Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-z2ts4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-09T05:02:21.434Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dialectical Interactions: Decoupling and Integrating Ethics in Ethics Initiatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Spoma Jovanovic  and
Roy V. Wood
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Evidence abounds that when ethics initiatives are decoupled from the actual work of organizations, ethics policies may become little more than “window dressing” (Weaver, Trevino, and Cochran 1999; Collen and Gonella 2002). We found, however, an unexpected, positive feature of decoupling in the study of a local government; namely, when organizational members engage in discussions that turn away from the letter of an ethics code they often do so to address higher ethical principles embedded in the spirit of the code. The decoupled understanding of the code in these cases becomes a symbolic, legitimating gesture grounded not in strict provisions but in creative and complex interactions. This counterintuitive explanation of decoupling capitalizes on discourse that evolves from a legalistic interpretation to rich discussions that value the multiplicity of voices within organizational life. What follows is that ethical decision making emerges as creative, dynamic, and responsive to its constituents.

Information

Type
Special Section: The Ethics of Organizational Ethics Initiatives
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 217 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Business Ethics Quarterly 2007

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adelman, M. B., and Frey, L. R. 1997. The Fragile Community: Living Together with AIDS (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., and Gibbs, B. W. 1990. “The Double-Edge of Organizational Legitimation.” Organization Science 1: 177–94.Google Scholar
Ashkanasy, N. M., Falkus, S., and Callan, V. J. 2000. “Predictors of Ethical Code Use and Ethical Tolerance in the Public Sector.” Journal of Business Ethics 25: 237–53.Google Scholar
Baldwin, J. N. 1990. Perceptions of Public versus Private Sector Personnel and Informal Redtape.” American Review of Public Administration 20: 7–28.Google Scholar
Baxter, L. A. 1988. “A Dialectical Perspective on Communication Strategies in Relationship Development,” in Handbook of Personal Relationships: Theory, Research, and Interventions, ed. Duck, S.W. (New York: Wiley), 257–73.Google Scholar
Baxter, L. A. 1990. “Dialectical Contradictions in Relationship Development.” Journal of Personal and Social Relationships 7: 69–88.Google Scholar
Baxter, L. A. 2004. “A Tale of Two Voices: Relational Dialectics Theory.” The Journal of Family Communication 4: 181–92.Google Scholar
Baxter, L. A., and Montgomery, B. M. 1996. Relating: Dialogues and Dialectics (New York: Guilford Press).Google Scholar
Baxter, L. A., and Montgomery, B. M. “A Guide to Dialectical Approaches to Studying Interpersonal Relationships,” in Dialectical Approaches to Studying Interpersonal Relationships, ed. Montgomery, B. M. and Baxter, L. A. (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 1–16.Google Scholar
Berman, E., West, J., and Cava, A. 1994. “Ethics Management in Municipal Governments and Large Firms: Exploring Similarities and Differences.” Administration & Society 26: 185–204.Google Scholar
Bilmes, J. 1976. “Rules and Rhetoric: Negotiation the Social Order in a Thai Village.” Journal of Anthropological Research 32: 44–57.Google Scholar
Bowman, J. S. 1990. “Ethics in Government: A National Survey of Public Administrators.” Public Administration Review 50: 345–53.Google Scholar
Bowman, J. S., and Williams, R. L. 1997. “Ethics in Government: From a Winter of Despair to a Spring of Hope.” Public Administration Review 57: 517–26.Google Scholar
Brumback, G. B. 1991. “Institutionalizing Ethics in Government.” Public Personnel Management 20: 253–64.Google Scholar
Carson, T. L. 2004. “Conflicts of Interest and Self-Dealing in the Professions: A Review Essay.” Business Ethics Quarterly 14: 161–82.Google Scholar
Coffey, A. 1999. The Ethnographic Self: Fieldwork and the Representation of Identity (London: Sage).Google Scholar
Collen, S., and Gonella, C. 2002. “The Social and Ethical Alchemy: An Integrative Approach to Social and Ethical Accountability.” Business Ethics: A European Review 11: 86–96.Google Scholar
Cooren, F. 2004. “Textual Agency: How Texts Do Things in Organizational Settings.” Organization 11: 373–93.Google Scholar
