case study of business ethics

McCombs School of Business

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Videos Concepts Unwrapped View All 36 short illustrated videos explain behavioral ethics concepts and basic ethics principles. Concepts Unwrapped: Sports Edition View All 10 short videos introduce athletes to behavioral ethics concepts. Ethics Defined (Glossary) View All 58 animated videos - 1 to 2 minutes each - define key ethics terms and concepts. Ethics in Focus View All One-of-a-kind videos highlight the ethical aspects of current and historical subjects. Giving Voice To Values View All Eight short videos present the 7 principles of values-driven leadership from Gentile's Giving Voice to Values. In It To Win View All A documentary and six short videos reveal the behavioral ethics biases in super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's story. Scandals Illustrated View All 30 videos - one minute each - introduce newsworthy scandals with ethical insights and case studies. Video Series

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Case Studies

More than 70 cases pair ethics concepts with real world situations. From journalism, performing arts, and scientific research to sports, law, and business, these case studies explore current and historic ethical dilemmas, their motivating biases, and their consequences. Each case includes discussion questions, related videos, and a bibliography.

A Million Little Pieces

James Frey’s popular memoir stirred controversy and media attention after it was revealed to contain numerous exaggerations and fabrications.

Abramoff: Lobbying Congress

Super-lobbyist Abramoff was caught in a scheme to lobby against his own clients. Was a corrupt individual or a corrupt system – or both – to blame?

Apple Suppliers & Labor Practices

Is tech company Apple, Inc. ethically obligated to oversee the questionable working conditions of other companies further down their supply chain?

Approaching the Presidency: Roosevelt & Taft

Some presidents view their responsibilities in strictly legal terms, others according to duty. Roosevelt and Taft took two extreme approaches.

Appropriating “Hope”

Fairey’s portrait of Barack Obama raised debate over the extent to which an artist can use and modify another’s artistic work, yet still call it one’s own.

Arctic Offshore Drilling

Competing groups frame the debate over oil drilling off Alaska’s coast in varying ways depending on their environmental and economic interests.

Banning Burkas: Freedom or Discrimination?

The French law banning women from wearing burkas in public sparked debate about discrimination and freedom of religion.

Birthing Vaccine Skepticism

Wakefield published an article riddled with inaccuracies and conflicts of interest that created significant vaccine hesitancy regarding the MMR vaccine.

Blurred Lines of Copyright

Marvin Gaye’s Estate won a lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for the hit song “Blurred Lines,” which had a similar feel to one of his songs.

Bullfighting: Art or Not?

Bullfighting has been a prominent cultural and artistic event for centuries, but in recent decades it has faced increasing criticism for animal rights’ abuse.

Buying Green: Consumer Behavior

Do purchasing green products, such as organic foods and electric cars, give consumers the moral license to indulge in unethical behavior?

Cadavers in Car Safety Research

Engineers at Heidelberg University insist that the use of human cadavers in car safety research is ethical because their research can save lives.

Cardinals’ Computer Hacking

St. Louis Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa hacked into the Houston Astros’ webmail system, leading to legal repercussions and a lifetime ban from MLB.

Cheating: Atlanta’s School Scandal

Teachers and administrators at Parks Middle School adjust struggling students’ test scores in an effort to save their school from closure.

Cheating: Sign-Stealing in MLB

The Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scheme rocked the baseball world, leading to a game-changing MLB investigation and fallout.

Cheating: UNC’s Academic Fraud

UNC’s academic fraud scandal uncovered an 18-year scheme of unchecked coursework and fraudulent classes that enabled student-athletes to play sports.

Cheney v. U.S. District Court

A controversial case focuses on Justice Scalia’s personal friendship with Vice President Cheney and the possible conflict of interest it poses to the case.

Christina Fallin: “Appropriate Culturation?”

After Fallin posted a picture of herself wearing a Plain’s headdress on social media, uproar emerged over cultural appropriation and Fallin’s intentions.

Climate Change & the Paris Deal

While climate change poses many abstract problems, the actions (or inactions) of today’s populations will have tangible effects on future generations.

Cover-Up on Campus

While the Baylor University football team was winning on the field, university officials failed to take action when allegations of sexual assault by student athletes emerged.

Covering Female Athletes

Sports Illustrated stirs controversy when their cover photo of an Olympic skier seems to focus more on her physical appearance than her athletic abilities.

Covering Yourself? Journalists and the Bowl Championship

Can news outlets covering the Bowl Championship Series fairly report sports news if their own polls were used to create the news?

Cyber Harassment

After a student defames a middle school teacher on social media, the teacher confronts the student in class and posts a video of the confrontation online.

Defending Freedom of Tweets?

Running back Rashard Mendenhall receives backlash from fans after criticizing the celebration of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

Dennis Kozlowski: Living Large

Dennis Kozlowski was an effective leader for Tyco in his first few years as CEO, but eventually faced criminal charges over his use of company assets.

Digital Downloads

File-sharing program Napster sparked debate over the legal and ethical dimensions of downloading unauthorized copies of copyrighted music.

Dr. V’s Magical Putter

Journalist Caleb Hannan outed Dr. V as a trans woman, sparking debate over the ethics of Hannan’s reporting, as well its role in Dr. V’s suicide.

East Germany’s Doping Machine

From 1968 to the late 1980s, East Germany (GDR) doped some 9,000 athletes to gain success in international athletic competitions despite being aware of the unfortunate side effects.

Ebola & American Intervention

Did the dispatch of U.S. military units to Liberia to aid in humanitarian relief during the Ebola epidemic help or hinder the process?

Edward Snowden: Traitor or Hero?

Was Edward Snowden’s release of confidential government documents ethically justifiable?

Ethical Pitfalls in Action

Why do good people do bad things? Behavioral ethics is the science of moral decision-making, which explores why and how people make the ethical (and unethical) decisions that they do.

Ethical Use of Home DNA Testing

The rising popularity of at-home DNA testing kits raises questions about privacy and consumer rights.

Flying the Confederate Flag

A heated debate ensues over whether or not the Confederate flag should be removed from the South Carolina State House grounds.

Freedom of Speech on Campus

In the wake of racially motivated offenses, student protests sparked debate over the roles of free speech, deliberation, and tolerance on campus.

Freedom vs. Duty in Clinical Social Work

What should social workers do when their personal values come in conflict with the clients they are meant to serve?

Full Disclosure: Manipulating Donors

When an intern witnesses a donor making a large gift to a non-profit organization under misleading circumstances, she struggles with what to do.

Gaming the System: The VA Scandal

The Veterans Administration’s incentives were meant to spur more efficient and productive healthcare, but not all administrators complied as intended.

German Police Battalion 101

During the Holocaust, ordinary Germans became willing killers even though they could have opted out from murdering their Jewish neighbors.

Head Injuries & American Football

Many studies have linked traumatic brain injuries and related conditions to American football, creating controversy around the safety of the sport.

Head Injuries & the NFL

American football is a rough and dangerous game and its impact on the players’ brain health has sparked a hotly contested debate.

Healthcare Obligations: Personal vs. Institutional

A medical doctor must make a difficult decision when informing patients of the effectiveness of flu shots while upholding institutional recommendations.

High Stakes Testing

In the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act, parents, teachers, and school administrators take different positions on how to assess student achievement.

In-FUR-mercials: Advertising & Adoption

When the Lied Animal Shelter faces a spike in animal intake, an advertising agency uses its moral imagination to increase pet adoptions.

Krogh & the Watergate Scandal

Egil Krogh was a young lawyer working for the Nixon Administration whose ethics faded from view when asked to play a part in the Watergate break-in.

Limbaugh on Drug Addiction

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh argued that drug abuse was a choice, not a disease. He later became addicted to painkillers.

U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s “over-exaggeration” of an incident at the 2016 Rio Olympics led to very real consequences.

Meet Me at Starbucks

Two black men were arrested after an employee called the police on them, prompting Starbucks to implement “racial-bias” training across all its stores.

Myanmar Amber

Buying amber could potentially fund an ethnic civil war, but refraining allows collectors to acquire important specimens that could be used for research.

Negotiating Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy lawyer Gellene successfully represented a mining company during a major reorganization, but failed to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Pao & Gender Bias

Ellen Pao stirred debate in the venture capital and tech industries when she filed a lawsuit against her employer on grounds of gender discrimination.

Pardoning Nixon

One month after Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency, Gerald Ford made the controversial decision to issue Nixon a full pardon.

Patient Autonomy & Informed Consent

Nursing staff and family members struggle with informed consent when taking care of a patient who has been deemed legally incompetent.

Prenatal Diagnosis & Parental Choice

Debate has emerged over the ethics of prenatal diagnosis and reproductive freedom in instances where testing has revealed genetic abnormalities.

Reporting on Robin Williams

After Robin Williams took his own life, news media covered the story in great detail, leading many to argue that such reporting violated the family’s privacy.

Responding to Child Migration

An influx of children migrants posed logistical and ethical dilemmas for U.S. authorities while intensifying ongoing debate about immigration.

Retracting Research: The Case of Chandok v. Klessig

A researcher makes the difficult decision to retract a published, peer-reviewed article after the original research results cannot be reproduced.

Sacking Social Media in College Sports

In the wake of questionable social media use by college athletes, the head coach at University of South Carolina bans his players from using Twitter.

Selling Enron

Following the deregulation of electricity markets in California, private energy company Enron profited greatly, but at a dire cost.

Snyder v. Phelps

Freedom of speech was put on trial in a case involving the Westboro Baptist Church and their protesting at the funeral of U.S. Marine Matthew Snyder.

Something Fishy at the Paralympics

Rampant cheating has plagued the Paralympics over the years, compromising the credibility and sportsmanship of Paralympian athletes.

Sports Blogs: The Wild West of Sports Journalism?

Deadspin pays an anonymous source for information related to NFL star Brett Favre, sparking debate over the ethics of “checkbook journalism.”

Stangl & the Holocaust

Franz Stangl was the most effective Nazi administrator in Poland, killing nearly one million Jews at Treblinka, but he claimed he was simply following orders.

Teaching Blackface: A Lesson on Stereotypes

A teacher was put on leave for showing a blackface video during a lesson on racial segregation, sparking discussion over how to teach about stereotypes.

The Astros’ Sign-Stealing Scandal

The Houston Astros rode a wave of success, culminating in a World Series win, but it all came crashing down when their sign-stealing scheme was revealed.

The Central Park Five

Despite the indisputable and overwhelming evidence of the innocence of the Central Park Five, some involved in the case refuse to believe it.

The CIA Leak

Legal and political fallout follows from the leak of classified information that led to the identification of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The Collapse of Barings Bank

When faced with growing losses, investment banker Nick Leeson took big risks in an attempt to get out from under the losses. He lost.

The Costco Model

How can companies promote positive treatment of employees and benefit from leading with the best practices? Costco offers a model.

The FBI & Apple Security vs. Privacy

How can tech companies and government organizations strike a balance between maintaining national security and protecting user privacy?

The Miss Saigon Controversy

When a white actor was cast for the half-French, half-Vietnamese character in the Broadway production of Miss Saigon , debate ensued.

The Sandusky Scandal

Following the conviction of assistant coach Jerry Sandusky for sexual abuse, debate continues on how much university officials and head coach Joe Paterno knew of the crimes.

The Varsity Blues Scandal

A college admissions prep advisor told wealthy parents that while there were front doors into universities and back doors, he had created a side door that was worth exploring.

Providing radiation therapy to cancer patients, Therac-25 had malfunctions that resulted in 6 deaths. Who is accountable when technology causes harm?

Welfare Reform

The Welfare Reform Act changed how welfare operated, intensifying debate over the government’s role in supporting the poor through direct aid.

Wells Fargo and Moral Emotions

In a settlement with regulators, Wells Fargo Bank admitted that it had created as many as two million accounts for customers without their permission.

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• 18 Jun 2024
• Cold Call Podcast

How Natural Winemaker Frank Cornelissen Innovated While Staying True to His Brand

In 2018, artisanal Italian vineyard Frank Cornelissen was one of the world’s leading producers of natural wine. But when weather-related conditions damaged that year’s grapes, founder Frank Cornelissen had to decide between staying true to the tenets of natural wine making or breaking with his public beliefs to save that year’s grapes by adding sulfites. Harvard Business School assistant professor Tiona Zuzul discusses the importance of staying true to your company’s principles while remaining flexible enough to welcome progress in the case, Frank Cornelissen: The Great Sulfite Debate.

• 30 Apr 2024

When Managers Set Unrealistic Expectations, Employees Cut Ethical Corners

Corporate misconduct has grown in the past 30 years, with losses often totaling billions of dollars. What businesses may not realize is that misconduct often results from managers who set unrealistic expectations, leading decent people to take unethical shortcuts, says Lynn S. Paine.

