Irresponsibility and immorality of corporate actions: The moral foundations theory perspective
Grzegorz Zasuwa
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4131-5079
Abstract
Stakeholders may evaluate the actions of companies and other organizations in terms of their ethicality. The result of such an assessment may be positive or negative. However, the literature is dominated by works focusing on the positive aspects of corporate actions. Relatively, little attention has been paid to irresponsible practices, though their consequences are often very serious. To better understand the nature of corporate actions identified by consumers as socially irresponsible, this article aims at showing the relationship between irresponsible and immoral corporate actions. To achieve such a goal, the Moral Foundations Theory was chosen as the conceptual framework. In the discussion of literature special attention was paid to the results of empirical research showing the significance of particular criteria of moral evaluation of corporate actions. The empirical part consists of an exploratory study in which an attempt was made to assign irresponsible corporate practices to five moral codes. The results suggest that irresponsible practices are most often associated with dishonesty and harming stakeholders. Actions where disloyalty, breaking the law, and oppressiveness appear as the main criteria of immorality are indicated much less frequently. The text discusses theoretical implications, practical conclusions, limitations, and directions for further research.
Keywords:
corporate social irresponsibility, Moral Foundations TheorySupporting Agencies:
National Science CentreReferences
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Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2013). Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism. In P. Devine & A. Plant (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 47, pp. 55–130). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4
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Hoi, C. K., Wu, Q., & Zhang, H. (2013). Is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Associated with Tax Avoidance? Evidence from Irresponsible CSR Activities. The Accounting Review, 88(6), 2025–2059.
Ingram, R., Skinner, S. J., & Taylor, V. A. (2005). ‘Consumers’ Evaluation of Unethical Marketing Behaviors: The Role of Customer Commitment’. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(3), 237–252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-1899-0
Jones, B., Bowd, R., & Tench, R. (2009). Corporate irresponsibility and corporate social responsibility: Competing realities. Social Responsibility Journal, 5(3), 300–310. https://doi.org/10.1108/17471110910977249
Kim, S., Krishna, A., & Dhanesh, G. (2019). Economics or ethics? Exploring the role of CSR expectations in explaining consumers’ perceptions, motivations, and active communication behaviors about corporate misconduct. Public Relations Review, 45(1), 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.10.011
Krippendorff, K. (2009). The Content Analysis Reader. SAGE.
Lange, D., & Washburn, N. T. (2012). Understanding Attributions of Corporate Social Irresponsibility. The Academy of Management Review, 37(2), 300–326. JSTOR.
Lin-Hi, N., & Müller, K. (2013). The CSR bottom line: Preventing corporate social irresponsibility. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 1928–1936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.015
Luttrell, A., Philipp-Muller, A., & Petty, R. E. (2019). Challenging Moral Attitudes With Moral Messages. Psychological Science, 30(8), 1136–1150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619854706
Mena, S., Rintamäki, J., Fleming, P., & Spicer, A. (2016). On the Forgetting of Corporate Irresponsibility. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), 720–738. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0208
Mercer, J. J. (2003). Corporate social responsibility and its importance to consumers. Claremont Graduate University.
Nardella, G., Brammer, S., & Surdu, I. (2020). Shame on Who? The Effects of Corporate Irresponsibility and Social Performance on Organizational Reputation. British Journal of Management, 31(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12365
Oh, W.-Y., Chang, Y. K., & Jung, R. (2018). Experience-based human capital or fixed paradigm problem? CEO tenure, contextual influences, and corporate social (ir)responsibility. Journal of Business Research, 90, 325–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.034
Pearce, C. L., & Manz, C. C. (2011). Leadership Centrality and Corporate Social Ir-Responsibility (CSIR): The Potential Ameliorating Effects of Self and Shared Leadership on CSIR. Journal of Business Ethics, 102(4), 563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0828-7
Schein, C., & Gray, K. (2018). The Theory of Dyadic Morality: Reinventing Moral Judgment by Redefining Harm. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(1), 32–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868317698288
Sousa, P., & Piazza, J. (2014). Harmful transgressions qua moral transgressions: A deflationary view. Thinking & Reasoning, 20(1), 99–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2013.834845
Sroka, R. (2018). Samoregulacja biznesowa w zakresie etyki biznesu firm zachodnich jako odpowiedź na łamanie praw pracowniczych w Chinach. Człowiek i Społeczeństwo, 46. https://doi.org/10.14746/cis.2018.46.8
Swaen, V., Demoulin, N., & Pauwels-Delassus, V. (2020). Impact of customers’ perceptions regarding corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility in the grocery retailing industry: The role of corporate reputation. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.016
Tsiros, M., & Mittal, V. (2000). Regret: A Model of Its Antecedents and Consequences in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(4), 401–417. https://doi.org/10.1086/209571
Windsor, D. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility: A positive theory approach. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 1937–1944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.016
Yuksel, U., & Mryteza, V. (2009). An evaluation of strategic responses to consumer boycotts. Journal of Business Research, 62(2), 248–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.01.032
Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2004). Beyond valence in customer dissatisfaction: A review and new findings on behavioral responses to regret and disappointment in failed services. Journal of Business Research, 57(4), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00278-3
Antonetti, P., & Maklan, S. (2016a). Social Identification and Corporate Irresponsibility: A Model of Stakeholder Punitive Intentions. British Journal of Management, 27(3), 583–605. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12168
Antonetti, P., & Maklan, S. (2016b). An Extended Model of Moral Outrage at Corporate Social Irresponsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 135(3), 429–444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2487-y
Bianchi, E. C., & Mohliver, A. (2016). Do Good Times Breed Cheats? Prosperous Times Have Immediate and Lasting Implications for CEO Misconduct. Organization Science, 27(6), 1488–1503. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1101
Bloomberg (2015), Volkswagen Drops 23% After Admitting Diesel Emissions Cheat, Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/volkswagen-drops-15-after-admitting-u-sdiesel-emissions-cheat
Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 946–967. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.25275684
Catlin, J. R., Luchs, M. G., & Phipps, M. (2017). Consumer Perceptions of the Social Vs. Environmental Dimensions of Sustainability. Journal of Consumer Policy, 40(3), 245–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-017-9356-x
Clark, C. E., Riera, M., & Iborra, M. (2021). Toward a Theoretical Framework of Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Clarifying the Gray Zones Between Responsibility and Irresponsibility. Business & Society, 00076503211015911. https://doi.org/10.1177/00076503211015911
Darke, P. R., Ashworth, L., & Main, K. J. (2010). Great expectations and broken promises: Misleading claims, product failure, expectancy disconfirmation and consumer distrust. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38(3), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-009-0168-7
De Villiers-Botha, T. (2020). Haidt et al.’s case for moral pluralism revisited. Philosophical Psychology, 33(2), 244–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2019.1688776
Ethical Consumer. (2021). Ethical Consumer. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycott-amazon
Ferrell, O. C., Harrison, D. E., Ferrell, L., & Hair, J. F. (2019). Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Research, 95, 491–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.039
Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010). Compassion: An Evolutionary Analysis and Empirical Review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 351–374. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018807
Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2013). Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism. In P. Devine & A. Plant (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 47, pp. 55–130). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4
Graham, J., Nosek, B. A., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., & Ditto, P. H. (2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10, 366–385. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1037/a0021847
Gray, K., Schein, C., & Ward, A. F. (2014). The myth of harmless wrongs in moral cognition: Automatic dyadic completion from sin to suffering. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(4), 1600–1615. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036149
Gray, K., Waytz, A., & Young, L. (2012). The Moral Dyad: A Fundamental Template Unifying Moral Judgment. Psychological Inquiry, 23(2), 206–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2012.686247
Greenwood, M. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement: Beyond the Myth of Corporate Responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 74(4), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9509-y
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814
Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2004). Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 133(4), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1162/0011526042365555
Hill, J. A., Eckerd, S., Wilson, D., & Greer, B. (2009). The effect of unethical behavior on trust in a buyer–supplier relationship: The mediating role of psychological contract violation. Journal of Operations Management, 27(4), 281–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2008.10.002
Hoi, C. K., Wu, Q., & Zhang, H. (2013). Is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Associated with Tax Avoidance? Evidence from Irresponsible CSR Activities. The Accounting Review, 88(6), 2025–2059.
Ingram, R., Skinner, S. J., & Taylor, V. A. (2005). ‘Consumers’ Evaluation of Unethical Marketing Behaviors: The Role of Customer Commitment’. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(3), 237–252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-1899-0
Jones, B., Bowd, R., & Tench, R. (2009). Corporate irresponsibility and corporate social responsibility: Competing realities. Social Responsibility Journal, 5(3), 300–310. https://doi.org/10.1108/17471110910977249
Kim, S., Krishna, A., & Dhanesh, G. (2019). Economics or ethics? Exploring the role of CSR expectations in explaining consumers’ perceptions, motivations, and active communication behaviors about corporate misconduct. Public Relations Review, 45(1), 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.10.011
Krippendorff, K. (2009). The Content Analysis Reader. SAGE.
Lange, D., & Washburn, N. T. (2012). Understanding Attributions of Corporate Social Irresponsibility. The Academy of Management Review, 37(2), 300–326. JSTOR.
Lin-Hi, N., & Müller, K. (2013). The CSR bottom line: Preventing corporate social irresponsibility. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 1928–1936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.015
Luttrell, A., Philipp-Muller, A., & Petty, R. E. (2019). Challenging Moral Attitudes With Moral Messages. Psychological Science, 30(8), 1136–1150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619854706
Mena, S., Rintamäki, J., Fleming, P., & Spicer, A. (2016). On the Forgetting of Corporate Irresponsibility. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), 720–738. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0208
Mercer, J. J. (2003). Corporate social responsibility and its importance to consumers. Claremont Graduate University.
Nardella, G., Brammer, S., & Surdu, I. (2020). Shame on Who? The Effects of Corporate Irresponsibility and Social Performance on Organizational Reputation. British Journal of Management, 31(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12365
Oh, W.-Y., Chang, Y. K., & Jung, R. (2018). Experience-based human capital or fixed paradigm problem? CEO tenure, contextual influences, and corporate social (ir)responsibility. Journal of Business Research, 90, 325–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.034
Pearce, C. L., & Manz, C. C. (2011). Leadership Centrality and Corporate Social Ir-Responsibility (CSIR): The Potential Ameliorating Effects of Self and Shared Leadership on CSIR. Journal of Business Ethics, 102(4), 563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0828-7
Schein, C., & Gray, K. (2018). The Theory of Dyadic Morality: Reinventing Moral Judgment by Redefining Harm. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(1), 32–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868317698288
Sousa, P., & Piazza, J. (2014). Harmful transgressions qua moral transgressions: A deflationary view. Thinking & Reasoning, 20(1), 99–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2013.834845
Sroka, R. (2018). Samoregulacja biznesowa w zakresie etyki biznesu firm zachodnich jako odpowiedź na łamanie praw pracowniczych w Chinach. Człowiek i Społeczeństwo, 46. https://doi.org/10.14746/cis.2018.46.8
Swaen, V., Demoulin, N., & Pauwels-Delassus, V. (2020). Impact of customers’ perceptions regarding corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility in the grocery retailing industry: The role of corporate reputation. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.016
Tsiros, M., & Mittal, V. (2000). Regret: A Model of Its Antecedents and Consequences in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(4), 401–417. https://doi.org/10.1086/209571
Windsor, D. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility: A positive theory approach. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 1937–1944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.016
Yuksel, U., & Mryteza, V. (2009). An evaluation of strategic responses to consumer boycotts. Journal of Business Research, 62(2), 248–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.01.032
Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2004). Beyond valence in customer dissatisfaction: A review and new findings on behavioral responses to regret and disappointment in failed services. Journal of Business Research, 57(4), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00278-3
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Grzegorz Zasuwa
grzegorz.zasuwa@kul.pl
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Dr hab. Grzegorz Zasuwa, adiunkt w Katedrze Zarządzania Pracownikami w Organizacji w Instytucie Dziennikarstwa i Zarządzania na Wydziale Nauk Społecznych Katolickiego Uniwersytetu
Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II
