Tainting and Ethical Change

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Tainting and Ethical Change
Katy DeCelles University of Michigan
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External Stakeholders_________________________

• Customers, activist groups/individuals, religious
  groups, NGOs
• Try to change organizations strategies/ actions
  through negative feedback
• Act out against organizations boycotts, legal
  (civil) action, letter writing, protests (Eesley
  Lenox, 2005)

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External Stakeholders_________________________

• Some existing work (largely theoretical) asks how
  and why external stakeholders act out against
  specific organizations?
• for identity-based and interest-based reasons
  (Rowley Moldoveanu, 2003 Rehbein, Waddock,
  Graves, 2004 Eesley Lenox, 2005)
• because of ideological position (den Hond de
  Bakker, 2007)
• and because of perceived unfair or immoral levels
  of competition (DeCelles, Donaldson, Smith,
  2008)

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External Stakeholders_________________________

• Purpose of this research is to expand this prior
  work in at least two ways
• Other theoretical explanations for actions
• Symbolic or meaning-based explanations (value
  expression)
• The expression of values allow stakeholders to
  experience a sense of meaning and purpose
• Expand methodology to include other channels in
  which stakeholders act, therefore finding more
  tactics and theory to explain these actions as
  well

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Initial Thoughts (1) Tainting

• Using same mechanisms / language/ research behind
  consumer-based product advertisements, images,
  and logos, highlight what is ethically wrong
• subvertising creates cognitive dissonance and a
  feeling that something is flawed and needs to be
  pointed out
• By changing the meaning of the companys message
  or logo, stakeholders act in symbolic ways to
  express their values by drawing attention to the
  meaning of an organizations actions or strategy

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Initial Thoughts (1) Value Expression, Meaning
through Tainting

• Tainting provides meaning for the stakeholder and
  the intended audience --acting on something
  personally important, or that has a greater or
  larger purpose
• Research implications Who uses this tactic
  opposed to other tactics? How effective is this
  tactic relative to others? How common is it?

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Initial Thoughts (2) Web 2.0 Enables Witnessing
effect

• Video provides for witnessing effect
• Nature of Internet (one on one) may make people
  more likely to act because anonymous (virtual
  lynch mob mentality)
• Quaker concept of moral responsibility -- those
  witnessing an ethical violation (i.e., real time
  make them inherently responsible to stop it
• Using video and internet distribution makes this
  possible without restrictions of traditional media

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Initial Thoughts (2) Web 2.0 Enables Witnessing
effect

• Collective weight of more people (viral
  transmission), witnessing an ethical wrong
  probably increases likelihood of action
• May increase moral awareness, moral
  responsibility, moral outrage
• Research implications
• Is this tactic more effective at gaining
  attention towards an issue and therefore at
  changing corporate practices?
• Research implication Does witnessing via
  Internet video make people feel more personally
  responsible/likely to act?

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Methods_________________________

• Search web 2.0 for company-relevant incidents of
  tainting for ethical change from 2000- current
• Sort into identity, interest, unfairness,
  symbolic (and other?) explanations for a more
  complete typology
• Develop theory about stakeholder calling for
  corporate ethical change (both explanations and
  tactics used)
• Draw on research on values, value conflict,
  meaning, symbols, social movements, legitimacy,
  moral outrage (deontic anger)
• Demonstrate how this changes what we know already
  about the targeting of organizations by
  stakeholders for ethical change

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Questions_________________________

• Sample of organizations?
• Concerns like reputation, size/visibility may
  interact with phenomenon of interest
• How to choose sample, how many?
• Should I narrow this down to a type of incident
  (e.g., customer product safety, environmental
  violation, general ethical issue such as oil
  companies and profit margins/climate change)?
• Is mixed media okay (Videos, images?)
• Suggestions for best display of such powerful
  media to text-based article?