• 23 Apr 2024

Amazon in Seattle: The Role of Business in Causing and Solving a Housing Crisis

In 2020, Amazon partnered with a nonprofit called Mary’s Place and used some of its own resources to build a shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness on its campus in Seattle. Yet critics argued that Amazon’s apparent charity was misplaced and that the company was actually making the problem worse. Paul Healy and Debora Spar explore the role business plays in addressing unhoused communities in the case “Hitting Home: Amazon and Mary’s Place.”

• 15 Apr 2024

Struggling With a Big Management Decision? Start by Asking What Really Matters

Leaders must face hard choices, from cutting a budget to adopting a strategy to grow. To make the right call, they should start by following their own “true moral compass,” says Joseph Badaracco.

• 26 Mar 2024

How Do Great Leaders Overcome Adversity?

In the spring of 2021, Raymond Jefferson (MBA 2000) applied for a job in President Joseph Biden’s administration. Ten years earlier, false allegations were used to force him to resign from his prior US government position as assistant secretary of labor for veterans’ employment and training in the Department of Labor. Two employees had accused him of ethical violations in hiring and procurement decisions, including pressuring subordinates into extending contracts to his alleged personal associates. The Deputy Secretary of Labor gave Jefferson four hours to resign or be terminated. Jefferson filed a federal lawsuit against the US government to clear his name, which he pursued for eight years at the expense of his entire life savings. Why, after such a traumatic and debilitating experience, would Jefferson want to pursue a career in government again? Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Anthony Mayo explores Jefferson’s personal and professional journey from upstate New York to West Point to the Obama administration, how he faced adversity at several junctures in his life, and how resilience and vulnerability shaped his leadership style in the case, "Raymond Jefferson: Trial by Fire."

• 02 Jan 2024

Should Businesses Take a Stand on Societal Issues?

Should businesses take a stand for or against particular societal issues? And how should leaders determine when and how to engage on these sensitive matters? Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Hubert Joly, who led the electronics retailer Best Buy for almost a decade, discusses examples of corporate leaders who had to determine whether and how to engage with humanitarian crises, geopolitical conflict, racial justice, climate change, and more in the case, “Deciding When to Engage on Societal Issues.”

• 12 Dec 2023

Can Sustainability Drive Innovation at Ferrari?

When Ferrari, the Italian luxury sports car manufacturer, committed to achieving carbon neutrality and to electrifying a large part of its car fleet, investors and employees applauded the new strategy. But among the company’s suppliers, the reaction was mixed. Many were nervous about how this shift would affect their bottom lines. Professor Raffaella Sadun and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna discuss how Ferrari collaborated with suppliers to work toward achieving the company’s goal. They also explore how sustainability can be a catalyst for innovation in the case, “Ferrari: Shifting to Carbon Neutrality.” This episode was recorded live December 4, 2023 in front of a remote studio audience in the Live Online Classroom at Harvard Business School.

• 11 Dec 2023
• Research & Ideas

Doing Well by Doing Good? One Industry’s Struggle to Balance Values and Profits

Few companies wrestle with their moral mission and financial goals like those in journalism. Research by Lakshmi Ramarajan explores how a disrupted industry upholds its values even as the bottom line is at stake.

• 27 Nov 2023

Voting Democrat or Republican? The Critical Childhood Influence That's Tough to Shake

Candidates might fixate on red, blue, or swing states, but the neighborhoods where voters spend their teen years play a key role in shaping their political outlook, says research by Vincent Pons. What do the findings mean for the upcoming US elections?

• 21 Nov 2023

The Beauty Industry: Products for a Healthy Glow or a Compact for Harm?

Many cosmetics and skincare companies present an image of social consciousness and transformative potential, while profiting from insecurity and excluding broad swaths of people. Geoffrey Jones examines the unsightly reality of the beauty industry.

• 09 Nov 2023

What Will It Take to Confront the Invisible Mental Health Crisis in Business?

The pressure to do more, to be more, is fueling its own silent epidemic. Lauren Cohen discusses the common misperceptions that get in the way of supporting employees' well-being, drawing on case studies about people who have been deeply affected by mental illness.

• 07 Nov 2023

How Should Meta Be Governed for the Good of Society?

Julie Owono is executive director of Internet Sans Frontières and a member of the Oversight Board, an outside entity with the authority to make binding decisions on tricky moderation questions for Meta’s companies, including Facebook and Instagram. Harvard Business School visiting professor Jesse Shapiro and Owono break down how the Board governs Meta’s social and political power to ensure that it’s used responsibly, and discuss the Board’s impact, as an alternative to government regulation, in the case, “Independent Governance of Meta’s Social Spaces: The Oversight Board.”

• 24 Oct 2023

From P.T. Barnum to Mary Kay: Lessons From 5 Leaders Who Changed the World

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• 03 Oct 2023
• Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

"Happiness is not a destination. It's a direction." In this video, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey reflect on mistakes, emotions, and contentment, sharing lessons from their new book.

• 12 Sep 2023

Successful, But Still Feel Empty? A Happiness Scholar and Oprah Have Advice for You

So many executives spend decades reaching the pinnacles of their careers only to find themselves unfulfilled at the top. In the book Build the Life You Want, Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey offer high achievers a guide to becoming better leaders—of their lives.

• 10 Jul 2023
• In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

Need a book recommendation for your summer vacation? HBS faculty members share their reading lists, which include titles that explore spirituality, design, suspense, and more.

• 01 Jun 2023

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

Larry Miller committed murder as a teenager, but earned a college degree while serving time and set out to start a new life. Still, he had to conceal his record to get a job that would ultimately take him to the heights of sports marketing. A case study by Francesca Gino, Hise Gibson, and Frances Frei shows the barriers that formerly incarcerated Black men are up against and the potential talent they could bring to business.

• 04 Apr 2023

Two Centuries of Business Leaders Who Took a Stand on Social Issues

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• 14 Mar 2023

Can AI and Machine Learning Help Park Rangers Prevent Poaching?

Globally there are too few park rangers to prevent the illegal trade of wildlife across borders, or poaching. In response, Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) was created by a coalition of conservation organizations to take historical data and create geospatial mapping tools that enable more efficient deployment of rangers. SMART had demonstrated significant improvements in patrol coverage, with some observed reductions in poaching. Then a new predictive analytic tool, the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS), was created to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to try to predict where poachers would be likely to strike. Jonathan Palmer, Executive Director of Conservation Technology for the Wildlife Conservation Society, already had a good data analytics tool to help park rangers manage their patrols. Would adding an AI- and ML-based tool improve outcomes or introduce new problems? Harvard Business School senior lecturer Brian Trelstad discusses the importance of focusing on the use case when determining the value of adding a complex technology solution in his case, “SMART: AI and Machine Learning for Wildlife Conservation.”

• 14 Feb 2023

Does It Pay to Be a Whistleblower?

In 2013, soon after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had started a massive whistleblowing program with the potential for large monetary rewards, two employees of a US bank’s asset management business debated whether to blow the whistle on their employer after completing an internal review that revealed undisclosed conflicts of interest. The bank’s asset management business disproportionately invested clients’ money in its own mutual funds over funds managed by other banks, letting it collect additional fees—and the bank had not disclosed this conflict of interest to clients. Both employees agreed that failing to disclose the conflict was a problem, but beyond that, they saw the situation very differently. One employee, Neel, perceived the internal review as a good-faith effort by senior management to identify and address the problem. The other, Akash, thought that the entire business model was problematic, even with a disclosure, and believed that the bank may have even broken the law. Should they escalate the issue internally or report their findings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission? Harvard Business School associate professor Jonas Heese discusses the potential risks and rewards of whistleblowing in his case, “Conflicts of Interest at Uptown Bank.”

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What Are Business Ethics & Why Are They Important?

• 27 Jul 2023

From artificial intelligence to facial recognition technology, organizations face an increasing number of ethical dilemmas. While innovation can aid business growth, it can also create opportunities for potential abuse.

“The long-term impacts of a new technology—both positive and negative—may not become apparent until years after it’s introduced,” says Harvard Business School Professor Nien-hê Hsieh in the online course Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “For example, the impact of social media on children and teenagers didn’t become evident until we watched it play out over time.”

If you’re a current or prospective leader concerned about navigating difficult situations, here's an overview of business ethics, why they're important, and how to ensure ethical behavior in your organization.

Access your free e-book today.

What Are Business Ethics?

Business ethics are principles that guide decision-making . As a leader, you’ll face many challenges in the workplace because of different interpretations of what's ethical. Situations often require navigating the “gray area,” where it’s unclear what’s right and wrong.

When making decisions, your experiences, opinions, and perspectives can influence what you believe to be ethical, making it vital to:

• Be transparent.
• Invite feedback.
• Consider impacts on employees, stakeholders, and society.
• Reflect on past experiences to learn what you could have done better.

“The way to think about ethics, in my view, is: What are the externalities that your business creates, both positive and negative?” says Harvard Business School Professor Vikram Gandhi in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “And, therefore, how do you actually increase the positive element of externalities? And how do you decrease the negative?”

Related: Why Managers Should Involve Their Team in the Decision-Making Process

Ethical Responsibilities to Society

Promoting ethical conduct can benefit both your company and society long term.

“I'm a strong believer that a long-term focus is what creates long-term value,” Gandhi says in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “So you should get shareholders in your company that have that same perspective.”

Prioritizing the triple bottom line is an effective way for your business to fulfill its environmental responsibilities and create long-term value. It focuses on three factors:

• Profit: The financial return your company generates for shareholders
• People: How your company affects customers, employees, and stakeholders
• Planet: Your company’s impact on the planet and environment

Check out the video below to learn more about the triple bottom line, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

Ethical and corporate social responsibility (CSR) considerations can go a long way toward creating value, especially since an increasing number of customers, employees, and investors expect organizations to prioritize CSR. According to the Conscious Consumer Spending Index , 67 percent of customers prefer buying from socially responsible companies.

To prevent costly employee turnover and satisfy customers, strive to fulfill your ethical responsibilities to society.

Ethical Responsibilities to Customers

As a leader, you must ensure you don’t mislead your customers. Doing so can backfire, negatively impacting your organization’s credibility and profits.

Actions to avoid include:

• Greenwashing : Taking advantage of customers’ CSR preferences by claiming your business practices are sustainable when they aren't.
• False advertising : Making unverified or untrue claims in advertisements or promotional material.
• Making false promises : Lying to make a sale.

These unethical practices can result in multi-million dollar lawsuits, as well as highly dissatisfied customers.

Ethical Responsibilities to Employees

You also have ethical responsibilities to your employees—from the beginning to the end of their employment.

One area of business ethics that receives a lot of attention is employee termination. According to Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability , letting an employee go requires an individualized approach that ensures fairness.

Not only can wrongful termination cost your company upwards of $100,000 in legal expenses , it can also negatively impact other employees’ morale and how they perceive your leadership.

Ethical business practices have additional benefits, such as attracting and retaining talented employees willing to take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company. Approximately 40 percent of millennials say they would switch jobs to work for a company that emphasizes sustainability.

Ultimately, it's critical to do your best to treat employees fairly.

“Fairness is not only an ethical response to power asymmetries in the work environment,” Hsieh says in the course. “Fairness—and having a successful organizational culture–can benefit the organization economically and legally.”

Why Are Business Ethics Important?

Failure to understand and apply business ethics can result in moral disengagement .

“Moral disengagement refers to ways in which we convince ourselves that what we’re doing is not wrong,” Hsieh says in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “It can upset the balance of judgment—causing us to prioritize our personal commitments over shared beliefs, rules, and principles—or it can skew our logic to make unethical behaviors appear less harmful or not wrong.”

Moral disengagement can also lead to questionable decisions, such as insider trading .

“In the U.S., insider trading is defined in common, federal, and state laws regulating the opportunity for insiders to benefit from material, non-public information, or MNPI,” Hsieh explains.

This type of unethical behavior can carry severe legal consequences and negatively impact your company's bottom line.

“If you create a certain amount of harm to a society, your customers, or employees over a period of time, that’s going to have a negative impact on your economic value,” Gandhi says in the course.

This is reflected in over half of the top 10 largest bankruptcies between 1980 and 2013 that resulted from unethical behavior. As a business leader, strive to make ethical decisions and fulfill your responsibilities to stakeholders.

How to Implement Business Ethics

To become a more ethical leader, it's crucial to have a balanced, long-term focus.

“It's very important to balance the fact that, even if you're focused on the long term, you have to perform in the short term as well and have a very clear, articulated strategy around that,” Gandhi says in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability .

Making ethical decisions requires reflective leadership.

“Reflecting on complex, gray-area decisions is a key part of what it means to be human, as well as an effective leader,” Hsieh says. “You have agency. You must choose how to act. And with that agency comes responsibility.”

Related: Why Are Ethics Important in Engineering?

Hsieh advises asking the following questions:

• Are you using the “greater good” to justify unethical behavior?
• Are you downplaying your actions to feel better?

“Asking these and similar questions at regular intervals can help you notice when you or others may be approaching the line between making a tough but ethical call and justifying problematic actions,” Hsieh says.

