Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T15:33:23.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When Workplace Norms Conflict: Using Intersubjective Reflection to Guide Ethical Decision-Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2022

Tobey K. Scharding  and
Danielle E. Warren
Tobey K. Scharding
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
Danielle E. Warren
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We address how to ethically evaluate workplace practices when workplace behavioral norms conflict with employees’ attitudes toward those norms, which, according to research on psychological contract violations, regularly occurs. Drawing on Scanlonian contractualism, we introduce the intersubjective reflection process (IR process). The IR process ethically evaluates workplace practices according to whether parties to a workplace practice have intersubjectively valid grounds to veto the practice. We present normative and empirical justification for this process and apply the IR process to accounts of workplace moral dilemmas. We end by identifying future directions for research related to the IR process.

Keywords

workplace normspsychological contract violationsintersubjectivityScanlonintegrative social contracts theory
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 2023 , pp. 352 - 380
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aristotle. 350 bce/2009. Nicomachean ethics (Ross, W. D., Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Arnold, D. G., & Bowie, N. E. 2003. Sweatshops and respect for persons. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(2): 221–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ast, F. 2019. The deliberative test, a new procedural method for ethical decision making in integrative social contracts theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 155(1): 207–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badawi, J. A. 1999/2016. Gender equity in Islam: Basic principles. Durban, South Africa: IDM.Google Scholar
Bailey, W., & Spicer, A. 2007. When does national identity matter? Convergence and divergence in international business ethics. Academy of Management Journal, 50(6): 1462–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazerman, M. H., & Sezer, O. 2016. Bounded awareness: Implications for ethical decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136: 95–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentham, J. 1789. An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berker, S. 2007. Particular reasons. Ethics, 118(1): 109–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, N. E. 2017. Business ethics: A Kantian perspective (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenkert, G. G. 2009. ISCT, hypernorms, and business: A reinterpretation. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(S4): 645–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockner, J., & Wiesenfeld, B. M. 2016. Self-as-object and self-as-subject in the workplace. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136: 36–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. 1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carr, A. Z. 1968. Is business bluffing ethical? Harvard Business Review, January.Google Scholar
Chugh, D. 2004. Societal and managerial implications of implicit social cognition: Why milliseconds matter. Social Justice Research, 17(2): 203–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chugh, D., & Bazerman, M. H. 2007. Bounded awareness: What you fail to see can hurt you. Mind and Society, 6: 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Colle, S., & Werhane, P. H. 2008. Moral motivation across ethical theories: What can we learn for designing corporate ethics programs? Journal of Business Ethics, 81(4): 751–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1996. Values in tension: Ethics away from home. Harvard Business Review, September.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T. W. 1994. Toward a unified conception of business ethics: Integrative social contract theory. Academy of Management Review, 19(2): 252–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T. W. 1999. Ties that bind: A social contracts approach to business ethics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Dulac, T., Coyle-Shapiro, J. A.-M., Henderson, D. J., & Wayne, S. J. 2008. Not all responses to breaches are the same: The interconnection of social exchange and psychological contract processes in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 51(6): 1079–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunfee, T. W., & Robertson, D. C. 1993. Foreign assignment (case). In Donaldson, T. and Gini, A. (Eds.), Case studies in business ethics (3rd ed.): 374–75. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1975. The original position. In Daniels, N. (Ed.), Reading Rawls: 16–52. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Evan, W. M., & Freeman, R. E. 1993. A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation: Kantian capitalism. In Beauchamp, T. L. & Bowie, N. E. (Eds.), Ethical theory and business (4th ed.): 96–106. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1980. Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E. 1984. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman.Google Scholar
Gächter, S., & Riedl, A. 2005. Moral property rights in bargaining with infeasible claims. Management Science, 51(2): 249–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glac, K., & Kim, T. W. 2009. The “I” in ISCT: Normative and empirical facets of integration. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(S4): 693–705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, P., & Dasborough, M. T. 2015. Entitled to solutions: The need for research on workplace entitlement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(3): 460–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasnas, J. 1998. The normative theories of business ethics: A guide for the perplexed. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8(1): 19–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbes, T. 1651/2012. Leviathan (Malcolm, N., Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hughes, R. 2019. Breaking the law under competitive pressure. Law and Philosophy, 38: 169–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irigaray, L. 1974. Speculum of the other woman (Gill, G. C., Trans.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. 