Corporate Philanthropy as a Context for Moral Agency, a MacIntyrean Enquiry
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Corporate Philanthropy as a Context for Moral Agency, a MacIntyrean Enquiry Helen Nicholson1 · Ron Beadle3 · Richard Slack2 Received: 22 October 2018 / Accepted: 17 May 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract It has been claimed that ‘virtuous structures’ can foster moral agency in organisations. We investigate this in the context of employee involvement in corporate philanthropy, an activity whose moral status has been disputed. Employing Alasdair MacIntyre’s account of moral agency, we analyse the results of eight focus groups with employees engaged in corporate philanthropy in an employee-owned retailer, the John Lewis Partnership. Within this organisational context, Employee–Partners’ moral agency was evidenced in narrative accounts of their engagement in philanthropic activities and in their disputes about the moral status of corporate philanthropy. Keywords Moral agency · MacIntyre · Corporate philanthropy · John Lewis Partnership · Focus groups
Introduction, Moral Agency and Corporate Philanthropy Moral agency requires us both to act for moral reasons and to provide an account of why those reasons are moral. On Garvin’s (1948, p. 191) account: It must be granted that the term “moral agent” is commonly used to mean an agent capable of, if not actually engaged in, moral reflection. This research provides the first systematic empirical enquiry to examine a hitherto theoretically based dispute about moral agency. From a practical perspective, the moral commitment of employees is an increasing concern (Valentine et al. 2014). For instance, millennials believe that their opportunity to be impactful towards moral issues are greater within organisations than anywhere else (Deloitte 2017). Researchers and pressure groups extol organisations to exercise moral agency and to develop virtue (Arjoon 2000; Sison and Fontrodona 2012; Blueprint for Better Business 2014). This * Ron Beadle [email protected] 1
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2
University of Durham, Durham, UK
3
Faculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
enquiry sheds light on the conditions that might enable such agency to be exercised. A number of scholars have claimed that structural changes could foster moral agency at work. Virtuous structures (Vriens et al. 2018), participatory governance (Bernacchio and Couch 2015), employee control over production (Breen 2012), employee involvement (Sinnicks 2016) and meaningful work (Moore 2017), have all been promoted on these grounds. Drawing together much of this literature, Vriens et al. (2018) argue that virtuous structures are characterised by three mutually supportive elements—they enable employees to deliberate and make decisions, they promote teleological purpose and they involve accountabilities within managerial hierarchies. Such structures would not only enable the exercise of moral agency but may also help address cynicism, distrust and passivity amongst workers. Our enquiry required both an organisation tha
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