Abstract
This study examines how organizations may embed humanizing narrative devices and related activities in their management control systems to enact humanizing business practices. As defined here, narrative devices include complete stories as well as story fragments that may under certain circumstances invoke a shared narrative context. Humanizing narrative devices respect a person’s dignity and capacity for personal growth, respect human rights, promote care and service for others, and improve an organization’s ability to serve the common good rather than only narrow special interests. The first section discusses the sense-making and action-guiding properties of narrative devices, and then discusses principles for applying them in a manner that respects others in a diverse workplace. The second section adapts Simons’ (Levers of control 1995) management accounting and control framework to trace interdependencies among an organization’s narrative devices and related activities. The third section applies the combined narrative devices and systems framework to illustrate how an actual company has articulated, debated, revised, and enacted its core values over time. The concluding section discusses the analysis, its contributions to the literature, and implications for future research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The substantive values and commitments in humanizing narratives have been variously expressed in traditional societies around the globe. Some social theorists have argued the advantages of working within a tradition. For example, Taylor (1989, pp. 274-279) argued that we need social traditions to derive a humanistic outlook and that reason alone or scientific study of the natural world are not sufficient, and MacIntyre (1990, p. 60) argued that moral inquiry would be sterile if it does not draw from a tradition. Sandel (1982) used examples of debates over slavery and other socially contested arrangements in the United States to argue that deliberations about social justice and human rights must draw from comprehensive conceptions of the good that are embedded in the cultures and traditions in which those deliberations take place. As noted in the introduction, such comprehensive conceptions of the good may draw from religious or spiritual traditions, but they also may draw from humanistic philosophy, critical theories, or secular codes of socially responsible business conduct.
For example, someone who finds inspiration from Christian biblical stories might instead prefer (for example) the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37), which enjoins the reader to enact the Golden Rule by treating one’s neighbor (even one’s enemy) as oneself. Other humanizing stories from faith, spiritual, and other communitarian traditions around the globe similarly express a preferential option for the poor (the least among us; the disadvantaged; the stranger), enjoin their members not to take unfair advantage of others’ weaknesses, advocate fair and just treatment of employees, and so on.
A similar analysis may be applied to other aspects of diversity including gender, sexual orientation, age, race, political opinion, and so on.
For example, Uddin and Choudhury (2008) documented how the application of traditionalist Bangladeshi kinship norms subverted the rationalist/legalistic framework of corporate governance in Bangladeshi public companies. Specifically, the boards and owner-managers of certain Bangladeshi public companies subverted internal controls in order to serve the interests of their own families and clans (Uddin and Choudhury 2008, p. 1034). In this fiduciary context, by honoring their kinship obligations the executives failed to protect the legitimate interests of minority shareholders (Uddin and Choudhury 2008, p. 1027).
For example, an Australian company whose business activities affect the natural environment might draw inspiration from an Aboriginal Dreamtime account of creation. The Australian Aboriginal spiritual dreaming law emphasizes the communal nature of land custodianship and opposes the parceling and selling of land as a mere commodity (Gallhofer, Gibson, Haslam, McNicholas, and Takiari., 2000, p. 384). A broader awareness of a communal approach to land ownership and a spiritual affinity with the natural environment might (for example) facilitate land use policies that limit its consumption or destruction to serve only private commercial interests, and it might thereby enable an organization to enact the UN (2010) Global Compact principles for responsible environmental stewardship.
Typical examples of prohibited conduct include inappropriate padding of expense accounts, violation of applicable environmental and employee health and safety laws and regulations, payment of bribes, harassment, knowledge and intent to deceive through inappropriate accounting procedures, deceptive marketing and sales practices, alcohol consumption on the job, racial discrimination, and sexual harassment. Some of these prohibited activities also would support the narrative device application principles for respecting pluralism that were discussed earlier.
The scriptural roots and other spiritual traditions behind these four principles are discussed below under “Interactive Control Systems” section.
These different commitments may sometimes require difficult tradeoffs. The importance of profitability for company solvency and long-run company survival played an important role much later in setting a coworker layoff policy when the company encountered significant threats to its ability to remain a going concern in 2008–2009 (see “Interactive control systems” section).
For example, the Reell Web site makes these statements: “Reell is founded on the belief that life’s highest purpose is for each person to fulfill his or her true potential. To this end, Reell is committed to providing an environment that supports and encourages the development and advancement of each coworker. Reell offers training, experience, and career opportunities to help coworkers achieve their goals (http://www.reell.com/index.php?page=careers’, last accessed January 12, 2015).