2011. Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Kant, I. 1785/2002. Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals (Wood, A. W., Ed. and Trans.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ku, G., Wang, C. S., & Galinsky, A. 2015. The promise and perversity of perspective-taking in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 35(3): 79–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingstone, D. W., Pollock, K., & Waykov, M. 2016. Family binds and glass ceilings: Women managers’ promotion limits in a “knowledge economy.” Critical Sociology, 42(1): 145–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, J. 1689/1887. Two treatises on civil government. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lütge, C., Armbrüster, T., & Müller, J. 2016. Order ethics: Bridging the gap between contractarianism and business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 136(4): 687–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, R., & Cava, C. 1995. Social contract theory and gender discrimination: Some reflections on the Donaldson/Dunfee model. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(2): 257–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1861. Utilitarianism. London: Parker, Son, and Bourn.Google Scholar
Moore, C., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. 2014. “Just think about it”? Cognitive complexity and moral choice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 123(2): 138–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, E. W., & Robinson, S. L. 1997. When employees feel betrayed: A model of how psychological contract violation develops. Academy of Management Review, 22(1): 226–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nietzsche, F. 1886. Beyond good and evil: Prelude to a philosophy of the future (Zimmern, H., Trans.). New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ohreen, D., & Petry, R. 2012. Imperfect duties and corporate philanthropy: A Kantian approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 106(3): 367–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Neill, O. 1987. Abstraction, idealization, and ideology in ethics. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 22: 55–69.Google Scholar
Pajunen, K. 2006. Living in agreement with a contract: The management of moral and viable firm–stakeholder relationships. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(3): 243–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, R. A., Freeman, R. E., & Wicks, A. 2003. What stakeholder theory is not. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(4): 479–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierce, J. R., Kilduff, G. J., Galinsky, A. D., & Sivanathan, N. 2013. From glue to gasoline: How competition turns perspective takers unethical. Psychological Science, 24(10): 1986–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pirson, M., Goodpaster, K., & Dierksmeier, C. 2016. Human dignity and business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 26(4): 465–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971/1999. A theory of justice (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 2001. Justice as fairness: A restatement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, S. L., & Morrison, E. W. 2000. The development of psychological contract breach and violation: A longitudinal study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21(5): 525–46.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, S. L., & Rousseau, D. M. 1994. Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15(3): 245–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rousseau, J.-J. 1762/1895. The social contract (Tozer, H. J., Trans.). London: Swan, Sonnenschein.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. 1998. What we owe to each other. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Scharding, T. 2019. Structured finance and the social contract: How tranching challenges contractualist approaches to financial risk. Business Ethics Quarterly, 29(1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholz, M., de los Reyes, G., & Smith, N. C. 2019. The enduring promise of justified hypernorms. Business Ethics Quarterly, 29(3): 317–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzman, L. H. 2006. Abstraction, idealization, and oppression. Metaphilosophy, 37(5): 565–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silver, D. 2015. Business ethics after Citizens United: A contractualist analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 127: 385–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. 1759. The theory of moral sentiments. London: Printed for A. Millar, A. Kincaid, and J. Bell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, R. C. 2004. Aristotle, ethics and business organizations. Organization Studies, 25(6): 1021–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonenshein, S. 2005. Business ethics and internal social criticism. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15(3): 475–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spicer, A., Dunfee, T., & Bailey, W. 2004. Does national context matter in ethical decision making? An empirical test of integrative social contract theory. Academy of Management Journal, 47(4): 610–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strudler, A. 1995. On the ethics of deception in negotiation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(4): 805–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, A. R., Hanko, K., Galinsky, A. D., & Mussweiler, T. 2011. When focusing on differences leads to similar perspectives. Psychological Science, 22(1): 134–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walzer, M. 1994. Thick and thin. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, D. E., Peytcheva, M., & Gaspar, J. 2015. When ethical tones at the top conflict: Adapting priority rules to reconcile conflicting tones. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(4): 559–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, D. 2018. Dynamics for integrative social contracts theory: Norm evolution and individual mobility. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(1): 83–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, T., Gino, F., & Margolis, J. D. 2018. Does “could” lead to good? On the road to moral insight. Academy of Management Journal, 61(3): 857–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar