Contributions published at Foundations of Business Administration and Theories of the Firm (Andreas Scherer)

This article addresses the democratic deficit that emerges when private corporations engage in public policy, either by providing citizenship rights and global public goods (corporate citizenship) or by influencing the political system and lobbying for their economic interests (strategic corporate political activities). This democratic deficit is significant, especially when multinational corporations operate in locations where national governance mechanisms are weak or even fail, where the rule of law is absent and there is a lack of democratic control. This deficit may lead to a decline in the social acceptance of the business firm and its corporate political activities and, thus, to a loss of corporate legitimacy. Under these conditions corporations may compensate for the emerging democratic deficit and reestablish their legitimacy by internalizing democratic mechanisms within their organizations, in particular in their corporate governance structures and procedures. The authors analyze the available corporate governance models with the help of a typology and discuss the possible contributions of a new form of democratic corporate governance.

Most research on organizational identity tends to take an essentialist perspective, differentiating between an identity construed internally by members of the organization and an image construed by external actors. However, the duality of identity and image struggles with capturing more fluid, open, or partial organizational arrangements, where it is difficult to uphold this distinction. Looking at the case of the hacker collective Anonymous as an extreme example of organization, this paper proposes to adopt a communication-centered perspective in order to better understand the formation of organizational identity. Drawing on the emerging “communicative constitution of organizations” (CCO) framework, we transcend both an essentialist and a member-centered view by arguing that organizational identity is achieved through communicative events that demarcate the boundaries between actions attributed either to the organization or to the organizational environment.

This article introduces one emergent theoretical perspective from the North American research field of organizational communication that has come to be called “communication constitutes organization“ (CCO). The CCO perspective ascribes to communication a fundamental role in the constitution of organizations: Organizations basically consist of interconnected events of communication.

The existing literature on “cross-project learning” can only insufficiently explain what impedes the exchange of knowledge within project-based organizations. Hence, in this article, I aim to shed light on cross-project learning from a communication-centered perspective. This view allows for reconstructing existing challenges in cross-project learning as problems of connectivity between communication events. In line with this view, I have conducted an empirical case study at a multinational business consulting firm. This study examines to what extent existing practices of project documentation facilitate the visibility of past project processes and thus any connectivity to future projects. The study shows the predominance of the presentation software Microsoft PowerPoint in the project documentation practices at the case firm. Furthermore, the established practices of reducing the content of PowerPoint slides (e.g. in the form of bullet point lists) constrained the possibilities for recontextualization by organizational members that were not directly involved in the project process. Taken together, the study contributes to the existing literature by showing how a medium and genre of organizational communication (i.e. PowerPoint) becomes established in the alternate application context of project documentation but tends to “encapsulate” the processual nature of projects, which, in effect, can impede cross-project learning.

In this article, the authors discuss critically the use of “anthropomorphic” metaphors in organization studies (e.g., organizational knowledge, learning, and memory). They argue that, although these metaphors are potentially powerful, because of frequent usage they are at risk of becoming taken for granted and contextually disconnected from their source domain, the human mind. To unleash the heuristic potential of such metaphors, it is necessary to take into account the inherent dynamics and bidirectionality of metaphorical language use. Therefore, the authors propose a methodology for the context-sensitive use of metaphors in organization studies. They illustrate this approach by developing the new metaphor of organizational insomnia, which is informed by recent neuroscientific research on human sleep and its disruptions. The insomnia metaphor provides an alternative way of explaining deficits in organizational knowledge, learning, and memory, which originate in a state of permanent restlessness.

Purpose – Extant research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication primarily relies on a transmission model of communication that treats organizations and communication as distinct phenomena. This approach has been criticized for neglecting the formative role of communication in the emergence of organizations. This paper seeks to propose to reconceptualize CSR communication by drawing on the “communication constitutes organizations” (CCO) perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper that explores the implications of switching from an instrumental to a constitutive notion of communication. Findings – The study brings forth four main findings: from the CCO view, organizations are constituted by several, partly dissonant, and potentially contradictory communicative practices. From that viewpoint, the potential impact of CSR communication becomes a matter of connectivity of CSR to other practices of organizational communication. Communication practices that concern CSR should not be generally dismissed as mere “greenwashing” – given that some forms of talk can be action. Consequently, there is a need to investigate which specific speech acts create accountability and commitment in the context of CSR. The CCO view shows that CSR communication potentially extends the boundary of the organization through the involvement of third parties. Thus, it is fruitful to study CSR communication as a set of practices that aims at boundary maintenance and extension. Organizations are stabilized by various non-human entities that “act” on their behalf. Accordingly, CSR communication should also take into account non-human agency and responsibility. Originality/value – This paper links the literature on CSR communication to broader debates in organizational communication studies and, in particular, to the CCO perspective. By applying the CCO view, it reconceptualizes CSR communication as a complex process of meaning negotiation.

In this paper I show why investment practices matter for a property-owning democracy (POD) and how political philosophers can analyse them. I begin by documenting how investment practices influence income distribution. Empirical research suggests that investments that force corporations to maximise shareholder value, which I refer to as ‘shareholder value investing’, increase income inequality. By contrast, there is evidence that socially responsible investing (SRI) could bring society closer to a POD. Following that, I sketch how financial regulation fosters investment practices and discuss how SRI could be boosted if regulation attempted to influence investment decisions, although many people in the public discourse would see this as exceedingly patronising. Finally, I outline how political philosophers can evaluate financial regulation. I argue that drawing on Hegel or Rawls helps to justify efforts to influence investment decisions and that proponents of a POD should therefore develop and support regulatory ideas which foster SRI.

The sustainability problems with regard to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services increasingly challenge the legitimacy of corporations. The literature distinguishes three strategies that corporations commonly employ to respond to legitimacy problems: adapt to external expectations, manipulate the perception of their stakeholders, or engage in a discourse with those who question their legitimacy. We discuss three approaches to determine the appropriate response strategy: one-best-way approach, contingency approach, and paradox approach. We argue that in the face of heterogeneous environments with conflicting demands, corporations that follow a paradox approach are likely to be more successful in preserving their legitimacy than those that adopt one of the other two approaches. We develop a theoretical framework for the application of different response strategies and explore the management of paradoxes by way of structural, contextual, or reflective means.

Sichern Rankings wirklich die Qualität der Universitäten? Eine Replik.

null

null

null

In this paper, we contribute to Ahrne and Brunsson’s notion of “partial organization” (2011). By definition, partial organizations lack one or more of the typical features of “complete organizations”, i.e., hierarchies, membership, rules, or monitoring and sanction mechanisms. We reconstruct phenomena of partial organizations in the global ream from a theoretical perspective called “communication constitutes organizations” (CCO). The CCO view allows for examining partial organizations as dynamic phenomena that typically undergo a discursive trajectory over time. Based on the empirical example of the Equator Principles (EP) standard in international project finance, we show that global partial organizations can face pressures of eventually developing into a more “complete” organization, that is, by adding further organizational elements (e.g., hierarchies, membership, etc.). We identify a process pattern that we presume to apply also to other phenomena of partial organizations in the global realm.

null

null

null

null