JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT INQUIRY – January 2019
Apologies for cross-postings.
Please enjoy free access until February 28 by clicking on the URL for each article.
FEATURED ARTICLES
How Does the Media Frame Corporate Scandals? The Case of German
Newspapers and the Volkswagen Diesel Scandal
Marco Clemente, and Claudia Gabbioneta
JMI Vol. 26(3): 287-302
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492616689304
Despite the importance that the media has in regard to influencing people's perceptions of wrongdoing, organizational scholars have paid little attention to how the media reports wrongdoing. This article starts to address this gap by considering how the media frames corporate scandals. We empirically examine how four different German newspapers reported on the Volkswagen diesel scandal. We inductively identify the constitutive elements of a general corporate scandal frame. Then, we analyze how each newspaper framed the scandal through combinations of different elements. We identify from our dataset four frames of corporate scandals that newspapers applied: legalistic, contextual, reputational, and scapegoating. Our article testifies to the importance of cross-fertilization between research on mass communication and political science on one side, and organizational research on the other side and, more generally, it calls for more attention to be given to the media in the study of scandals and organizational wrongdoing.
Keywords: corporate scandals, organizational wrongdoing, media framing
Twenty-First Century Leadership: A Return to Beauty
Nancy J. Adler and Andre L. Delbecq
JMI Vol. 27(2): 119–137
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617710758
Highlighting Aristotle's appreciation that "The soul . . . never thinks without a picture," this article weaves together art and ideas into an aesthetic encounter with beauty, leadership, and our humanity. It invites reflection based on long-established wisdom traditions as well as drawing on insights from everyday sacred traditions. You are invited not only to engage in reading the words presented on each page but also to stop and to reflect on their meaning. You are offered the power of art to intensify your experience and understanding. The article invites you to enter into a contemplative silence designed to increase your appreciation of your own and others' humanity while deepening the beauty of your own leadership. Such encounters with art and deep reflection have the power to guide us in rediscovering and creating beauty in our fractured world. Encountering art and wisdom through a deeply reflective process does not dismiss science but, rather, partners with all ways of knowing to go beyond what any one approach can produce on its own. Thus, the overall invitation of the article is to heighten your understanding of yourself, your role, and your aspirations as a 21st-century leader.
Keywords: leadership, art, beauty, reflection, meditation, spirituality
JANUARY 2019 ISSUE
Introduction: A Dialog on Stigma Versus Legitimacy, and How They Relate to Organizations and Their Actors
Karen D. W. Patterson, Bryant Ashley Hudson, and Wesley S. Helms
JMI Vol. 28(1): 3-4
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618790910
Recently, stigma research has reached an important threshold in management literature. With an increasing number of publications on the topic of stigma and related social evaluations, researchers run the risk of convoluting disparate concepts. At the same time, examining different components of a singular social evaluation can result in unique contributions that might be overlooked if not thoroughly unpacked. This dialogue presents two differing perspectives on the social evaluations of stigma and legitimacy. The authors discuss the merit of examining stigma as its own distinct construct and as a component of moral evaluation. The authors engage previous research to provide insights on the origins, antecedents, outcomes, processes and consequences of stigma from two different perspectives. Finally, established stigma researchers provide insight into the debate, drawing on previous research as well as their own foundational work.
Keywords: stigma, legitimacy, stigma management, social evaluation
Let's Not "Taint" Stigma Research With Legitimacy, Please
Wesley S. Helms, Karen D. W. Patterson, and Bryant Ashley Hudson
JMI Vol. 28(1): 5–10
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618790896
We propose that stigma and legitimacy are distinct constructs. Drawing from extant research, empirical observations, and the theoretical assumptions of both constructs we assert that, in spite of increasing efforts to equate stigma as illegitimacy, the opposite of legitimacy, that it is not. Specifically, we argue that organizations and their actors can be both stigmatized and legitimate at the same time. With this recognized, we propose a stigma-focused research agenda, separate from - and untainted by - legitimacy. Further, we propose an agenda that broadens conceptualizations of audiences and their dynamics, addresses how normal "deviants" take action in the face of stigma, and reconceptualises how audiences and the stigmatized interact.
Keywords: stigma, stigma management, audiences, deviance, legitimacy
Introducing a Spectrum of Moral Evaluation: Integrating Organizational Stigmatization and Moral Legitimacy
Christian Hampel and Paul Tracey
JMI Vol. 28(1): 11–15
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618790897
Audiences frequently change how they evaluate organizations, and these judgments often have a moral basis. For example, audiences may shift their evaluation from stigmatization to legitimacy or vice versa. These radical shifts in audience evaluation can have a major impact on organizations, yet organization theory struggles to account for them. We offer a solution to this problem by proposing a spectrum of moral evaluation that situates key moral judgments relative to each other. Our core argument is that integrating stigmatization and moral legitimacy into a broader spectrum of moral evaluation provides organization theorists with a much-needed toolkit to explore the consequential normative transformations often experienced by contemporary organizations. Specifically, it allows for a graded conception of moral evaluation, connects concepts – stigma and legitimacy – that are often considered in isolation, and offers opportunities for theoretical cross-fertilization.