Become a More Ethical Leader

Learning from past successes and mistakes can enable you to improve your ethical decision-making.

“As a leader, when trying to determine what to do, it can be helpful to start by simply asking in any given situation, ‘What can we do?’ and ‘What would be wrong to do?’” Hsieh says.

Many times, the answers come from experience.

Gain insights from others’ ethical decisions, too. One way to do so is by taking an online course, such as Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability , which includes case studies that immerse you in real-world business situations, as well as a reflective leadership model to inform your decision-making.

Ready to become a better leader? Enroll in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability —one of our online leadership and management courses —and download our free e-book on how to be a more effective leader.

About the Author

• General & Introductory Business & Management
• Business & Society
• Business Ethics

Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality

ISBN: 978-1-118-33668-7

February 2014

Wiley-Blackwell

Digital Evaluation Copy

W. Michael Hoffman , Robert E. Frederick , Mark S. Schwartz

• Addresses a broad range of the most current, intriguing, often complex issues and cases in corporate morality
• Provides impartial, point-counterpoint presentations of different perspectives on the most important and highly contended issues of business ethics
• Updated and significant case studies are included to reinforce student learning
• Now contains mini-cases based on actual MBA student dilemmas
• Each author has substantial experience in teaching, writing, and conducting research in the field

W. Michael Hoffman is the founding Executive Director of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Dr. Hoffman is also the Hieken Professor of Business and Professional Ethics at Bentley University and is the author or editor of 16 books.

Robert E. Frederick is professor of philosophy and chair of the Philosophy Department at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is also Research Scholar at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley and editor of the Center’s journal Business and Society Review .

Mark S. Schwartz is a professor of business ethics and corporate social responsibility at the School of Administrative Studies at York University (Toronto, Canada), and is a Research Fellow for the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. He has published in a range of journals, including the Journal of Business Ethics , Business Ethics Quarterly , and Business & Society .

Business Ethics

(9 reviews)

OpenStax College

Copyright Year: 2018

ISBN 13: 9781947172579

Publisher: OpenStax

Language: English

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Reviewed by Ingrid Greene, Clinical Assistant Professor, Loyola Marymount University on 6/6/23

I think that the subjects that are covered are thorough and they use great examples. But, I also feel that the textbook is missing a lot of key topics such as the role of technology and a deeper dive into the role of governments and non-profits. I... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

I think that the subjects that are covered are thorough and they use great examples. But, I also feel that the textbook is missing a lot of key topics such as the role of technology and a deeper dive into the role of governments and non-profits. I understand that it is important to include a lot about philosophy, but I think that there is a lot of room for improvement with a deeper dive of some other key parts of the curriculum. The philosophy part has many sources outside of a traditional textbook since this topic is has been studied for thousands of years, and doesn't need to be covered as thoroughly here. More time could be spend on other topics like non-profits and governance. I think that it is missing key parts about the role of a Board of Directors, how they are elected, and their responsibilities.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Everything looked accurate and detailed properly.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Yes, updates will be possible, and they link to relevant articles or cases that are very up-to-date. Again, I would just add more about technology and the role of non-profits.

Clarity rating: 4

I like the book, but the slides could be more clear and complete. Many of the slides have only a small photo and very limited text. They do not include much of the text material. I needed to create my own slides, and/or skip much of the material.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is very professional, and easy to read. There are key diagrams, and highlighting of key ideas. The slides, again, could use some help to coordinate better with the book.

Modularity rating: 5

It is very easy to read. I assigned the book to an 8th grader, and she was able to move through it easily and it engaged her interest. I took this as a good sign that it is good as an introduction to ethics for someone who is not familiar with the topic.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics are well organized, but I would add a lot more about the world of non-profits. The external references to HBR cases is great. The frequent cases are also great.

Interface rating: 5

This is great. No problem with viewing it on multiple devices and computers.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Since this book centers a lot around culture, it would be hard to not give it a 5.

As I mentioned, it is important to have slides that really include much of the text, and I found the teacher resources for this very weak. I am hopeful that this could be improved. I did not have a chance to test the integration with our CMS, but I am hopeful that it could be helpful. I like that they include quizzes since this too can be time consuming for students. Lastly, I very much recommend that they include the work of non-profits in the discussion with business since this is a key player when we talk about doing things ethically, and getting input from key stakeholders.

Reviewed by Alysa D Lambert, Professor of HRM, Indiana University - Southeast (New Albany) on 2/21/23

The text covers a wide breadth of ethics and addresses all major and then some secondary topics in ethics. It also provides some of the history of ethical frameworks and their origins. It provides brief cases and critical thinking questions for... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text covers a wide breadth of ethics and addresses all major and then some secondary topics in ethics. It also provides some of the history of ethical frameworks and their origins. It provides brief cases and critical thinking questions for students to deepen their knowledge.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I saw very few errors. The tone of the book reads as unbiased and covers all major theories of ethics.

Updates will be required but only as related to current ethical issues in business. As technology and business change, globalization continues to grow then the ethical issues will change and need to be updated. The ethical frameworks and the history of ethics will not change very much.

The book was clearly written with understandable examples. The resources are clear, relevant and recent.

Consistency rating: 4

The framework, format and vocabulary used were consistent and did not require extra explanation. For example, the "Link to Learning" boxes were great for giving students the chance to learn more about a topic. These will have to be checked frequently to ensure they are still live links which relates to the how relevant the book is in the future.

Modularity rating: 3

This could be improved. More headings, more sub-headings and more short case examples would increase the modularity of the text. Have short ethical dilemmas as conversation starters would also be a great addition.

I saw no issues with the organization of the material. My only suggestion would be to consider changing the "epilogue" chapter. It is titled, "Why ethics still matters?" I would hope after reading some much about ethics that much of this discussion would be obvious so breaking these points out and including them throughout may be one way to keep the relevance of studying ethics at the forefront of the course.

I did not see anything of concern here.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Culture has a prominent place in the book. I selected a 4 rating because there is always room for growth, but I believe the text does a really good job of reminding students of the cultural implications related to ethics. More examples could be added on LGBTQ+ issues, in particular the ethical implications related to inclusion and protecting those in the workplace who are in transition or who have transitioned.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Collier, Christopher Chair in Business Ethics, Dominican University on 5/2/22

This book includes the standard theories covered in most business ethics textbooks, along with a few additional frameworks that include cross-cultural opportunities for discussion and a broadening of what students may consider as they develop... read more

This book includes the standard theories covered in most business ethics textbooks, along with a few additional frameworks that include cross-cultural opportunities for discussion and a broadening of what students may consider as they develop their understanding of ethics. It covers a wide range of topics and cases and could be used in a general undergraduate course to cover a lot of ground. The many opportunities for critical thinking and the deeper discussion questions allow for this to be used at a general graduate level MBA course as well. If used in an MBA course, additional materials or lectures would need to be added because book moves at a quick clip and has just the basics on each topic, while covering many different topics.

The materials are accurate and there are many critical thinking questions provided that allow for deeper engagement with the frameworks and cases through assignments and discussions.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content includes traditional cases that all students should be aware of and also many recent cases that explore issues not covered in the past. The ability for sections of these types of books to be updated semi-regularly means that the book should not be obsolete any time soon and could be augmented/updated very easily in the future with new cases that have arisen.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is well written, clear, very concise, and includes references and a glossary for each chapter.

The book maintains consistency throughout in format, cases, questions, glossary, photos, videos and opportunities for engagement.

In addition to the book being easily broken up by week into a quarter or semester, there are optional Canvas and Blackboard downloads that are comprehensive, along with resources for assignments aiding an instructor in maintaining the modularity, clarity and organization.

The book has a clear organization that it maintains throughout.

Interface rating: 4

There is an "errata" function on the OpenStax site that explains all issues related to this category and the book seems to be updated every spring to address issues with links, quiz questions and other minor corrections.

I did not find any grammatical errors.

This book does make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities and other aspects of diversity in the workplace.

This is an excellent option for those looking to include OER materials into the business classroom. Many people from a wide range of academic disciplines contributed to or reviewed the text. There are very few resources for OER business ethics texts, so the comprehensiveness of this text, along with the many supplemental resources for faculty, are really a great resource at this time.

Reviewed by Rebeca Book, Professor, Pittsburg State University on 4/19/22

The textbook is very comprehensive and covers many areas. Good background in providing the foundation and history of ethics and the different perspectives. Thought the different links to current stories and interviews also was beneficial. Was... read more

The textbook is very comprehensive and covers many areas. Good background in providing the foundation and history of ethics and the different perspectives. Thought the different links to current stories and interviews also was beneficial. Was very comprehensive in that with the OpenStax and this particular textbook, the instructor has access to importing information (to me it was the Canvas Learning Management System) such as tests, powerpoints, etc. This additional information could also be downloaded and separate from a Learning Management System if needed.

Content was accurate and did not find any errors. Felt some areas might be a little biased, but in ethics this can easily happen and information was discussed in a relevant and thoughtful manner.

Interesting to think if it would become obsolete because I could relate to some of the interviews and stories, but later in a few years they might become obsolete but not the actual content or purpose of the information. Student might not relate as well to the stories later if they don't recognize the names or companies. Since the textbook is OpenStax I would think that the authors and audiences that use the textbook might update or bring in discussions to bring more current stories to the textbook.

The text is very lucid and easy to understand and read. Information is clearly explained and there are even portions of each area with key terms, summary and assessment. The textbook even has outlined expected outcomes for each chapter.

The text is consistent in terminology and framework.

The text can be divided into different reading sections easily. For my own purposes I do not devote a whole semester to ethics, so because there is so much good content and thought provoking insights, it will be hard to decide what to assign or use. But if the textbook were to be used entirely for a course, everything is well laid out.

I do believe the text is laid out in a logical and clear fashion.

I did not find the text itself to have interface problems. Was pleasantly surprised that I could even download the textbook onto my Kindle! The only problems that I had were using it with Canvas, but the problems were on my end and not with the textbook itself. I wonder in the future if there could be problems with links if they are discontinued or websites change, but hopefully there won't be any issues.. I didn't have any problems with the links when I used them in going through and reading the textbook.

The book, being on ethics, is very careful of cultures. It attempts in a very thoughtful way to help navigate and be sensitive to different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Reviewed by Elissa Magnant, Visiting Instructor, University of Massachusetts Lowell on 6/29/20

This textbook is comprehensive. In fact, it provides more than enough information for either an undergraduate course in Business Ethics or a more in-depth analysis for seminar or graduate students if the video case studies are utilized fully. ... read more

This textbook is comprehensive. In fact, it provides more than enough information for either an undergraduate course in Business Ethics or a more in-depth analysis for seminar or graduate students if the video case studies are utilized fully. Because of the depth of content, for undergraduates the text might be best assigned by specific page numbers to cover specific topics, instead of full chapters all at once.

The text is well researched by astute world renown faculty who use peer reviewed materials.

One reason to use this book is that it is up to date. It covers more recent business ethics dilemmas than print or print/digital texts because by virtue of being open source and fully digital, it is kept more up to date than other textbooks I have used.

This book is well written and easy for the student to comprehend. It also provides instructor support material of a test bank which is also well designed.

This book is compatible with the humanistic ethics framework, including a focus on dignity, fairness and collaboration.

This textbook implements short case studies called "Cases from the Real World," opportunities for students to think and reflect on ethics questions as well as multiple headings/sub-headings for ease of division and assignment.

I like the organization of this textbook as it starts with the basic philosophical frameworks and moves to modern day real business ethics challenges so that the student progresses through stages, understanding how topics build upon each other as the book evolves.

Students really enjoy the option of buying a paper version of this book, which is made available on our campus for under $20. They also enjoyed the easily downloadable version of the text with clickable links, especially because they can download it or view it from any device. It makes it very easy to ask them to read and then evaluate their ethical considerations of the material in class or online.

I am unaware of any grammatical errors in this text.

This text does an exceptional job of providing students with a balanced understanding of ethical globalization. It is liberal toward US government ethics and could perhaps provide more balanced nuances when addressing those topics.

I used two other popular Business Ethics textbooks prior to making the change to this textbook. I am so happy I did. It provides a no-cost option to those who use it digitally, a low-cost option to those who want to also have access to a professionally printed version, and it covers more up-to-date business ethics topics than either of the previous texts I used. I look forward to the updates as they help to keep the class relevant and challenging for all.

Reviewed by Kerry Dolan, Accounting/Business Department Chair, TRAILS on 11/22/19

The content is of the book is more than enough to support a full semester 200-level business ethics course and it does a good job of covering the basic ethics principles as well as specific examples that are relevant to the contemporary business... read more

The content is of the book is more than enough to support a full semester 200-level business ethics course and it does a good job of covering the basic ethics principles as well as specific examples that are relevant to the contemporary business world.

I'm not an expert in the field of business ethics, but given my background in general business and accounting, I did not encounter any information in the textbook that appeared to be inaccurate.

