Ethical complexity of social change: negotiated actions of a social enterprise

This paper investigates how social enterprises navigate through the ethical complexity of social change and extends the ethical quandaries faced by social enterprises (SEs) beyond organisational boundaries. Building on the emerging literature on the ethics of SEs, I conceptualise ethics as an engage...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Bhatt, Babita (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2022
Dans: Journal of business ethics
Année: 2022, Volume: 177, Numéro: 4, Pages: 743-762
Sujets non-standardisés:B Principle based approach
B Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
B Ethical complexity
B Practice based approach
Accès en ligne: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Résumé:This paper investigates how social enterprises navigate through the ethical complexity of social change and extends the ethical quandaries faced by social enterprises (SEs) beyond organisational boundaries. Building on the emerging literature on the ethics of SEs, I conceptualise ethics as an engagement with power relations. I develop theoretical arguments to understand the interaction between ethical predispositions of a SE and the normative structure of the social system in which it operates. I applied this conceptualisation in a hierarchical and heterogeneous rural Indian context to provide insights into the moral ambiguity of ethical decision-making and suggest pathways for ethical actions. Taking a qualitative case study approach, I followed an exemplary SE’s implementation process in India. I observed ethical challenges in designing the implementation process (efficiency versus equality), selecting the beneficiaries (fairness versus power) and sustaining the programme (cooperation versus autonomy). I also identified three actions of the SE—the action of recognition, the action of reposition and the action of collaboration—and developed a transformative process model. I discuss the theoretical implications of this research for SEs and recommend a critical engagement with ethical theories to address systemic problems.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05100-6