Keywords: organizational stigmatization, legitimacy, morality
Comments on Stigma Versus Legitimacy
Cynthia E. Devers and Yuri Mishina
JMI Vol. 28(1): 16–21
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618790898
Stigma and Legitimacy: Two Ends of a Single Continuum or Different Continua Altogether?
Blake E. Ashforth
JMI Vol. 28(1): 22–30
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618790900
Hampel and Tracey and Helms, Patterson, and Hudson offer contrasting perspectives regarding whether stigma and legitimacy belong on a single continuum or different continua altogether. To clarify the high stakes involved when society stigmatizes actors, I argue that all stigmas have moral overtones and that, while stigmatization upholds systems of values, norms and ideologies, the moralizing often comes with a significant price not only for the stigmatized but for society itself. I then argue that the contrasting perspectives can be reconciled if scholars restrict the definitions of both stigma and legitimacy to group-specific judgments of specific practices or attributes. However, I ponder if the definitional precision gained by collapsing both stigma and legitimacy to the same narrow focus costs us, as scholars, more than it benefits. I close with two cautionary notes. First, scholars should avoid being seduced by society's crass demand for simplistic labels when it comes to moral fitness and thinking that stigma and legitimacy are inherently binary states (black vs. white) rather than the continuous states (shades of gray) they usually are. Second, scholars should be wary of viewing the midpoint of a stigma or legitimacy scale as representing indifference or neutrality when it may actually represent ambivalence – a far different phenomenological experience. Rather than assessing stigma/legitimacy with a single scale that varies from positive/high to negative/low – with indifferent or neutral as the midpoint – scholars should consider assessing them with dual scales for legitimacy and illegitimacy or stigmatized and non-stigmatized.
Keywords: stigma, legitimacy, ambivalence
Ambicultural Governance: Harmonizing Indigenous and Western Approaches
Amber Nicholson, Chellie Spiller, and Edwina Pio
JMI Vol. 28(1): 31–47
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617707052
Indigenous and Western business practices and worldviews can be harmonized to create and enhance well-being through ambicultural governance practices. This article focuses on exploring, both theoretically and empirically, creative governance endeavors to bring together Indigenous and Western practices for the purposes of creating both wealth and well-being in the service of society. We emphasize the need to return to the idea of business as serving the well-being of communities and suggest this can be done through a relational kaitiakitanga, stewardship approach that is at the heart of our research. Through a qualitatively rich case study of a Māori business, we present a Strategy Model He Whenua Rangatira-A Balanced Landscape that serves to act as a decision-making tool that facilitates both tangible and intangible benefits for organizational success and collective well-being. We suggest that all businesses, both Indigenous and Western, can gravitate toward this approach, while contextualizing their ambicultural governance.
Keywords: ambicultural, board of directors, corporate social responsibility, cross-cultural, decision making, governance, Māori
Is Behavioral Ethics Ready for Giving Business and Policy Advice?
Petr Houdek1
JMI Vol. 28(1): 48–56
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617712894
This essay is a critical perspective of the applicability of behavioral ethics in business and policy interventions. I summarize a series of proposed interventions to increase people's honesty, inspired by ethical dissonance theory, such as increasing salience of moral norms, visibility, and self-engagement. Although I agree that behavioral ethics could offer simple, low-cost interventions with the potential of reducing unethical behavior (not only) in organizations, there are several risks and methodological limitations not sufficiently discussed. The interventions thus could eventually lead to weaker positive impacts or even long-term negative consequences. I suggest several alternative approaches to decrease dishonesty such as making the moral choice easier, implementing salient accountability, and removing dishonesty temptations and dishonest employees. The article concludes with a warning that unrealistic expectations may damage the credibility of behavioral ethics.
Keywords: affect/emotions, behavioral theory, ethics, individual decision making, organizational behavior
Conflicts of Interest as Corrupting the Checks and Balances in the Postpublication Oversight of Academic Business Journals
Richard J. Arend
JMI Vol. 28 (1) 57–66
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617715323
In this case-based essay, we explore how conflicts of interest can corrupt the postpublication oversight process in academic business journals. We build on Carson's comprehensive definition of the conflict of interest construct by arguing that it is, in a practical sense, not isolated and dyadic but instead is multirelational to the point of being viral. Specifically, we argue that conflicts of interest produce further conflicts of interest; this occurs at any oversight level that is tasked with investigating and addressing any allegations of conflict of interest violations at lower levels. A real recent case illustrates that this complexity is not understood in our social sciences-five different levels of "checks and balances" in our postpublishing oversight failed to address an obvious initial conflict of interest. A discussion covering the harms of the violations, the causes, and the possible solutions fleshes out our arguments about this core ethical construct.
Keywords: ethics, culture and climate, decision making, trust, reputation
PCE Use in the Workplace: The Open Secret of Performance Enhancement
Matthew R. Leon, Peter D. Harms, and Declan O. Gilmer
JMI Vol. 28(1): 67–70
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618790091
Increasing evidence suggests employees are turning to the nonprescribed use of stimulants to supplement their performance. We sit in a unique position regarding stimulants in the workforce. They are easily available, there is little stigma attached to use, and there is little information regarding the long-term safety effects of use. With that in mind, almost no formal research has been executed in the realm of organizational behavior. The purpose of this JMI (Journal of Management Inquiry) Generative Curiosity article is to introduce readers to this literature and identify what we believe are the most important avenues of inquiry for management scholars.
Keywords: organizational behavior, individual decision making, attitudes
Leading Through Art: An Interview With Vicki Heywood CBE, Chair, Royal Society of Arts
Gareth Edwards and Nicholas O'Regan
JMI Vol. 28(1) 71–76
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617750491
A recent interview with Vicki Heywood, Chair of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA), highlights the role that arts can play in dealing with complex problems in society today and particularly from an international perspective. The message from this interview resonates with recent literature on leadership that also recognizes the importance of the arts in leading successfully through wicked problems. The importance of linking arts interpretations of leadership with culture and place is also taken into consideration within the analysis of the interview. The article concludes by suggesting that leadership practice into the future should promote leading through art to uncover the multiple identities and belonging that shape global society. More specifically, the article proposes that by leading through art, artists can help uncover and discover complex intricacies within context and culture which may help to problematize large scale generalizations which have become the epitome of serious global issues.
Keywords: leadership, the arts, culture, place
A Longitudinal Perspective on Sustainability and Innovation Governmentality: The Case of the Olympic Games as a Mega-Event
Endrit Kromidha, Laura J. Spence, Stephanos Anastasiadis, and Darla Dore
JMI Vol. 28(1) 77–93
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617711585
The purpose of this research is to analyze how governance is related to sustainability and innovation in mega-events over time by looking at the Olympic Games as a case study. Three main contributions are made to management research and practice. First, Foucauldian governmentality is built upon and enriched with a longitudinal perspective by following the evolution of Visibility, Techne, Episteme, and Identity analytics of governmentality. Second, an innovative methodology based on interviews, a systematic documentary review, and software-assisted thematic auto-coding for a theory-led structured analysis is applied. Third, the theoretical and empirical contribution of this study on the longitudinal aspects of governmentality over different parties and outlets of information could be used to guide practical and strategic decisions for managers and policy makers. In addition to its scholarly importance, this work is needed because mega-events can have a sustainable longterm impact, balancing legacy and innovative change.
Keywords: business and government/political economy, sustainability, innovation, event history analysis, organization theory
Recycling Problems and Modernizing the Solution: Doing Institutional Maintenance Work on Swedish Public Service Television
Maria Norbäck
JMI Vol. 28(1) 94–112
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617712893
This article investigates the role of history and heritage in institutional maintenance work. Based on a study of collaborative production of public service TV programs in Sweden, I analyze the program makers' rhetorical work to construct and justify meanings and interpretations. By drawing on the old but often overlooked understanding that institutions are "permanent" solutions to "permanent" problems, I discuss what problems the program makers argue that public service TV solves in contemporary Sweden, and the work of rhetorically constructing and justifying these problems in relation to everyday practices of making programs. This study adds to our understanding of how actors that inhabit and enact an institution can use its history and legacy as an interpretative resource in their work to maintain the institution, and how this process may affect the meanings ascribed to the institution.
Keywords: television, institutional work, institutional maintenance, history, heritage
Gioia's Rules of the Game
Denny Gioia
JMI Vol. 28(1): 113–115
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492618789864
I have been editing the "Provocations and Provocateurs" section of JMI since 2005. In all that time, I have not written an essay for my own section. I am redressing that gross injustice to myself in the following little treatise. A few years ago I wrote an essay for a volume entitled How to Get Published in the Best Management Journals. That brief piece generated quite a lot of interest because it lifted the curtain on some of the informal "rules" or processes that can help scholars publish. I thought a version of that short essay would be useful for JMI's readers.
Keywords: publishing, rules
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The Editorial Board of JMI thanks Sage Publications for its generosity in sharing published articles openly.
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Richard W. Stackman, Ph.D.
Professor and chair
University of San Francisco
San Francisco CA
(415) 422-2148
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