Relevance is always an issue with business-related textbooks because real-world examples quickly become outdated. However, this issue does not appear to be more pervasive with this text, nor would it be difficult to update or supplement any outdated examples. The basic concepts presented are not subject to obsolescence.

The text is very clear and understandable for lower-level college students that are encountering the basics of business ethics for the first time.

Text appeared to be consistent throughout. Clear organization and presentation.

I really liked how the book was organized with chapters and sections making it easy to assign partial chapters and/or specific sections and a manageable number of chapters and sections.

The text starts with broad concepts and moves to specific applications in business. The organization makes the presentation of the information clear to those who are being exposed to this discipline for the first time with this textbook.

Interface rating: 3

When reading this on a Kindle device, there were some areas where it was hard to decipher a picture caption from the string of text as as a result of digital page breaks and adjusted text sized, but once you got through the first chapter and were more familiar with the organization of each chapter it was not a distracting issue.

I didn't notice any grammatical errors.

The textbook did not appear to go out of its way to make sure that all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds were included, but there was a range of diverse images and examples. I did not see any culturally insensitive or offensive examples or images from my perspective.

Reviewed by Lou Cartier, Adjunct Instructor, Business and Management, Aims Community College on 8/1/19

At 367 pages, with 10 integrated, substantive chapters, constructive “end notes” and assessments on the evolution of ethical reasoning, leadership, and the challenges of “becoming an ethical professional” and “making a difference in the business... read more

At 367 pages, with 10 integrated, substantive chapters, constructive “end notes” and assessments on the evolution of ethical reasoning, leadership, and the challenges of “becoming an ethical professional” and “making a difference in the business world,” this is a comprehensive text, suitable for undergraduate business students and instructors not necessarily trained in philosophy. It is a great fit for single semester course, whether offered in conventional blocks of 15 weeks, 10 or eight. Topical case studies, video links, “what would you do” scenarios and assessments, chapter glossaries, and a helpful index reflect a breadth of industry, organizational, and cultural perspectives. The Preface, outlining the book’s purpose, architecture, contributing authors and student and instructor resources (i.e., “Getting Started” guide, test bank and PPts) appears responsive to both a student’s critical eye and an instructor’s operational check list. Moreover, the test banks (10) appear solid, with multiple choice and short essay answer questions linked to the Bloom’s Taxonomy grid (plus instructor’s answer guide). Power Point slides (15-25 per unit) offer critical thinking and discussion prompts. Collectively, these components illuminate the principles, practices, and historical seeds of business ethics and corporate social responsibility in a compelling presentation.

I encountered no obvious error or mischaracterization. The authors evidently have taken pains to document their content, including graphic and video links. In citations, I appreciate both the hard information and informal context provided. In Ch. 6, for example, minimum wages in every state rely upon 2017 data from “the National Conference of State Legislatures, U.S. Dept. of Labor and state websites” (Fig. 6.9), while in the next (Fig. 6.10), under the colorful graphic, we have this: “Right-to-work states have typically been clustered in the South and Southeast, where unions have been traditionally less prevalent.” That attribution references “Copyright Rice University, Open Stax, under CC BY 4.0 license,” sufficient for “educational use,” it would seem. Faculty also will appreciate the ease of flagging and correcting three kinds of errata: factual, typo, broken links.

As other reviewers have noted, this text – like most in “applied ethics” – relies on contemporary examples of business practice, including articles and video segments drawn from the business press and government oversight venues that may grow less compelling in another five years or so (think Enron and its accounting partner, Arthur Andersen, 2000-era exemplars of white collar crime not referenced here). Yet this text does a serviceable job of setting cases as old as Ford Motor Company’s fraught introduction of the Edsel (1958) and the “Chicago Tylenol Murders (1982) and as fresh as United Airlines forced removable of a ticketed passenger from a seat needed by an airlines employee (2017) amid sufficient historical, theoretical, and organizational context to grasp the key lessons of Unit 3.2: “Weighing Stakeholder Claims.” There is little danger of obsolescence, particularly since the open textbook network makes it so easy to correct errors and substitute current examples for the somewhat dated.

The clarity and quality of writing is superb, likely a reflection of lead collaborators Stephen Byars, who teaches “oral and written communication” as well as business ethics, and Kurt Stanberry, whose “legal and leadership” credentials are exercised in his continuing education seminars with CPA’s, attorneys, and business execs … nice fits for this subject. Students still ln high school, or in the growing cadre of “co-enrolled” in community college may struggle with this text, yet the publisher’s clear attention to content “building blocks” may comfort even the less mature and experienced student. For example, in any given chapter, readers 1) begin with an outline, learning objectives, and 500 – 1,000 word introduction, 2) encounter “cases from the real world” and “what would you do” tests of comprehension, and 3) close with a narrative summary, glossary of key terms, and short set of “assessment” questions. “Links to learning” include such clever questions as whether Coca-Cola’s soft pedaling of its huge demands for water in arid climates amounts to “greenwashing” (Ch. 3) or whether certain animals ought to be off limits for human consumption because of “sentience,” their ability to think and/or feel pain, (Peter Singer, Ch. 8). In addition “key terms” for every chapter are short and clear, i.e. “Integrity … because there is unity between what we say and what we do.”

Like two previous reviewers, I found the prose and organization to be coherent and consistent. Depth, attention to detail, terminology, and overall framework are consistent, linked by “key terms” and succinct introductions and summary reviews of each chapter. In the main cases, scenarios, and references to events are compelling, current or sufficiently grounded in context to be evergreen. Videos, on the other hand, come in all types, lengths, and flavors, from five minutes to more than an hour, from sit-down interview to taped panel discussion to challenging presentation in front of a group. The resourceful or determined instructor might guide students to a time code? This is not necessarily a weakness, though uneven production values should be expected.

Yes, this material lends itself to modularity, this despite a carefully constructed progression from “why this subject matters” to “how our forebears have grappled with responsibility” to “who has a stake in these decisions” to “what we owe each other” in specific manifestations of corporate and professional enterprise. It appears that in every chapter, its major units could be assigned separately, within an instructor’s unique unifying paradigm. Individual “features” could backstop of enrich discussions in class or online. There are no “enormous blocks of text” to impede easy snipping, and thoughtful subheadings appear to break up the challenge to comprehension and endurance.

The inherent logic of this text is apparent. Authors move from a philosophical foundation (“Why ethics matters?” and approaches to “intention v. outcomes” over time) to exploration of the stakeholder theory to close examination of ethical issues in business, the professions, and organizations in the voluntary and public sectors. A unifying feature is the Introduction, key terms, “assessment questions” and “end notes” for each chapter. Personal interviews or video clips from business owners and other stakeholders, supplemented by relevant documents such as ethics policies, training materials, and previews of business development … such as New Belgium CEO Kim Jordan’s (and “contemporary thought leader”) rationale for an east coast brewery in Asheville NC (opened May 2016) help cement understanding of such integral topics in corporate social responsibility as “sustainability.”

This textbook is available online, in pdf or web view, and in print (presumably suitable for loose leaf binder for nominal cost, which instructors may facilitate through campus bookstores, if appropriate). While some are not fond of “text boxes interspersed with the main text” my students using other similar e-texts have not reported problems. That said, I did not experience the online version of this text on Kindle or my phone, which might be instructive. On the other hand, while not “distorted” I found some of the power points unhelpful, to the point of distracting or annoying the viewer. Some seem busy, with narrative text blocks under anecdotal photos or graphics in print too small for comfortable display in class. Moreover, the “what would you do?” questions in this mode seem to me presumptive, less helpful than, say, bullet references to facts, principles, or events. Instructors and overseers of “access and accessibility” may care to note that not all videos are followed by transcriptions. Overall, the heading and body styles are consistent. Selection of fonts (style and size) maximize on screen legibility. Text blocks are in contrasting color to distinguish it from background, with minimal highlighting that does not appear arbitrary. On the whole, I found layout and design mechanically sound, with pages and links numbered and labelled consistently and - to the extent sampled -- no broken links.

None observed.

There is plenty to commend on this criteria. For one thing, Ch. 5, “The Impact of Culture and Time,” engages fundamental faith beliefs globally as well as the authority of religion tradition, and challenges students to explore the “universality “of values in business ethics. For instance this text does not shrink from illustrations of both “honor and shame” in business. In Appendix C, “A Succinct Theory of Business Ethics, the authors plainly and forcefully state their underlying thesis: that business ethics ought be grounded in deontology more than in utilitarianism, that “ends” are insufficient justification for questionable “means” in formulating and executing business strategy. Illustrations of demographic and behavioral diversity and inclusion – including animal rights and the implications for research and recreation – are plentiful, addressed in Ch. 8, “Recognizing and Respecting the Rights of All,” as well as the succeeding chapter on various professions.

This is an excellent “open educational resource” for business ethics and corporate social responsibility, one I intend to tap personally. The “closing parts” especially – including “Succinct Themes in Business Ethics” – are attractive guides to curriculum development and standalone discussion prompts in the classroom or online. “Lives of Ethical Philosophers (500 to 1,000 word summaries), and “Profiles in Business Ethics: Contemporary Thought Leaders,” adds a valuable philosophical heft that, for community and junior colleges especially, our accrediting and articulation partners will be pleased to see. I further value the selection of relevant supplemental material from independent consultants that range from the very basic, i.e., “Five Questions to Identify Key Stakeholders” to those that verge on the proprietary. These include descriptions of systems to monitor and “manage” customer and other stakeholder involvement, corporate codes of conduct … even a link to free personality test (Sec. 7.3), for which “bonus” I am grateful to Steve Custer of Oakland City University for pointing out.

Reviewed by Debra Sulai, Instructor, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania on 3/12/19

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the key elements of ethical theory (Aristotelian virtue, Kantian deontology, utilitarianism, Rawls' theory of justice); the social, political, and cultural contexts of business; and the importance... read more

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the key elements of ethical theory (Aristotelian virtue, Kantian deontology, utilitarianism, Rawls' theory of justice); the social, political, and cultural contexts of business; and the importance of ethics to business, while going into greater philosophical depth than comparable textbooks. It addresses most of the key topical areas of business ethics but avoids the listicle approach of other business ethics textbooks in which every topic under the sun is stitched together with little overarching context. It also includes things like a discussion of ethics and organized labor, which other books overlook. I would, however, like to see more dedicated attention to the ethical issues raised by technology, perhaps by engaging with a philosopher of technology.

The index at the back and the detailed table of contents will make information easy to find. Each chapter's glossary will be helpful to students who are new to the subject. I particularly like the profiles of the four philosophers in the appendix: so often, ethics is taught in a disembodied and ahistorical manner, which makes it harder for students to see the relevance of the ideas being taught. These supplementary contextual elements would make this a good textbook for an instructor whose primary training was not in philosophy.

As an added advantage, the number of chapters does not exceed the number of weeks in a standard semester, and at 10 chapters plus an epilogue could also fit within a quarter system.

As far as I can tell, the content is accurate and clear. It was reviewed by dozens of faculty from a wide variety of institutions.

The book's use of contemporary examples means that it will date, but no more than any other textbook in applied ethics. As many of the examples are set out in textboxes or as links to external resources, it would be a relatively simple matter for an instructor to substitute recent examples when necessary. Chapter 10 on changing work environments and future trends is the chapter most likely to date quickly. The other applied sections will probably last 5-10 years; the ethical theory sections will remain relevant for a longer period of time.

I think this is appropriate for a general-education course in business ethics. I found it to be clear, although a student new to the subject or to philosophy may find that concepts are introduced at a quick pace. It does not suffer from unnecessary jargon; it is, as Aristotle said, as clear as the subject matter allows.

The prose and organization is consistent; it could have been single-authored.

Modularity rating: 4

It would be possible to use some portions of the text and not others, but it is not fully modular in that it was carefully constructed to provide the necessary philosophical and social context for business ethics prior to considering particular applied topics in business ethics. As it presents a sustained argument about business ethics (and this is a strength; philosophy is, after all, largely about making good arguments), it isn't the sort of thing that one could simply cut up and reassemble willy-nilly. However, I can easily see how an instructor could use various chapters to supplement or introduce other material. Chapters are internally divided into sections that could be read, assigned, or discussed separately.

Many business ethics textbooks combine three or four different courses in one: a book about ethics, a book about management and stakeholder theory, and a book about work and vocation, and give the impression of fairly disparate topics somewhat awkwardly and haphazardly stitched together. This book is logically organized to take students from basic moral theory through the application of those theories to key issues in business ethics, before circling back again to ethics in the epilogue.

Rather than being organized into chapters according to common areas of ethical problems in business (finance, accounting, affirmative action, greed, advertising and marketing, sexual harassment, sustainability, stakeholder theory, etc.) with few connections made between, this book addresses those issues under a relatively small number of chapter headings, and presents them through an ethical and social framework that is developed in the early chapters. I find this to be a more cohesive approach to the subject than is present in other textbooks.

I experienced no problems with the interface. The book is professionally produced. I personally do not like the use of text boxes interspersed with the main text, but I recognize that this is a common textbook feature.

I saw no grammatical issues. This book has been professionally edited.

This book includes a Confucian look at virtue ethics and attends to the cultural context in which the philosophers worked. It also contains a chapter on business ethics across time, place, culture and religion, a more comprehensive approach than the usual "business in a global context" topical chapter of other books. A chapter on respecting the rights of all addresses disability, gender inclusivity, religious diversity, animal ethics, and income inequality. In the following chapter there is a section on the business of health care, which I have not seen in any other similar text.

This is an outstanding introductory text in business ethics, with a level of philosophical sophistication and organizational coherence that exceeds most comparable texts. The chapter summaries, glossaries, and review quizzes are helpful aids to student learning, and the embedded links to interviews, videos, and case studies make it easy to adapt to active learning or on-line instruction. The amount of philosophical context makes it a particularly good choice for instructors of business ethics whose primary training is in business, management, law, or a related field, rather than in ethics or philosophy, or for a philosopher whose primary area of expertise is outside business ethics.

It does read as though it is a written version of excellent lectures in business ethics, which is not necessarily a weakness. The most significant drawback to this text, in my view, is that it includes no primary sources. As a philosopher teaching applied ethics, I know that business ethics may be the only course in philosophy that my students take. I also know this may be my students' primary or sole opportunity to read the classics of the western tradition. Therefore, I think this book could be enhanced by presenting some primary source readings. These could be added as an appendix or at the beginning or end of each chapter, or taken from other sources by the instructor.

I currently use an Oxford anthology for my business ethics course. However, if I were to assign a traditional textbook, I would switch to this book without reservation, and I am very likely to try this book in future courses.

Reviewed by Steve Custer, Associate Professor, Oakland City University on 2/25/19

The Business Ethics textbook is comprehensive in that it covers a broad range of ethical issues as well as delving into the history of ethics. The online format enhances the easy of use for the index. read more

The Business Ethics textbook is comprehensive in that it covers a broad range of ethical issues as well as delving into the history of ethics. The online format enhances the easy of use for the index.

I found the textbook to be accurate. I did not find any outstanding errors in the book. It is very well written and easy to understand.

From Toyota to Samsung and Starbucks, excellent examples of business ethics abound. Additionally, this textbook is quite effective in bringing to life many current events.

The book exceeds expectations in clarity. The key terms and assessment questions at the end of each chapter give extra help to those seeking to know the material in depth.

The dictionary defines consistency as a "condition of adhering together." I feel that this textbook accomplished that purpose. Moreover, it brought together principles of business ethics in a well-developed manner.

The online format enhances this textbook's modularity. The online links to learning are a welcome addition and add a nice touch.

The book is organized very well, and the online format makes keyword searches very easy to navigate.

The Business Ethics textbook is easy to navigate and understand. Nothing is wasted that takes away from the material.

I found the Business Ethics textbook to be free of any outstanding grammatical errors.

There are many examples this book gives on cultural relevance: #metoo, transgender ethics, environmental ethics, animal ethics, and diversity and inclusion.

I really enjoyed the link to the free personality test. That was a great bonus feature. "It is nice to be important, but more important to be nice." What a powerful sentiment and an appropriate quote to be included! This is a great textbook and I plan to utilize it in an upcoming business ethics course.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Why Ethics Matter

• 1.1 Being a Professional of Integrity
• 1.2 Ethics and Profitability
• 1.3 Multiple versus Single Ethical Standards

Chapter 2: Ethics from Antiquity to the Present

• 2.1 The Concept of Ethical Business in Ancient Athens
• 2.2 Ethical Advice for Nobles and Civil Servants in Ancient China
• 2.3 Comparing the Virtue Ethics of East and West
• 2.4 Utilitarianism: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number
• 2.5 Deontology: Ethics as Duty
• 2.6 A Theory of Justice

Chapter 3: Defining and Prioritizing Stakeholders

• 3.1 Adopting a Stakeholder Orientation
• 3.2 Weighing Stakeholder Claims
• 3.3 Ethical Decision-Making and Prioritizing Stakeholders
• 3.4 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Chapter 4: Three Special Stakeholders: Society, the Environment, and Government

• 4.1 Corporate Law and Corporate Responsibility
• 4.2 Sustainability: Business and the Environment
• 4.3 Government and the Private Sector

Chapter 5: The Impact of Culture and Time on Business Ethics

• 5.1 The Relationship between Business Ethics and Culture
• 5.2 Business Ethics over Time
• 5.3 The Influence of Geography and Religion
• 5.4 Are the Values Central to Business Ethics Universal?

Chapter 6: What Employers Owe Employees

• 6.1 The Workplace Environment and Working Conditions
• 6.2 What Constitutes a Fair Wage?
• 6.3 An Organized Workforce
• 6.4 Privacy in the Workplace

Chapter 7: What Employees Owe Employers

• 7.1 Loyalty to the Company
• 7.2 Loyalty to the Brand and to Customers
• 7.3 Contributing to a Positive Work Atmosphere
• 7.4 Financial Intergrity
• 7.5 Criticism of the Company and Whistleblowing

Chapter 8: Recognizing and Respecting the Rights of All

• 8.1 Diversity and Inclusion in the Workforce
• 8.2 Accommodating Different Abilities and Faiths
• 8.3 Sexual Identification and Orientation
• 8.4 Income Inequalities
• 8.5 Animal Rights and the Implications for Business

Chapter 9: Professions under the Microscope

• 9.1 Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Culture
• 9.2 The Influence of Advertising
• 9.3 The Insurance Industry
• 9.4 Ethical Issues in the Provision of Health Care

Chapter 10: Changing Work Environment and Future Trends

• 10.1 More Telecommuting or Less?
• 10.2 Workplace Campuses
• 10.3 Alternatives to Traditional Patterns of Work
• 10.4 Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Workplace of the Future

Chapter 11: Epilogue: Why Ethics Still Matter

• 11.1 Business Ethics in an Evolving Environment
• 11.2 Committing to an Ethical View
• 11.3 Becoming an Ethical Professional
• 11.4 Making a Difference in the Business World

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Business Ethics is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester business ethics course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including case studies, application scenarios, and links to video interviews with executives, all of which help instill in students a sense of ethical awareness and responsibility.

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Book description

Table of contents.

• Content (1/2)
• Content (2/2)
• APPLE’S CULTURE
• ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD
• LABOR PRACTICES
• CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ISSUES
• PRICE CUT STRATEGY
• ANNA HAZARE’S BACKGROUND
• ANNA HAZARE: THE SECOND GANDHI
• MOVEMENT: “INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION (IAC)”
• ANNA’S MOVEMENT
• THE DARK SIDE OF INDIA
• IMPACT OF ANNA HAZARE’S MOVEMENT
• WHAT WENT WRONG?
• WE ALL ARE ANNA!!
• EVOLUTION OF APPLE
• EVOLUTION OF SAMSUNG
• INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
• PORTER’S FIVE FORCE MODEL TO ANALYZETHE SMARTPHONE MARKET
• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT
• IMPACT ON SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP
• STRATEGIES APPLE MAY ADOPT TO PROTECT ITSELF FROMPATENT INFRINGEMENT
• CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
• CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN INDIA
• CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT WIPRO
• MANAGEMENT’S RESPONSIBILITIES
• THE INDIAN SOFTWARE SERVICES INDUSTRY
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• ETHICAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
• US ENERGY INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
• ENERGY MARKET DEREGULATION AND ENRON
• BUSINESS DIVERSIFICATION AND GROWTH
• ENRON’S CODE OF CONDUCT
• RISE IN THE STOCK PRICES OF ENRON
• THE ALARM SET OFF BY BETHANY McCLEAN: “IS ENRON OVERPRICED?”
• ISSUES AT ENRON
• QUESTIONABLE PRACTICES
• TOP EXECUTIVES AND THEIR ROLES
• SHERRON WATKINS “THE WHISTLEBLOWER”
• FALL OF ENRON
• ETHICAL DILEMMA
• ITC PVT LTD. (1/2)
• ITC PVT LTD. (2/2)
• ABOUT JOHNSON & JOHNSON
• 1998–2006, TURBULENCE STARTED
• TURBULENCE WORSENS (1/2)
• TURBULENCE WORSENS (2/2)
• INTRODUCTION
• INDUSTRY CHARACTERISTICS
• INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
• ETHICAL ISSUES – WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE? (1/2)
• ETHICAL ISSUES – WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE? (2/2)
• ABOUT ANIL DHIRUBHAI AMBANI GROUP (ADAG)
• CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT RELIANCE GROUP
• INDIAN OIL INDUSTRY
• BACKGROUND OF COMPANIES
• FUEL BEHIND THE FIRE
• JUDGMENT OF THE APEX COURT
• RIL REACTS SWIFTLY
• COMPANY BACKGROUND
• THE SUBHIKSHA SAGA
• BUSINESS VISION AND MISSION OF SUBHIKSHA
• INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY: A STORY OF TRANSITION
• BUSINESS MODEL OF SUBHIKSHA
• OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AT SUBHIKSHA RETAIL
• FAILURE OF SUBHIKSHA – WHAT ACTUALLY WENT WRONG?
• FINANCIAL HEALTH OF SUBHIKSHA
• ETHICAL ISSUES
• TATA MOTORS COMPANY BACKGROUND
• AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY CHARACTERISTICS
• TATA NANO LAND ACQUISITION ISSUE
• COSTS OF CONFLICT
• THE TATA GROUP
• ABOUT THE COMPANY – TATA CHEMICALS LIMITED
• VISION, MISSION AND VALUES
• COMPANY’S PHILOSOPHY ON THE CODE OF GOVERNANCE
• CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY BY TATA CHEMICALSLIMITED
• SOME IMPORTANT CSR INITIATIVES BY TATA AT MITHAPUR
• THE UNION’S TUSSLE AT TATA CHEMICALS LIMITED
• Index (1/2)
• Index (2/2)

Product information

• Title: Case Studies in Business Ethics and Corporate Governance
• Author(s): Sreejesh, Mohapatra
• Release date: January 2012
• Publisher(s): Pearson Education India

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Ethics in Business: Navigating Moral Dilemmas in Business

July 29th, 2024 by JWU

Due to the very nature of business transactions and organizational growth, it’s not surprising that moral dilemmas arise each day in the business world. Ethics have long been an essential part of business, yet in recent years, there is increased pressure to ensure that all professionals—across all industries and levels—adhere to the moral principles and ethical guidelines in place. Ethical considerations not only impact an organization’s overall reputation and brand image, but its policies and guidelines can also affect its bottom line and long-term sustainability. 

As ethical consumerism continues to trend worldwide and investor activism takes center stage, it’s become increasingly critical for businesses to prioritize ethical practices within their organizations. But what is business ethics, exactly, and what do modern frameworks for enforcing these best practices look like?

What Is Business Ethics? Beyond Compliance

Business ethics are the standards a business implements and uses to guide behavior within the organization and the decision-making process among leaders and employees.

Many of the moral principles and standards that are expected in any business environment have actually been codified into law. However, business professionals in today’s modern world and global economy are expected to go above and beyond compliance, consistently making intentional decisions that adhere to the organization’s values.

Commonly referred to as CSR, corporate social responsibility is a business practice that prioritizes accountability and self-regulation. It encourages businesses to acknowledge social and environmental issues as part of their overall organization. Given the rise of ethical consumerism, CSR is becoming increasingly important within the business landscape at large.

Principles of Business Ethics

According to  Investopedia , there are 12 principles that underpin business ethics:

• Leadership – Business leaders are required to act according to the moral principles outlined by the organization, showcasing the importance of ethics in business.
• Accountability – At all levels of the organization, accountability should be a priority as everyone works to maintain ethical standards.
• Integrity – By holding the organization and all associated with it to a high standard, a business can achieve a respectable and admirable level of integrity.
• Honesty – An organization that values and prioritizes honesty often simultaneously enacts an open and transparent communications strategy, ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of valuable information.
• Respect for others – This principle requires businesses to prioritize dignity, equality, privacy and compassion.
• Transparency – Closely tied to honesty, transparency requires an organization to conduct all business as openly as possible and ensure stakeholders have the information they need to make solid decisions.
• Respect for the law – Leaders should work to follow all local, state and federal laws when conducting business for the organization.
• Loyalty – By making a commitment to ethical practices, business leaders can establish loyalty among the employees in their organizations.
• Fairness – Providing all involved in the organization with equal opportunity is one of the best ways to inspire loyalty and ensure long-term success.
• Compassion – A compassionate and empathetic approach to business allows an organization to prioritize the well-being of its employees and clients. This is another way to generate loyalty over time.
• Environmental concern – Recognizing the impact an organization can have on the local environment, businesses can work to address environmental concerns and promote sustainable practices.
• Responsibility – By maintaining accountability, leaders can inspire those within the organization to be responsible for their own actions. This sense of responsibility also translates well when  corporate social responsibility  practices are in place.

Why Is Business Ethics Important?

Business ethics don’t just guide the decisions of employees at an organization; these moral principles and business policies can actually have an impact on society as a whole. Ethical practices in business help an organization build trust, improve its reputation, attract and retain top talent, improve the workplace culture and foster long-term sustainability.

When an organization does not adhere to a strict set of ethical guidelines, there can be lasting detrimental effects. Some potential consequences of unethical behavior include financial losses, legal ramifications and damage to the brand’s image and reputation.

Types of Business Ethics

These are the core, overarching types of business ethics to consider:

• Personal ethics – The moral principles that guide an individual’s behavior, which can influence their actions within a business context.
• Professional ethics – The ethical standards and codes of conduct specific to a particular profession or industry.
• Organizational ethics – The values and principles that guide the behavior of an entire business entity.
• Societal ethics – The broader ethical expectations of society regarding how businesses should operate and contribute to the greater good.

Common Ethical Dilemmas in Business: A Closer Look

Even when an organization has a code of conduct in place and incorporates CSR into daily practices, there will still be ethical dilemmas to navigate. Acknowledging these while recognizing  how organizational justice impacts the workplace  can help you successfully maneuver through them. Below are some of the most common ethical dilemmas in business:

Conflicts of Interest

Defined by  Indeed  as a situation in which a business professional has competing obligations with individuals involved in a transaction, conflicts of interest are to be avoided at all costs within the corporate landscape. For example, if the leader of the organization is working to negotiate a deal with another company that is led by a family member, it may be seen as a conflict of interest.

Conflicts of interest can be avoided by:

• Creating company policies that prohibit conflicts of interest.
• Providing ongoing training about what conflicts of interest may be and how to avoid them.
• Requiring employees to sign non-compete agreements that can help minimize conflicts of interest in the workplace.
• Establishing consequences for employees who let conflicts of interest interfere with business transactions.

Whistleblowing

Employees who are aware of wrongdoing in an organization may feel obligated to tell the truth, yet they may face difficulty addressing their concerns. The act of reporting wrongdoing within an organization is called whistleblowing, and it’s essential that organizations in today’s modern and complex business landscape create protections for employees who wish to report these issues. Employees should not be retaliated against for speaking the truth and promoting business ethics within the organization.

Discrimination and Harassment

Discrimination and harassment are sadly two of the most common ethical dilemmas to occur in a workplace environment.

Discrimination occurs when an individual is treated unfairly based on a specific characteristic. There are legal protections in place that outlaw discrimination in the workplace based on sexuality, gender, age, ability, race, religion, nationality and marital status.

Harassment occurs when an individual is consistently and relentlessly provoked by another person within the organization; the most common types of harassment include sexual harassment, verbal harassment and physical harassment. Similarly to discrimination, there are legal protections to help protect employees from harassment.

Despite the applicable laws that help promote a safe and inclusive work environment, organizations still must actively work to raise awareness and enact policies that prevent discrimination and harassment.

Environmental Concerns

In an age where ethical consumerism is on the rise—with the impacts of climate change visible on a daily basis—businesses have a heightened obligation to promote and protect environmental concerns. Businesses should implement policies that minimize the organization’s environmental impact and promote sustainable practices. By considering the long-term consequences of business decisions made today, organizations can work toward a more sustainable future.

Ethical Challenges in Technology

Technology is a driving force in the world of business, but organizations have to recognize the ethical implications that may be associated with the latest, most advanced technology. Some of the most prevalent ethical challenges related to technology today include data privacy, automation and the application of artificial intelligence within the business landscape. While the latest technology offers promises of streamlined operations and even increased revenue, businesses need to create ethical frameworks to minimize damaging consequences and create guidelines for using technology within their respective environment.

Building an Ethical Business Culture: A Roadmap

Creating and promoting an ethical business culture begins with leadership. Organizations of all sizes and across all industries can foster a culture of ethics and morality when they lead by example.

The Crucial Role of Leadership

Ethical leadership can significantly shape organizational culture. Leaders are obligated to model ethical behavior and adhere to the moral principles and business policies in place. Through their words and actions, leaders can communicate the importance of business and corporate ethics while simultaneously creating a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment in which employees feel empowered to speak up about any concerns they have.

Establishing a Robust Code of Ethics

While leadership can set the stage for an ethical workplace culture, it is also crucial to have a clear and specific code of ethics that outlines expectations for conduct in the workplace. Organizational leaders should collaborate with team members to develop a code of ethics that reflects the values of the company while addressing today’s most relevant ethical issues as well.

Implementing Effective Ethics Training

By developing and implementing an engaging ethics training program for employees at all levels, organizational leadership can raise awareness about ethical issues while equipping employees with the skills needed to make values-based decisions. This commitment to training also reinforces the company’s overall commitment to ethical behavior.

Encouraging Open Communication and Whistleblower Protection

In addition, leadership can work to create a safe and supportive environment in which transparency and accountability are valued. Employees at an organization that actively works to promote open communication will be more comfortable reporting any ethical concerns they have, as they feel confident knowing they will not face retaliation for doing so. Organizational leaders can actively work to create this type of environment by:

• Establishing confidential reporting channels.
• Implementing whistleblower protection policies.
• Encouraging open communication between employees, supervisors and leadership.

Fostering this culture benefits organizations across all levels because they can easily address ethical issues that arise while preventing more complex ethical dilemmas in the future.

Develop an Ethical Business Foundation at Johnson & Wales University

Moral principles and ethical policies will continue to serve as the foundation for business success, particularly in a world that is growing increasingly aware and inclusive. At Johnson & Wales University, ethics in business is a central theme in our degree programs. We offer an  online bachelor’s in Business Studies  as well as an  online MBA program  that explores business and corporate ethics in depth. 

For more information about completing your degree online, complete the  Request Info form , call 855-JWU-1881, or email  [email protected] .

By clicking Get Started below, I consent to receive recurring marketing/promotional e-mails, phone calls, and SMS/text messages from Johnson & Wales University (JWU) about any educational/programmatic purpose (which relates to my inquiry of JWU) at the e-mail/phone numbers (landline/mobile) provided, including calls or texts made using an automatic telephone dialing system and/or artificial/prerecorded voice messages. My consent applies regardless of my inclusion on any state, federal, or other do-not-call lists. Consent is not a condition for receipt of any good or service. Carrier charges may apply. Terms and conditions apply .

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Case on Executive Integrity

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Three examples of CEOs whose leadership of their firm has been called into question over matters of their personal integrity and behavior.

Evan Spiegel

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Below are three examples of CEOs whose leadership of their firm has been called into question over matters of their personal integrity and behavior.  Issues have included their personal political positions and contributions, personal behavior and relationships with employees while CEO, and illegal and inappropriate behavior in college.

“Mozilla was built on the mission to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web.  Every day, we bring together over half a billion users and thousands of contributors from more than 80 countries to advance the cause outlined in the Mozilla Manifesto.  The web is a vital public resource and Mozilla exists to protect it. That is what we do at Mozilla, our singular point of focus.” --From Mozilla’s blog Q and A regarding the resignation of Brendan Eich

Brendan Eich was a co-founder of Mozilla, an organization set up as a nonprofit foundation, passionate about its purpose.  Eich’s previous political support for the Defense of Marriage Act, which prior to 2015 defined marriage on the federal level as the union between one man and one woman, was well known by the board and employees prior to his appointment as CEO.  What wasn’t known was how strongly employees and outsiders would react to a perceived disconnect between Eich’s personal values and the values of the company. In spite of posting about his commitment to continuing the organization’s support of the LGBTQ+ community through various policies and benefits and apology for “causing pain,”  the issue did not die down. Eich made his own decision to resign as CEO and declined the board’s offer to take another C-level position in the company.

American Apparel

“Passion, innovation & ethical practices for the clothing industry. That's American Apparel.”-- From American Apparel’s website under “About Us”

American Apparel founder Dov Charney has never apologized for using sex to sell clothes.  In fact, it’s been central to his company’s strategy and marketing from Day One. He has also long acknowledged his personal behavior is strange and he is his own worst enemy.  

For example, 10 years ago, “Charney gave a now infamous interview with Claudine Ko, a reporter for Jane magazine, during which he masturbated, with her consent, while carrying on a conversation about business. He engaged in oral sex with an employee with Ko nearby, too” (Bloomberg Businessweek, July 9, 2014). Also, in 2006, American Apparel starting asking employees to sign a form indicating that they knew they were coming to work in a sexually charged environment.

According to board co-chairmen, in mid 2014, Charney was removed as chairman by the board pending termination following a 30-day notice clause in his contract.  The board first gave him the choice to resign if he gave up voting rights to his 27 percent share of the company. In that scenario, he would have received a four-year, multi-million dollar consulting contract.  Officially removed for violating the company’s sexual harassment policy and misusing company funds, Charney refused to go quietly, which threw the company’s ownership and governance into play. Hedge fund Standard General stepped in with a cash infusion for the company following a loan call by another investment firm after Charney’s ouster. Five of the seven board directors voluntarily agreed to step down, and Standard General agreed to add  three new directors. Charney stayed on as a strategic consultant but was eventually fired as CEO in December 2014.

“Deletion should be the default.”--Snapchat’s mission statement

At the end of May 2014, details of sordid emails from Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s college days were released to the media. Trouble is, his college years were only four years prior to these emails being released, because, in 2014, he was only 24. The e-mails detailed illegal drug use, underage drinking, and misogynistic behavior, including urinating on one after she passed out following sex, and harassing women who he believed were overweight.  Some found elements of his emails racist as well.

Spiegel’s privileged background and lavish lifestyle had always  received plenty of press. After the email release, he began getting more press for his bad behavior than his app.  He apologized immediately following the release of the e-mails saying, “ I’m obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic emails during my fraternity days were made public. I have no excuse. I’m sorry I wrote them at the time and I was a jerk to have written them.  They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women.” Spiegel remains CEO and was responsible for taking the company public in 2017.

Questions to Consider

• Are there ethical issues involved in all of these cases?  Which ones and why?
• How important to a company’s investors and shareholders is the personal behavior of the CEO?  Do people have to like him/her for the company to be successful?
• Does mission matter when assessing gaps between a leader’s values and the organization he or she is running?
• Should boards consider risky personal behavior in hiring executives?  What should boards do if the risky personal behavior comes from the founding CEO?

Additional Reading

Ethical Issues in Snap’s IPO: Evaluating Leadership Character

This case was originally written in 2014, and was revised in July 2018.

The Expansion of Alternative Forms of Organizing Integration: Imitation, Bricolage, and an Ethic of Care in Migrant Women’s Cooperatives

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• Published: 01 August 2024

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• María José Zapata Campos   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2271-0148 1  

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This paper examines how alternative forms of organising integration in resource-scarce environments expand across settings, by considering the role of local embeddedness and an ethic of care in enabling this expansion. It builds on theories of imitation in organization studies in combination with theories of ethics of care and bricolage applied to welfare and migration studies. The paper is informed by the case of Yalla Trappan, a work cooperative of immigrant women in the city of Malmö, Sweden, and the attempts to diffuse this organization and its methods to other cities in the country. The findings indicate that the expansion of alternative forms of integration into resource-scarce contexts is enabled by simultaneous practices of imitation and bricolage, ingrained in an ethic of care. The article shows, first, how many important practices were developed by imitating accounts of the original ideas, through a broadcasting mode of imitation. Next, it explains why the local translation of these practices in resource-scarce contexts, consisting of ‘bricolage work’ based on material, market, institutional, human, and cultural elements, was necessary. The conclusion is that the expansion of novel forms of integration requires imitation, but of a kind that involves the bricolage of local translations. Such bricolage is always collective (which does not diminish the importance of individual agency), multi-spatial and not just local, and wrapped in an ethic of care, rather than in an economic logic. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these findings with the ethics of migration.

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Introduction

In this contemporary age of migration, millions of people are moving around the world as refugees or workers (Nail, 2018 ). Once they reach their host societies, immigrants still encounter numerous barriers: from housing to education, from poverty to political exclusion, and from unemployment to work discrimination (Cheng et al., 2021 ). These challenges are, however, experienced differently by various groups. Migrant women—a heterogeneous category in itself—are among the most vulnerable. They usually run a higher risk of social exclusion, are offered fewer job opportunities, and have family and childcare obligations that can hinder their access to education, local language tuition, and labour market integration (Anthias & Lazaridis, 2020 ). Because these women have been ignored for decades in integration policies, civil society-driven initiatives (e.g. work cooperatives, networks of foreign-born citizens, and neighbourhood associations) have been experimenting with various methods and organizational forms to facilitate these women’s socio-economic inclusion, in a “local turn” of integration policies (Emilsson, 2015 ; Zapata and Zapata Campos, 2023 ).

The expansion of civil society organizations providing welfare services is in part a response to growing criticism of the inefficiency of state-driven “activation programmes”, which treat work as an obligation rather than a right (Strindlund et al., 2020 ). Such large-scale labour market integration services are often perceived by the participants as too broad or insufficient (Bucken-Knapp et al., 2018 ; Schierenbeck & Spehar, 2021 ). Activation programmes often ignore the numerous impediments that foreign-born people face, such as family obligations, personal traumas, inadequate levels of literacy, and housing or economic problems (Bucken-Knapp et al., 2020 ), jeopardizing migrants’ human rights. These standardized education methods and activation programmes can, in this context, become oppressive rather than empowering (Chandra, 2017 ; Norbäck & Zapata Campos, 2023 ). Citizen-driven initiatives have pushed the agenda to develop alternative forms (Battilana et al., 2018 ; Resch & Steyaert, 2020 ) of organizing labour market integration (Davies, 2009 ) that invert the priorities from “work first” to “life first” (Lindsay et al., 2021 ), and that nurture more equal, ethical, and humane methods.

Undeniably, the expansion of social initiatives ingrained in an ethic of care (Tronto, 1993 ), such as alternative forms of organizing labour market integration, beyond their local origins is regarded as among the most important challenges (see, e.g. André & Pache, 2016 ; Dahles et al., 2020 ; Dorado & Fernández, 2019 ; Lunenburg et al., 2020 ). Usually operating in resource-scarce environments, these initiatives must mobilize resources such as material inputs, skills, and networks that are necessary to support their spread (Murray et al., 2010).

In resource-poor environments, translating such ideas to fit a local context involves a myriad of actions: putting pieces of the puzzle together, and engaging multiple actors to compensate for the scarcity of resources. This intensive mobilization recalls the practice of “bricolage” (Lévi-Strauss, 1967 ), defined in the social innovation literature as “the making do with any resources at hand to provide innovative solutions for social needs that traditional organizations fail to address” (Janssen et al., 2018 , p. 450). For example, studies have shown how the local embeddedness of bricoleurs in superdiverse (Phillipmore et al., 2020) neighbourhoods with predominantly migrant populations gives access to a wide range of resources, practices, and ideas to tinker with, all of which support the stability of such initiatives (Barinaga, 2017 ; Glick Schiller & Çağlar, 2011 ; Zapata & Zapata Campos, 2023 ). Migrants are thus not seen as “mere victims” or as passive subjects of activation policies (Vesterberg, 2015 ), lacking agency (Agustin, 2003). Rather, they can play an active role and access a broad repertoire of resources and practices that stem from the diverse local/global contexts and backgrounds in which they interact.

Paradoxically, these studies have also shown how the same local embeddedness may hamper the expansion of these novel practices beyond the spaces where they arose (Barinaga, 2017 ; Çaglar & Glick Schiller, 2018 ). The ambiguous role of local embeddedness in spreading such caring initiatives deserves further research, as the literature on scaling social enterprises shows (Glunde & Lyon, 2015; Lunenburg et al., 2020 ). Although bricolage is relevant to the early stages of organizing, its role in spreading novel caring initiatives has been largely neglected (for exceptions, see, e.g. Busch & Barkema, 2021 ; Resch & Steyaert, 2020 ).

This paper attempts to bridge these gaps by examining how alternative forms of organizing labour market integration in resource-scarce environments expand across settings, by considering the role of local embeddedness and an ethic of care in enabling this expansion. The analysis has been informed by studies of imitation (Czarniawska, 2005 ) in institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983 ; Meyer & Rowan, 1977 ), in combination with theories of ethics of care (Tronto, 1993 ) and bricolage applied to social entrepreneurship (e.g. Janssen et al., 2018 ), welfare, and migration studies (e.g. Phillimore et al., 2021 ). The fieldwork was conducted in Yalla Trappan, a work cooperative of immigrant women in the City of Malmö, Sweden, and encompassed the attempts to diffuse this organization and its methods in seven larger and smaller cities in the country.

The findings indicate that the expansion of alternative labour market inclusion methods into resource-scarce contexts is enabled by simultaneous practices of imitation and bricolage, ingrained in an ethic of care. The argument presented here consists of three parts. I start by showing that many important practices aimed at taking care of immigrant women were developed by imitating accounts of the original ideas, through a broadcasting mode of imitation. Next, I explain why the local translation of these caring practices in resource-scarce contexts, consisting of “bricolage work” on material, market, institutional, human, and cultural elements, was necessary. Finally, I discuss how the expansion of novel and more humane forms of organizing the labour market inclusion of migrants requires imitation, but of a kind that entails the bricolage of local translations. Such bricolage is always collective (which does not diminish the importance of individual agency), multi-spatial and not just local, and wrapped in an ethic of care, rather than in economic logic.

The paper contributes to scholarship on ethics and migration by showing how women engage in collective bricolage to address the challenges of their migration journeys. They do so through cooperative forms of organizing work that are embedded in an ethic of care and put “life first”, unlike traditional methods of labour market integration. This ethic of care also serves as a moral compass that prevents the risk of mission drift while helping recognize, revalorize, and mobilize immigrant women’s resourcefulness.

In the following section, the literature on imitation and bricolage is presented, followed by the methods used to conduct this study. The case of Yalla Trappan and its expansion is then described and discussed, leading to the conclusions.

Imitation and Bricolage: A Theoretical Framework for Examining the Organizing of Migrant Integration

The expansion of alternative forms of organizing intended to address grand challenges of our time, such as migration, has been the focus of research both in new institutional theory and in bricolage and social entrepreneurship scholarship. These two bodies of theory provide a relevant framework with which to better understand the expansion of organizations supporting migrant integration, and the implications for migrants’ rights and for an ethic of care, as elaborated on in the following.

New Institutional Theory and Imitation

When immigrants and refugees reach the receiving country, they engage with complex and multi-layered institutions of integration including language training, civic orientation, validation of previous educational experience, and manifold labour market initiatives (Bucken-Knapp et al., 2020 ). In recent years, these traditional institutions of integration have been widely criticized for their negative effects on the lives of those who take part in them (Chandra, 2017 ; Schierenbeck & Spehar, 2021 ; Norbäck & Zapata Campos, 2023 ); among such institutions are national activation programmes redefining work as an obligation rather than a right (Strindlund et al., 2020 ). In response, new institutions, that is new practices, methods, and organizations supporting the integration of immigrants, have emerged, and competed with traditional institutions of integration (Zapata & Zapata Campos, 2023 ).

Institutional theories offer a theoretical framework for understanding how new practices, such as more human and ethical methods for the labour market integration of immigrant women, can become norms (i.e. institutions) that are disseminated, taken for granted, and accommodated by other actors in the field (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983 ). Imitation is thus seen as a basic mechanism for circulating taken-for-granted ideas, methods, and models, for example, in the labour market integration of immigrants (Czarniawska & Sevón, 2005 ). While the imitation of models and practices perceived as successful is often described as the opposite of innovation, in practice there is no clear conceptual difference between an original model and an imitation. What is new “is often the result of an attempt at combining old ideas” (Sahlin-Andersson & Sevón, 2003 , p. 250). From this perspective, the expansion of new models, such as collaborative methods for language tuition in the workplace developed by social cooperatives, results from imitation that requires translation (Corvellec & Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2016 ). Imitated ideas are translated, transformed according to local needs, meanings, or traditions, often leading to unexpected consequences. The final result is not a copy of the idea or organizational model as such, but rather local versions of both the idea and its materializations (Sahlin & Wedlin, 2008 ).

To realize these emergent forms of organizing integration in new settings, for example, via the expansion of migrant women’s cooperative organizations, various actors must be persuaded to join the effort: awareness must be created; supporters and users must be recruited; practices must be anchored, and so on (Czarniawska & Joerges, 1996 ). This study shows that when such translation occurs in local contexts characterized by resource scarcity as well as complex and superdiverse settings (e.g. neighbourhoods and cities where many immigrants live), and when actors predominantly believe in social goals and are guided by an ethic of care (e.g. as in work cooperatives), the practice of bricolage becomes essential to the process of imitation and translation for the social and economic inclusion of immigrant women.

Social Entrepreneurship and Bricolage

In the social entrepreneurship literature, the expansion of novel emerging institutions of integration, such as the work cooperative Yalla Trappan, is shaped by interrelated dynamics, including resourcing strategies, and the institutional environments in which they operate, as described in the following.

First, the spread of novel forms of organizing integration is challenged by the difficulties of operating in resource-scarce environments and of the consequent mobilization of resources needed for their local translations (Murray et al., 2010), resources such as material inputs, skills, and networks (Lyon & Fernandez, 2012 ). Here, the concept of bricolage offers valuable insights when striving to understand how such resources are created and used in resource-scarce environments. The term was introduced into English by Lévi-Strauss ( 1967 ) to denote the process of “making do with what is at hand”, and it has been applied in many disciplines and contexts.

Social bricoleurs, particularly in the welfare and integration fields, rely on locally available resources to solve local problems and to create and exploit new opportunities. Often, bricolage requires social networking activities and spontaneous collective action in order to respond rapidly to specific social problems (Johannisson & Olaison, 2007 ). Bricoleurs also use previously unrelated experiences, ideas, and knowledge in order to mobilize as well as to create resources (Desa & Basu, 2013 ; Di Domenico et al., 2010 ; Molecke & Pinkse, 2017 ) in resource-scarce environments (Desa & Koch, 2014 ; Linna, 2013 ). Typically, bricoleurs also develop intimate knowledge of their local environments (Zahra et al., 2009 ). That is the case in superdiverse neighbourhoods where many foreign-born residents live, and that provide a broad range of resources such as language, culture, and local knowledge of societal institutions, residents, and communities (Phillimore et al., 2016 , 2021 ). Research on this matter has also shown how migrant workers can creatively draw from broad repertoires of resources (e.g. ethnic, national, and political traditions) in their countries of both origin and destination through “transnational bricolage” (Castellani & Roca, 2022 ). Bricoleurs can therefore extract value from resources that were not perceived as such before, being hidden or invisible to most people (Gutberlet et al., 2016 ), such as skills traditionally developed by migrant women working at home, as we describe below.

Second, recent literature has also shown how the ambition of social entrepreneurs to scale up their social impact, rather than simply grow, is shaped by the institutional environment in which they operate (Scheuerle & Schmitz, 2016 ). Typically, social bricoleurs do not have the ambition to scale up their solutions, as their interest lies in the local embeddedness of the problems and needs of the communities they care about (Smith et al., 2017 ; Zahra et al., 2009 ). Yet, the “institutional entrepreneurship” of certain social bricoleurs can help expand successful social innovations beyond their original settings, by introducing changes in their institutional environments (Gutberlet et al., 2016 ; Westley et al., 2014 ). It is precisely their commitment to creating social value and their unconditional caring about the well-being of the community that makes bricoleurs refuse “to enact limitations” (Baker & Nelson, 2005 ; Garud & Karnøe, 2003 ). Such refusal can take different forms, such as seeking ways to counteract limitations imposed by institutional or political settings, or by institutional voids (Di Domenico et al., 2010 ) caused by austerity cuts in welfare and migration services. Building legal and institutional infrastructures to support the conditions and well-being of foreign-born individuals and women is an example of such institutional entrepreneurship.

Tronto’s ( 1993 ) ethic of care offers a valuable lens through which to understand and address the ethical dimensions of the social bricoleurs supporting migrant communities. Caring is defined as the activities “to maintain, contain, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible” (Fischer & Tronto, 1990 , p. 40). This practice of repairing recalls the work of bricolage. Tronto emphasizes the importance of recognizing care as a societal and political issue, advocating for a more inclusive understanding of ethics that incorporates caring practices within public and private domains. Tronto’s conceptualization of caring involves four interconnected phases, each contributing to a comprehensive understanding of care as a moral and political concept. Tronto’s four phases of an ethic of care encompass recognizing care-related issues (caring about), planning for concrete actions to address them (taking care of), actively providing care to meet specific needs (care-giving), and acknowledging and reciprocating care received within a community (care-receiving). While the first two phases imply a predisposition for caring, encompassing the planning of activities and ensuring that legal and institutional frameworks are set in place, the other two (i.e. care-giving and care-receiving) refer to the actions of translating these predispositions into practice. These phases of an ethic of care resonate with the activities that constitute imitation and bricolage, as I develop in the discussion section.

To conclude, while bricolage embedded in local practices and in an ethic of care can initially enable the mobilization and creation of resources, they can paradoxically also hinder the scaling of emergent initiatives and institutions supporting migration and integration in later stages (Baker & Nelson, 2005 ; Bojica et al., 2020 ; Senyard et al., 2014 ; Smith et al., 2017 ). Bricolage can compromise the quality and effectiveness of the learning process necessary for organizational expansion (Johannisson & Olaison, 2007 ; Senyard et al., 2014 ). Also, social bricoleurs are challenged in their attempts to expand their innovations by the fact that they are constrained by their unique local knowledge of their particular communities, lacking such knowledge outside their settings or origin (Phillimore et al., 2016 ). Ethical challenges to the geographical expansion of these initiatives can also emerge if bricoleurs abandon their ethic of care to the detriment of, for example, standardizing the initiatives necessary for their expansion (André & Pache, 2016 ).

