Making the Debate Over Corporate- Stakeholder Responsibility A Two-Way Conversation Andrew C. Wicks...
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Transcript of Making the Debate Over Corporate- Stakeholder Responsibility A Two-Way Conversation Andrew C. Wicks...
Making the Debate Over Corporate-Stakeholder
Responsibility A Two-Way Conversation
Andrew C. Wicks (and Jerry Goodstein)Associate Professor
Co-Director, The Olsson Center
Academic Advisor, BRICE
Andrew C. Wicks
Introduction
• Core Idea: To come to terms with what we mean by “business ethics” and to be able to foster ethics within business, we need to discuss the responsibilities of both Corporations AND Stakeholders.
• Meaning of Responsibility: - Things that we should attend to;- Things that arise out of obligations we take on.
• Three Specific Meanings of Responsibility (following Bowie)- SR-R (Reciprocity)- SR-I (Interdependence)- SR-A (Accountability)
Andrew C. Wicks
Background• Current Focus of Literature:
- Responsibility of Corporations (with Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Social Responsibility)
• Understandable Given Import/Power/Size of MNC’s
• Our Goal:- Not to Drop the focus on CR
- Not to argue that Corporations need a break or that more responsibility should shift to Stakeholders
- Focus on Both CR and SR; Both matter and both Deserve Attention (also Bowie and Raden)
• CR is Incomplete without attention to SR
Andrew C. Wicks
Why Does Stakeholder Responsibility Matter?
• For (At Least) 5 Reasons:
- A New Way to Characterize Business Ethics
- Explaining Moral Failures
- Making Organizational Moral Failure Rare
- Creating Organizational Excellence and Outstanding Performance
- Conceptualizing and Working Through Novel Business Challenges
Andrew C. Wicks
Why Does Stakeholder Responsibility Matter?• Reason #1: A New Way to Characterize Business Ethics
- Goal: Connect Business and Ethics in a “Natural”/Organic Way;
• SR as Promising Alternative
- Language of Responsibility: Integral to Business
- Distinctive Framing on Stakeholders:
• Extends Focus Beyond Firms; • Gets into Day-to-Day Life of Firms
- Overlaps with Other Theories (e.g. OCB; ST; CSR; Ethics);
• Opportunities for New Theory Development
- Rhetorical Device: Allows Managers to Engage Stakes
- Provides a Normative Benchmark: Gives Firms, Stakes and Critics a Way to Assess Performance
Andrew C. Wicks
• Reason #2: Explaining Moral Failures in Corporations- Provides Detailed and Comprehensive Lens To
Study Failures: Rich Perspective to Look at Enron, Worldcomm, Tyco, etc.
- SR Helps Frame Complexity of Breakdowns:
• Involves Many Stakeholders and Organizations• Need to Look at Parties involved and Their Interactions
- Regimes of Responsibility: Systems of Shared Norms, Understandings and Practices that Allow Things to Get Accomplished without Ethical Failures.
• Need to Understand and Unpack Regimes of Responsibility and Where/Why They Broke Down
Why Does Stakeholder Responsibility Matter?
Andrew C. Wicks
Why Does Stakeholder Responsibility Matter?• Reason #3: Making Organizational Moral Failure
Rare- How do we Change Organizations to Reduce Ethical
Failure?
• Media focus on Top Management and Boards;• Yes, But also Deeper Analysis including SR
- Focus on Regimes of Responsibility: Look for Patterns in Why Regimes of Responsibility Break Down
- Examine Studies on Individual and Group Stake Behavior: Use These to Design More Robust and Sustainable Regimes of Resp
- Look at Best Practices for Push Back and SR
• Example of eBay and Feedback Forum
Andrew C. Wicks
Why Does Stakeholder Responsibility Matter?
• Reason #4: Creating Organizational Excellence and Outstanding Performance
• Stakeholders and Mission: Great Companies Engage Stakeholders and Make Them Passionate about the Firm/Products/Mission
• SR and Excellence: To Deliver Excellence, Firms Need Stakeholders to Work Together to Fulfill Responsibilities Beyond Expectations- Needs to Drill Down into Idiosyncratic Routines and
Practices that Make Organizations Flourish
• SR and CA: Patterns of SR Can Become a Significant and Durable Source of Competitive Advantage (e.g. Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and eBay)
Andrew C. Wicks
Why Does Stakeholder Responsibility Matter?
• Reason #5: Conceptualizing and Working Through Novel Organizational Challenges
• Novel Challenges Exist: Lots of Existing Challenges Facing Society (and Business) Involve Cooperation of Both Firms and Stakeholders
• Global Economy Fosters Novel Challenges: Interdependence and Shared Responsibility are Growing (across Firms and Stakeholders plus Society, Government and NGO’s)
• Power of Language: SR Provides Language to Conceptualize and Engage both Firms and Stakeholders- The Environment: HP and Office Depot on e-waste- Global Labor: Nike and the FLA/WRC
Andrew C. Wicks
A Research Agenda
• Business Ethics: - Discussion of Responsibilities (often Omitted) Along with Rights in
Business (e.g. Duties of Employees back to Firms)
- Normative Theories of “Responsibility” for Stakeholders and Firms
• Management Theory: - Empirical Work Focusing on Forces at Work Shaping Individual and
Group Behavior (e.g. Network Theory and Organizational Design)
- Theory and Empirical Studies on What Happens When Firms and Stakes Fulfill Mutual Responsibilities (e.g. does Commitment or Trust Increase?)
- Linkages to Trust and Supply Chain Literatures
• Leadership in Organizations: - As Agents for Creating Regimes of Responsibility that Avoid
Mishaps, Enable Success and Envision New Partnerships to Address Novel Challenges
Andrew C. Wicks
Current and Future Research Projects on SR
• Developing Theories of SR and its Import within Organizations- Conceptual Model Looking at SR as a Variable that
Impacts Specific Organizational Dynamics (e.g. like trust, commitment, capability) [Paper with Goodstein]
• Empirical Testing of SR- Use of Implicit Association Test and Expressed Values in
Stock Picking Exercise;
• Explores Link Between Normative Orientation and Stakeholder Decision-Making[Papers with Fairchild and Goodstein]
- Empirical Paper Testing Conceptual Model of SR [Future Paper with Goodstein]