For example, Kyle Smith, who became Reell’s CEO in 2009, described his leadership style as follows: “My leadership style is always going to be, at the central piece of it, I am going to do an incredible amount of reading, I’m going to think…that is kind of my center, and yet, how I want to interact has always been kind of from a servant leadership model. For me that starts with, ‘what are the biblical principles behind it?’… I hope someday that I can mimic what I see in the bible, thinking about other people, and using my gifts, and also be able to solicit and elicit gifts from others, because that is bigger than anything that I can do by myself” (October 2012 interview with the author).
The layoffs threatened the company’s culture of solidarity and commitment to coworker financial well-being. This prompted management communications with coworkers, some of which are discussed under “Interactive Control Systems,” below.
Wahlstedt (personal communication, January 15, 2015) stated that he believed that the Direction Statement’s four principles were not consciously written based on their biblical roots. Rather, they emerged out of the company’s “spiritually formed personal philosophy and values, [and that] it was only later that [they] made the direct connection between these principles and biblical teachings.” This example illustrates how emergent practices and interactive control systems can shape how a company articulates and applies its core values.
References
Alford, H. J., & Naughton, M. J. (2001). Managing as if faith mattered. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Aronowicz, A. (1994). Translator’s introduction. In E. Levinas (Ed.), Nine Talmudic Readings, ix–xxxix. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Boje, D. M. (1991). The storytelling organization: a stud of storytelling performance in an office supply firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, 106–126.
Boje, D. M. (2008). Storytelling organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bookman, T., & Kahn, W. (2006). This house we build: lessons for healthy synagogues and the people who dwell there. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute.
Buber, M. (1970). I and Thou. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Caux Round Table (CRT). (2010). Principles for business. Retrieved Sept 5, 2011 from http://www.cauxroundtable.org/index.cfm?&menuid=8.
Colby, A., Ehrlich, T., Sullivan, W. M., & Dolle, J. R. (2011). Rethinking undergraduate business education: liberal learning for the profession. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Czarniawska, B. (1997). Narrating the organization: dramas of institutional identity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Dawson, D. (2005). Applying stories of the environment to business: What business people can learn from the virtues in environmental narratives. Journal of Business Ethics, 58, 37–49.
Ely, R. T., & Thomas, D. A. (2001). Cultural diversity at work: the effects of diversity perspectives on work group processes and outcomes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16(2), 229–273.
Gallhofer, S., & Haslam, J. (2011). Emancipation, the spiritual and accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 22, 500–509.
Gallhofer, S., Gibson, K., Haslam, J., McNicholas, P., & Takiari, B. (2000). Developing environmental accounting: insights from indigenous cultures. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 13(3), 381–409.
Goodpaster, K. E. (1999). Reell Precision Manufacturing, Inc. (A). Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN: University of St. Thomas.
Goodpaster, K. E., & Naughton, M. J. (2004). Reell Precision Manufacturing, Inc. (E1): Ten years later. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN: University of St. Thomas.
Goodpaster, K. E., & Naughton, M. J. (2005). Reell Precision Manufacturing, Inc. (E2): Ten years later. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN: University of St. Thomas.
Gray, R. (2010). Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability…and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organizations and the planet. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35(1), 47–62.
Herrera, D. (2006). Reell Precision Manufacturing (Reell): A successful value-based, high-tech organization grounded on shared employee ownership, coworker participation in decision making and self-management. Presented at the 13th Conference of the International Association for the Economics of Participation, Mondragon University, Basque Country, Spain. Working paper, San Diego, CA: University of San Diego.
Hicks, D. A. (2002). Spiritual and religious diversity in the workplace: Implications for leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 13, 379–396.
Hicks, D. A. (2003). Religion and the workplace: Pluralism, spirituality, leadership. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Knights, D., & O’Leary, M. (2006). Leadership, ethics and responsibility to the other. Journal of Business Ethics, 67, 125–137.
Levinas, E. (1994). Nine Talmudic Readings (A. Aronowicz, Trans.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Lister, R. J. (2010). A role for the compulsory study of literature in accounting education. Accounting Education, 19(4), 329–343.
MacIntyre, A. (1984). After virtue. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
MacIntyre, A. (1990). Three rival versions of moral enquiry: Encyclopaedia, genealogy, and tradition. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Maltby, J. (1997). Accounting and the soul of the middle class: Gustav Freytag’s Soll und Haben. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 22(1), 69–87.
Martin, M. W. (2000). Meaningful work: rethinking professional ethics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
McKinney, J. A., Emerson, T. L., & Neubert, M. J. (2010). The effects of ethical codes on ethical perceptions of actions toward stakeholders. Journal of Business Ethics, 97, 505–516.
McPhail, K. (1999). The threat of ethical accountants: an application of Foucault’s concept of ethics to accounting education and some thoughts on ethically educating for the other. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 10(6), 833–866.
McPhail, K. (2001). The dialectic of accounting education: from role identity to ego identity. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 12, 471–499.
Mele, D. (2003). Organizational humanizing cultures: do they generate social capital? Journal of Business Ethics, 45, 3–14.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2008). Guidelines for multinational enterprises. http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_34889_1_1_1_1_1,00.html.
Reell Precision Manufacturing, Inc. (2014). Keepin’ it Reell, 1(6), 1-12.
Sandel, M. J. (1982). Liberalism and the limits of justice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. P. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Schatzki, T. (2002). The site of the social: a philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Schwartz, M. (2001). The nature of the relationship between corporate codes of ethics and behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 32, 247–262.
Sethi, S. P., & Schepers, D. H. (2014). United Nations Global Compact: the promise-performance gap. Journal of Business Ethics, 122, 193–208.
Shapiro, B. (2009). A comparative analysis of theological and critical perspectives on emancipatory praxis through accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 20(8), 944–955.
Shapiro, B., & Naughton, M. (2015). The expression of espoused humanizing values in organizational practice: A conceptual framework and case study. Journal of Business Ethics, 126, 65–81.
Simons, R. (1995). Levers of control. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Soloveitchik, J. (1965). The lonely man of faith. New York, NY: Three Leaves Press.
Symantec Corporation. (2014). Transforming to protect the future: 2014 corporate responsibility report. Available at http://www.symantec.com/corporate_responsibility/. Last accessed January 15, 2015.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tenbrunsel, A., Smith-Crowe, K., & Umphress, E. E. (2003). Building houses on rocks: the role of the ethical infrastructure in organizations. Social Justice Research, 16(3), 285–307.
Trabasso, T., van den Broek, P., & Suh, S. (1989). Logical necessity and transitivity of causal relations in stories. Discourse Processes, 12, 1–25.
Uddin, S., & Choudhury, J. (2008). Rationality, traditionalism and the state of corporate governance mechanisms: Illustrations from a less-developed country. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 21(7), 1026–1051.
United Nations (1948). United Nations universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved Jan 15, 2015, from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/.
United Nations (2010a). UN Global Compact: The blueprint for corporate sustainability leadership. Retrieved Jan 15, 2015, from www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/news_events/8.1/Blueprint.pdf.
United Nations (2010b). UNGC Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership. Available at https://www.unglobalcompact.org/HowToParticipate/Business_Participation/blueprint_for_corporate_sustainability_leadership.html. Accessed 18 Jan 2015.
Verbos, A. K., & Humphries, M. (2014). A Native American relational ethic: An indigenous perspective on teaching human responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 123, 1–9.
Wahlstedt, R. (2011). Examining the roots of our founding documents. Reell Board/Reell Leadership Team Retreat (Nov 17–18).
Wahlstedt, R. (Undated). History of Reell. Vadnais Heights, MN: Reell Precision Manufacturing, Inc.
Acknowledgments
I thank Michael Naughton, Vaughan Radcliffe, Susan Ranney, Bob Shoemake, Mitchell Stein, and participants at the 2010 Alternative Accounts Conference and Workshop (York University, Toronto, Canada), 2011 Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conference (Clearwater Beach, FL), 2011 University of Western Ontario accounting research workshop, and 2014 IX Simposio Nacional y VII Internacional Investigación Contable y Docencia (Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia), and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. I also thank organizational participants at Reell Manufacturing, Inc. for their generosity in providing their time and access to company data. Summer research support from the University of St. Thomas Veritas Institute and the University of St. Thomas Center for Ethical Business Cultures is gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shapiro, B. Using Traditional Narratives and Other Narrative Devices to Enact Humanizing Business Practices. J Bus Ethics 139, 1–19 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2645-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2645-x