Council for Excellence in Government. 2004. “A Matter of Trust: Americans and their Government 1958–2004,” www.excelgov.org.Google Scholar
Davies, M. 1999. “Considering Ethics at the Local Government Level,” in Ethical Standards in the Public Sector: A Guide for Government Lawyers, Clients, and Public Officials, ed. Patricia, E. Salkin (Chicago: American Bar Association), 127–55.Google Scholar
Denzin, N. K., and Lincoln, Y. S., eds. 1998. Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage).Google Scholar
Dobbin, F., and Sutton, J. R. 1998. “The Strength of a Weak State: The Rights Revolution and the Rise of Human Resources Management Divisions.” The American Journal of Sociology 104: 441–76.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
Glesne, C. 1999. Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (New York: Longman).Google Scholar
Goodenough, W. H. 1970. Description and Comparison in Cultural Anthropology (Chicago: Aldine).Google Scholar
Jameson, J. K. 2004. “Negotiating Autonomy and Connection through Politeness: A Dialectical Approach to Organizational Conflict Management.” Western Journal of Communication 68: 257–77.Google Scholar
Katz, D., Kaplan, A. L., and Merz, J. F. 2003. All Gifts Large and Small. American Journal of Bioethics 3: 39–46.Google Scholar
Kramer, M. W. 2004. “Toward a Communication Theory of Group Dialectics: An Ethnographic Study of a Community Theater Group.” Communication Monographs 71: 311–32.Google Scholar
Lan, Z., and Rainey, H. 1992. “Goals, Rules, and Effectiveness in Public, Private, and Hybrid Organizations: More Evidence on Frequent Assertions about Differences.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 2: 5–28.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, G. C., and Labiner, J. M. 2002. Opportunity Lost: The Rise and Fall of Trust and Confidence in Government after September 11. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service.Google Scholar
Maletz, D., and Herbel, J. 2000. “Beyond Idealism: Democracy and Ethics Reform.” American Review of Public Administration 30: 19–45.Google Scholar
Patton, M. Q. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage).Google Scholar
Smith, D. E. 2001. “Texts and the Ontology of Organizations and Institutions.” Studies in Cultures, Organizations, and Societies 7: 159–98.Google Scholar
Spradley, J. P. 1979. The Ethnographic Interview (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston).Google Scholar
Stevens, J. M., Steensma, H. K., Harrison, D. A., and Cochran, P. L. 2005. “Symbolic or Substantive Document? The Influence of Ethics Codes on Financial Executives’ Decisions.” Strategic Management Journal 26: 181–95.Google Scholar
Stewart, A. 1998. The Ethnographer's Method (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage).Google Scholar
Stohl, C., and Cheney, G. 2001. “Participatory Processes/Paradoxical Practices.” Management Communication Quarterly 14: 349–407.Google Scholar
Suchman, M. C. 1995. “Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches.” Academy of Management Review 20: 571–610.Google Scholar
Tedlock, B. 2000. “Ethnography and Ethnographic Representation,” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., ed. Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage), 455–86.Google Scholar
Treviño, L. K., Weaver, G. R., Gibson, D. G., and Toffler, B. L. 1999. “Managing Ethics and Legal Compliance: What Works and What Hurts.” California Management Review 41: 131–51.Google Scholar
Weaver, G. R., and Treviño, L. K. 2001. “The Role of Human Resources in Ethics/ Compliance Management: A Fairness Perspective.” Human Resource Management Review 11: 113–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, G. R., Treviño, L. K., and Cochran, P. L. 1999. “Integrated and Decoupled Corporate Social Performance: Management Commitments, External Pressures, and Corporate Ethics Practices.” Academy of Management Journal 42: 539–52.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E. 1969. The Social Psychology of Organizing (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley).Google Scholar
Weick, K. E. 1989. “Organized Improvisation: Twenty Years of Organizing.” Communication Studies 40: 241–48.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E. 1995. Sensemaking in Organizations (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage).Google Scholar
Zilber, T. B. 2002. “Institutionalization as an Interplay between Actions, Meanings, and Actors: The Case of a Rape Crisis Center in Israel.” Academy of Management Journal 45: 234–54.Google Scholar