We present a comprehensive model that integrates virtues, values, character strengths and ethical decision making (EDM). We describe how a largely consequentialist ethical framework has dominated most EDM scholarship to date. We suggest that reintroducing a virtue ethical perspective to existing EDM theories can help to illustrate deficiencies in existing decision-making models, and suggest that character strengths and motivational values can serve as natural bridges that link a virtue framework to EDM in organizations. In conjunction with the more fully formulated (...) extant research on situational determinants, we present and discuss our model that introduces a virtue based orientation to EDM. (shrink)

This article explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility and authenticity by developing a framework that explains the characteristics of CSR activities that lead to a perception by stakeholders that a firm’s CSR efforts are genuine. Drawing on the authenticity literature, we identify two core dimensions of authenticity that impact stakeholder perceptions of CSR: distinctiveness and social connectedness. Distinctiveness captures the extent to which a firm’s CSR activities are aligned with their core mission, vision and values while social connectedness refers (...) to the degree to which an organization’s CSR efforts are embedded in a larger social context. We use this framework to explore the question ‘when are a firm’s CSR efforts most likely to be perceived as authentic by stakeholders?’ and find that both of these dimensions are necessary; social connectedness or distinctiveness alone are necessary but insufficient conditions for perceptions of authenticity to occur. A detailed exploration of authenticity, therefore, advances research in the CSR domain that may help mend the growing divide between business and society. (shrink)

The special class of supererogatory actions—those that go “beyond the call of duty”—has thus far been omitted from the management literature. Rather, actions of a firm that may surpass economic and legal requirements have been discussed either under the umbrella term of Corporate Social Responsibility or the concept of positive deviance as articulated by the Positive Organizational Scholarship movement. This paper seeks to clarify how “duty” is understood in these literatures and makes an argument that paradigmatic examples of corporate supererogation (...) in fact lie beyond what is traditionally conceptualized as CSR and positive deviance. In so doing, this paper contributes to the growing body of research on Positive Organizational Ethics, as well as both the CSR and POS literatures, by presenting an extended deontological framework of CSR and bringing conceptual clarity to an otherwise muddied domain. (shrink)

In this article, we explore how sense of time and sense of place shape the development of organizational sustainability frames (OSFs). Time and place are fundamental cultural assumptions that influence the way organizations form these frames. Given that globalization and digitalization have fundamentally altered how organizations experience and value time and place, we develop a typology of OSF development and theorize how an organization’s sense of time and sense of place interact to shape the content and structure of OSFs. In (...) so doing, we offer a spatiotemporal perspective to the sustainability literature by bringing together previously disconnected research streams on time and place. We also highlight the importance of understanding the origins, not just the outcomes, of OSFs. (shrink)