Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations
Call for Papers: The ethical contribution of Organizations to society
Michael Schwartz and Howard Harris for Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/books/series.htm?id=1529-2096&PHPSESSID=oqe36rd586k526imnqipfn6d23
Organizations promote all sorts of activities. Indeed it is difficult to think of any activity today that is not reliant on an organization.
We seek papers that discuss what an organization provides to society, whether it be fast food, hypermarkets, training and jobs, supply chains, or anything at all, and an explanation of the ethical aspects of that particular contribution.
One such activity promoted by the organization is boxing. As Forbes reported "it is always about the money, particularly when it comes to boxing". And boxing still generates hundreds of millions of dollars. Boxing is not the most dangerous of sports. Such gentle sports as mountain climbing are far more dangerous, but as Joyce Caro Oates explained "boxing is the only sport in which the objective is to cause injury – the brain is the target, the knockout the goal".
Nonetheless, boxing is an activity and it is one that provides much to many. As Forbes also reported the champion boxer Floyd Mayweather's jail sentence was postponed by a Las Vegas judge until after his fight. It was arguably fortunate for many that it was as the fight provided Las Vegas with an economic injection of over $100 million.
Of course boxing is but one example amongst an endless list. Indeed, it might be far easier to discuss what organizations do not provide to society than what they do provide. That organizations do provide so very much is however most useful for our purposes. Our call for papers is very simple. As we stated above we seek papers that discuss what an organization provides to society, whether it be hamburgers, hypermarkets, hypsometers, or anything at all, and an explanation of the ethics of that particular contribution.
The impact of an organization extends beyond its contribution through goods and services. Customers can respond. Within civil society they too can organize and advocate and thus impact in turn upon the organization. We therefore also seek submissions regarding the ethics of the response of consumers in society to what an organization provides. Consumers can respond in various ways. They can buy or they can boycott what is being offered by the organization. The former represents social approval whilst the latter should be viewed according to researchers as the attempt to socially control organizations. Our interest is in particular cases the ethics of their response to the organizations.
We welcome for submission a wide range of contributions which explore these issues, including but certainly not limited to:
- resolving the potential dilemma of providing goods or services that many see as inherently unethical
- whether it is possible to deliver unethical products ethically
- the ability of organizations to affect the moral norms of individuals
- the ethics of organizations in the market taking over activities previously done by nonmarket means
- contribution of multi-national enterprises to local, regional or world development; or how MNEs hinder development
- whether organizations by their activities support cultural diversity and the ethics thereof
- ethics of multinational campaign organizations
- attempts by society to curtail the power of organizations
- the ethics of corporate advertising
- whether organizations by their market power dominate the arts
- the ethics of consumer boycotts of the organization
Please submit completed papers which conform with the author guidelines http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/ebookseries/author_guidelines.htm by email to Michael Schwartz at michael.schwartz@rmit.edu.au before the 15th of January 2015. All papers will be double blind reviewed.
If you have any enquiries please do not hesitate to contact Michael Schwartz (michael.schwartz@rmit.edu.au) or Howard Harris (howard.harris@unisa.edu.au).
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Howard Harris, PhD Acting Head of School, School of Management, UniSA Business School
e: howard.harris@unisa.edu.au p: +61 8 8302 9309 UniSA Business School is EQUIS accredited
University of South Australia www.unisa.edu.au/business/management/ CRICOS Provider00121B