in the industrial sector but in the services sector too in the post-1991 period. ‘services-led-growth strategy’ – a concomitant of ELGS – has led to an improvement in the revealed comparative advantage in the export of commercial services during the period 1990–2005. Furthermore, the openness of services and foreign direct investment in services have emerged as important determinants of gross domestic product growth during the period 1995–2005. The author therefore argues that if ISS led to the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ in the first three decades of planning, it is the services-led growth which has made ‘India unstoppable’ on the economic front.     

‘Activists in a Suit’: Paradoxes and Metaphors in Sustainability Managers’ Identity Work

Both sustainability and identity are said to be paradoxical issues in organizations. In this study we look at the paradoxes of corporate sustainability at the individual level by studying the identity work of those managers who hold sustainability-dedicated roles in organizations. Analysing 26 interviews with sustainability managers, we identify three main tensions affecting their identity construction process: the business versus values oriented, the organizational insider versus outsider and the short-term versus long-term focused identity work tensions. When dealing with these tensions, some interviewees express a paradoxical perspective in attempting to accept and maintain the two poles of each of them simultaneously. It emerges in particular that metaphorical reasoning can be used by sustainability managers in varied ways to cope with the tensions of identity work. We read these findings in light of the existing literature on the relation between paradoxes and identity work, highlighting and discussing their implications for both research and practice.     

Determinants of employees’ attitudes toward union membership in India

Drawing on data from a survey of 252 unionized full-time employees from large Indian organizations, this study examined whether individual level job related variables and individual cultural value dimensions of individualism–collectivism (I–C) were predictive of employees’ attitudes toward union membership. Using regression analysis, the author found that over and above the effects of demographic and job-related variables, work situation dissatisfaction and perceived work stress were able to predict union attitudes significantly and positively for the sample. The relationship of union attitude was highly significant and negative with a consultative managerial style. Collectivism was able to predict the union attitudes positively, whereas individualism was negatively related to the union attitudes. The interaction between employees’ perceived work stress and work situation dissatisfaction are found to have a positive influence on their union attitudes. The results and implications of findings are discussed in the paper with reference to the literature on role of cultural dimensions (I–C) and job related factors in relation to organizational outcomes like union membership.     

Dimensions of service quality and satisfaction in healthcare: a patient’s satisfaction index

The assessment of patients’ satisfaction levels, and the knowledge of what factors influence satisfaction are very important for healthcare managers as it influences healthcare results and healthcare institutions financial results. The objective of this research is to analyse patients’ satisfaction levels in a set of four Portuguese primary Healthcare Centres, through the estimation of a satisfaction index, which simultaneously explains which dimensions of healthcare quality influence that satisfaction the most. For that, a conceptual model of patients’ satisfaction in primary healthcare was tested using data from a sample of 414 patients. Partial Least Squares path modelling (PLS) was the technique chosen to evaluate the proposed model. The results show that patients’ satisfaction is 60.887 in a scale from 1 to 100, revealing only a medium level of satisfaction. It is also possible to conclude that the most important positive effects on satisfaction are the ones linked to the patient/doctor relationship, the quality of facilities and the interaction with administrative staff, by this order.     

Japanese Women in Management: Getting Closer to ‘Realities’ in Japan

Women managers are seldom seen in Japan. Female legislators, senior officials and managers are only 9 per cent of the total. It is also one of the main factors that have created the significant gender wage gap; female workers earned just 66.5 per cent of male worker earnings in 2002. This contribution explores reasons for the persistent phenomenon of very few female managers in the Japanese workplace despite economic and political factors favourable for ‘empowering’ women. To what extent is this situation explained by the cliché that women lack the ‘will’ to be promoted? The common explanation is that women ‘choose’ not to be promoted or leave their jobs because of their ‘attitude’ to marriage, birth and family responsibilities. Is that all? A recent study on work organization revealed the mechanism of constructing female private ‘attitudes’ and ‘choice’ within the organization. Although this new approach seems promising, this contribution argues that its local-oriented approach should be combined with macro analysis, especially focusing on the institutionalized practices beyond each workplace.     

Beyond ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ to ‘know-who’: enhancing human capital with social capital in an Australian start-up accelerator

Abstract

This study investigates the enhancement of human capital with social capital in a start-up accelerator and how this integration affects the entrepreneurial learning experience. In particular, it examines the relative importance of the three components ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’. The study involved thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with participants in an Australian start-up accelerator that is delivered using ideas such as Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas and Lean Start-up methodology. We find that although the programme emphasised ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’, ‘know-who’ was most significant for participant learning. The results indicate that mentors and experts were especially helpful in shaping learning and in developing entrepreneurial networks. Moreover, our results show that the processes of ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’ are interrelated – by knowing ‘who’, participants learnt ‘what’ and ‘how to’ through social learning. The research contributes to entrepreneurial learning theory and application particularly in the Asia Pacific context, by providing evidence that ‘know-who’ closes the learning loop for ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ as ‘know-who’ can actually provide entrepreneurs with the means to enhance their entrepreneurial self-efficacy.     

Reconceptualising loss in retailing: calling time on ‘shrinkage’

For more than 100 years the retail industry has relied primarily upon the term ‘shrinkage’ to define how retail ‘losses’ are understood and controlled. There is, however, little consensus on what types of loss should be included and excluded when this term is used, making most benchmarking exercises difficult to perform with any degree of accuracy. In addition, as retailing becomes ever more complex and demanding, and a greater range of data sources become available, the traditional approaches to understanding and measuring loss in retailing seem increasingly anachronistic. Based upon extensive interviews and focus group discussions with senior retail executives from Europe and the U.S., this article puts forward a framework for developing a more inclusive and broad ranging definition and typology of retail losses, using the umbrella term Total Retail Loss.     

‘If I Should Fall From Grace…’: Stories of Change and Organizational Ethics

Although studies in organizational storytelling have dealt extensively with the relationship between narrative, power and organizational change, little attention has been paid to the implications of this for ethics within organizations. This article addresses this by presenting an analysis of narrative and ethics as it relates to the practice of organizational downsizing. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s theories of narrative and ethics, we analyze stories of organizational change reported by employees and managers in an organization that had undergone persistent downsizing. Our analysis maintains that the presence of a dominant story that seeks to legitimate organizational change also serves to normalize it, and that this, in turn, diminishes the capacity for organizations to scrutinize the ethics of their actions. We argue that when organizational change narratives become singularized through dominant forms of emplotment, ethical deliberation and responsibility in organizations are diminished. More generally, we contend that the narrative closure achieved by the presence of a dominant narrative amongst employees undergoing organizational change is antithetical to the openness required for ethical questioning.     

Customer response toward employees’ emotional labor in service industry settings

In the current study, we develop and test a moderated mediation model that explores the mechanisms that underlie the influence of employees' emotional labor on customer loyalty by considering affective reactions and cognitive appraisals simultaneously and illustrating moderating factors that alter their effectiveness. A sample of 259 individuals from across the United States over 20 years old were recruited on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to participate in the survey. Our emotions as social information based model clarifies the distinct roles of customers' detection of employees' deep acting and surface acting in influencing customers' affective reactions and cognitive appraisals. The current research also reveals that impact of customers' detection of employees' emotional labor on customer outcomes varies as a function of the employees' nonverbal communication.     

Factors that Influence Consumers’ Attitudes toward Internet Buying in Nigeria

The study used previously validated measurement instrument to investigate, in a Nigerian context, the extent to which some specific factors like perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived integrity, constrained consumer’s product need, personality, perceived ease of use, perceived usability, perceived usefulness, and previous experience in Internet buying predict consumers’ attitude towards Internet buying in Nigeria. The survey research was adopted and the population of the study consisted of postgraduate management students form University of Benin, Benson Idahosa University, Ambrose Ali University, and Graduate MBA Students from the University of Benin. Data were analyzed using regression, t test and ANOVA. The research findings were: perceived privacy, constrained product need, consumers’ previous online experience and perceived usability exert strong predictive influence on consumers’ attitude towards internet buying in Nigeria. In view of the findings, a modified model that addresses the key factors influencing consumers’ attitude towards Internet buying in Nigeria is proposed.     

Employee emotional response toward healthcare organization’s service recovery efforts and its influences on service recovery performance

Previous studies on service recovery performance of frontline employees have focused primarily on the direct relationship with the organizational efforts for service recovery. However, based on the reformulation of attitude theory (appraisal-emotional response-behaviour), we believe that the emotional responses (work engagement and burnout) toward organizational efforts for service recovery of frontline employees mediate the relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how healthcare frontline employees show their emotional response toward the organizational efforts for service recovery and it influence on actual recovery performance. This study uses two conflicting emotional responses, burnout and work engagement, to examine how employees react toward organizational efforts, helping better understand employees?? evaluations of the efforts. Research model and hypothesis were tested using a sample of frontline employees who perform none-clinical activities in hospitals. The results showed that teamwork and empowerment have positive effects on work engagement. In addition, customer complaint management, empowerment, and teamwork influenced negatively on burnout. Lastly, work engagement and burnout showed statistically significant impact of service recovery performance of frontline employees. Among the organizational efforts for service recovery, teamwork was the most important factor in improving frontline employees?? work engagement and lessened their burnout, respectively. Interestingly, customer service training had a negative effect on burnout. Besides, by comparing our research model to two alternative models, we confirmed the validity of the research model.     

Fair Trade in Italy: Too Much ‘Movement’ in the Shop?

With the advent of globalization, the track record of multinational corporations (MNCs) has been mixed at best in relation to their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) involvement in developing countries. This article attempts to cross-fertilize insights from the business-society and international business political behavior literature streams to identify relevant dimensions and contingencies that can be used to analyze the CSR of MNCs in developing countries and the extent of standardization or localization of their strategies. The article makes use of the new theoretical framework in the context of an interpretive research methodology to examine the CSR orientations of a sample of MNC subsidiaries in Lebanon. The findings reveal patterns of global CSR being diffused to developing countries, but also being diluted along the way in view of specific subsidiary endowments and host market characteristics.