Despite these challenges, it is possible to overcome them, for example, when local communities develop practices that address both local and more systemic problems and solutions (Smith et al., 2017 ). Also, the introduction of organizational care principles may allow social enterprises to avoid the ethical traps of their expansion (André & Pache, 2016 ). Busch and Barkema ( 2021 ) further revealed that bricolage can be achieved by “replicating bricolage heuristics in a low-cost way, enabling a fit with a diversity of resource-constrained contexts” (p. 743). Migration scholars have also noted that simultaneous processes of global and local bricolage have been underexamined, which is a real shortcoming, “as individuals with transnational connections make use of global resources to address local problems or vice versa” (Phillimore et al., 2016 , p. 1; see also Castellani & Roca, 2022 ; Glick Schiller & Çağlar, 2011 ). The study reported here is an attempt to bridge these gaps, advancing our understanding of the expansion of alternative forms of organizing labour market integration by bringing together the theoretical frameworks of bricolage and imitation, and linking them to the ethic of care and migration literature.

Research Setting and Method

The paper is informed by the critical case (Flyvbjerg, 2006 ) of Yalla Trappan Cooperative and its expansion to other settings in Sweden. Informed by this “critical case” approach, I have selected as favourable a setting as possible, i.e. one of the leading initiatives for the labour market integration of immigrant women in Sweden, in which to examine the role of local embeddedness and an ethic of care in the expansion of this alternative method. A critical case approach provides the opportunity to draw valid insights from a single case that has strategic importance for a general problem, such as the challenges that nascent methods face in their expansion across settings.

This study is based on 40 interviews with leaders of and participants in the newly created cooperatives, and with officers of local governments, state agencies, and supportive organizations. It also includes an analysis of documents and websites produced by the studied organizations. Finally, a focus group was conducted with participants in one of the new Yalla Trappan groups. Most women participating in Yalla Trappan’s activities were in their forties, being housewives and mothers of several children. Many were initially illiterate even in their mother tongue, and most could not speak Swedish fluently and suffered various physical and psychological conditions. Interviews with these women were conducted with the support of other women and the cooperative leaders, who helped with translation.

Interviews were conducted mostly via Zoom from March 2020 to April 2021. In a follow-up, additional interviews were conducted in the spring of 2022. There were two interviewers, including the present author. The interviews, which lasted an average of one hour, were recorded and transcribed.

The researchers also observed two virtual meetings between women in one cooperative, while the focus group discussion was supported by photo-elicitation (Harper, 2012 ). Women who participated in the focus group were asked to bring photographs illustrating the personal significance of their entering the cooperative. The photographs helped to create a common basis for discussion, and to overcome potential cultural and language barriers between the women and the researchers. The results were then validated during a virtual workshop, with the officers mobilizing the creation of the new Yalla Trappan groups in different settings.

Texts of interview transcripts and meeting observations were subjected to content analysis, with a focus on the expansion of the social innovation. The first coding (first-order concepts) sought issues related to the travel of the Yalla Trappan model, the infrastructure enabling the model’s spread through the country, and the local implementation of the model. In a second-order analysis (Gioia et al., 2013 ) consisting of an iterative process shifting between data and theory, the practices were grouped into broader categories (second-order concepts): “replicating”, “institutional infrastructure”, and “broadcasting” constituted the first broad category of imitation, while tinkering with “materials and infrastructures”, “markets”, “cultural identity”, and “institutional arrangements” constituted the second. It was at this point that the practices of imitation and bricolage were identified in the two aggregate dimensions/concepts relevant to explaining the expansion of the Yalla Trappan model.

Yalla Trappan: A Migrant Women’s Cooperative in Sweden

In Sweden, almost every third woman born outside Europe is excluded from the labour market (Jämy, 2022). Despite Sweden being a country with high gender equality, the intersection of gender and ethnicity results in “double disadvantages” (Bradley & Healy, 2008 ) that contribute to an increasing gap in labour market participation between foreign-born women and other groups. The reasons for this are structural (e.g. difficulties accessing childcare, lack of information about labour market inclusion, poor knowledge among welfare workers of these women’s needs and competences, spatial and social segregation, and systemic discrimination) as well as individual (e.g. poor language skills, little formal education or previous work experience, and health problems) (Jämy, 2022).

Traditional methods of labour market integration characteristic of public work activation programmes have not reached this group, as these methods are difficult to align with these women’s family duties, learning processes, and capacities (Andersson Joona, 2020 ). Because these women have been ignored for decades by most public policies in Sweden, civil society organizations have started experimenting with new forms of organizing social and economic inclusion for them (Zapata & Zapata Campos, 2023 ). One of the best-known such organizations is Yalla Trappan, a women’s work cooperative founded in 2010 in Rosengård, a superdiverse neighbourhood with among the highest concentrations of residents of immigrant background in Malmö, Sweden. Yalla Trappan targets immigrant women who are left behind by activation programmes: those who have no work experience, are often illiterate, lack formal education, have experienced numerous migration-related illnesses, are mothers of many children, are burdened with caring responsibilities and patriarchal gender norms, and have difficulties speaking Swedish, usually even after years of living in the country.

Yalla Trappan’s main activities consist of cooking, sewing, and cleaning services, as many of these women, when working as housewives, had developed important, but publicly under-recognized and unpaid, skills in these areas. Yalla Trappan’s methods draw on knowledge that these women feel confident in, transferring it to the working space outside the household. The method purposefully uses this knowledge to clear a path for these women to learn the Swedish language and transform their domestic practices into professional skills, empowering them by rendering visible their knowledge and engaging them in reciprocal learning (see Norbäck & Zapata Campos, 2023 , for a more detailed account).

The cooperative has engaged in several partnerships with the City of Malmö and the Swedish Employment Agency to provide work training services using its “Yalla method”. It has also developed collaboration with Swedish multinational corporations such as IKEA and Hennes & Mauritz, providing sewing services to their customers. In the other two large Swedish cities, Yalla Rinkeby (Stockholm) and Yalla Hjälbo (Gothenburg) have been created, in connection with Yalla Trappan in Malmö, and are described below.

After several presentations of the Yalla Trappan concept in different settings in the country, local delegations of Coompanion asked Coompanion Sweden to develop a project to expand the use of the Yalla Trappan method. Coompanion Sweden is a national umbrella organization, a cooperative with 25 independent local cooperatives as members. Its purpose is to support labour cooperatives and social entrepreneurship in Sweden. Together with five local delegations (from Jönköping, Skellefteå, Fyrbodal-Mellerud, Borlänge, and Karlskrona) and Yalla Trappan, Coompanion Sweden prepared an application for a project called Trappan Upp National with the purpose of creating new Yalla Trappan organizations in other settings. The project, which was partly financed by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket), started in January 2019 and ended in April 2021.

Yalla Trappan Malmö participated in the project via a mentorship contract with the new Yalla Trappan organizations. During the first year, this meant four two-day sessions of “coaching future trainers”, who were learning the Yalla Trappan method through the book Yallas väg till arbetet (Yalla’s way to work) and the video Yalla vi lever (Yalla we live), which covered such themes as management, personnel, and finances. Some meetings were combined with study visits to the local group Yalla Trappan Rinkeby in Stockholm and Yalla Trappan Malmö. The training also included ongoing support through coaching, weekly virtual meetings, and desk help from Yalla Trappan Malmö. The Yalla Trappan Malmö coaches also visited all the local settings to provide advice. In each city, a project leader and a professional trainer were employed. During the creation of the Yalla Trappan cooperatives, a network called Yalla Family was also created. Via this network, the cooperatives joined group discussions via the messaging programme Slack and held two Zoom meetings each month to update one another and address particular themes.

Findings and Discussion

This section presents and discusses the findings of the study. It shows how the expansion of Yalla Trappan was enabled by simultaneous practices of imitating the original model and tinkering with its components through bricolage. This leads to the discussion of what it is in the nature of bricolage that enables such spread, and of the role of local embeddedness and an ethic of care in this expansion.

Novel forms of organizing the labour market inclusion of foreign-born women, such as Yalla Trappan, initially grow slowly because they are unfamiliar, making them less likely to survive due to the “liability of newness” (Freeman et al., 1983 ). Gradually, Yalla Trappan started being appreciated as an alternative method for “taking care of” immigrant women’s integration, in contradistinction to traditional and standardized public methods that failed to attend to their needs:

Many others have tried but failed to develop the right method … [these women] cannot benefit from the traditional methods we have in Sweden. To be able to write, to attend the standard Swedish for Immigrants courses, to register at SEPA, to make a CV, and go to a job interview—it is the wrong model. It does not deliver anything to them. It’s like trying to press a square into a triangle, it does not fit. Yalla Trappan has in fact designed and tested a method that suits this particular group. And we all believe so. We are all absolutely convinced. And this is why we initiated its expansion … we see that the model is right. It is the right combination for these women. (Interview B)

The model gained attention and legitimacy (Czarniawska & Joerges, 1996 ), attracting proliferating adopters. Yalla Trappan was visited by many interested actors and succeeded in “reaching key people in the public sector and politicians who become ambassadors” (Interview M), that is, institutional carriers of the idea (Wedlin & Sahlin, 2017). Yalla Trappan’s methods thus became widely diffused in the field of labour market integration and social cooperatives in the country (Green, 2019 ) and were increasingly perceived as an effective solution to the challenge of the social and economic inclusion of migrant women in Sweden. This widespread agreement about the value of Yalla Trappan’s methods was a prerequisite for their initial institutionalization—that is, for the diffusion and increasing self-replication of these novel practices (Tolbert & Zucker, 1996 ).

The pre-institutionalization of the Yalla Trappan model made it desirable for still more actors to imitate its methods and try to adapt them to new settings:

I have followed Yalla Trappan in Rosengård for many years. One must be proud of it, of Yalla Trappan in Malmö. And I think it’s good … instead of doing something new and making your own, to look at … what the others have done, and adapt it to the local context. Yalla Trappan is a good brand to use, because they are already known in many circles and have agreements with IKEA and Hennes & Mauritz. So we can build on that in an agreement with Yalla Trappan. Thus even commercially, it was good to follow them. (Interview H)

As a new organizational form, Yalla Trappan gained strength, visibility, and legitimacy as it “be[came] more common, crystallizing new communities of practice and prompting others to embrace innovations” (Schneiberg, 2013 , p. 656). One can say that Yalla Trappan became a fashionable idea (Czarniawska, 2005 ) that circulated through imitation:

I have followed Yalla Trappan for many years. And I think that instead of doing something new, we should look to what others do. (Interview H)

The idea was set in motion and its expansion accelerated, aided by the theorization of the Yalla Trappan method (as can be seen in the handbook, videos, or contracts) and of its adopters (i.e. the immigrant women as the target group). Theorization (Strang & Meyer, 1993 ) refers to the process of simplification, abstraction, embodiment, and inscription that makes it possible for ideas to travel (see also Czarniawska, 2002 ). Such theorization facilitated the “unpacking” and the consequent imitation of the method by various local actors:

All this happened, including a partnership with IKEA to provide sewing services to customers, thanks to the Yalla Trappan model. With this model, all the problems, all the hindrances, all the challenges we had [were solved] … We can just replicate their actions … We have all the documents, agreements, IOPs—everything we need. (Interview B)

The Yalla Trappan method was malleable (Barinaga & Zapata Campos, 2024 ) and relatively simple, as illustrated by the three professional activities: cooking, housekeeping, and sewing (Busch & Barkema, 2021 ). The model was transparent (De Andrés, et al., 2015 ), easy to understand and decode, and easy to translate into new local contexts (Peck & Theodore, 2012 ). As the method addressed similar problems across the country, its goals, tactics, and repertoire of practices could be used anywhere (Castaneda, 2012; De Andrés et al., 2015 ). This purposeful malleability of the model and its open-source character manifest a predisposition of the original entrepreneurs, the theorists, to “take care of” (Tronto, 1993 ) these migrant women by openly sharing and facilitating its spread.

The expansion to distant settings was also facilitated by the existence of a nationwide institutional infrastructure (Hinings et al., 2017 ) for the governance of the labour market integration field, built over decades by a myriad of actors. More recently, and strengthening this infrastructure, new regulations have been introduced, providing tools for social cooperatives and enterprises to bid for reserved public procurements “as a result of years of work by social enterprises organizing themselves and doing political advocacy, with supportive organizations” (Interview B). At the local level, long-term relations have already been built between social cooperatives and local governments. Of particular importance was the infrastructure provided by Coompanion Sweden, which facilitated the travel of Yalla Trappan to new settings:

The Coompanion CEO met Yalla Trappan in Almedalen [i.e. an annual national meeting in Sweden for politicians and governance stakeholders] and thought “our organizations should do something together. We could make use of our national network of 25 Coompanion offices to diffuse the Yalla Trappan concept”. (Interview Bl)

This is consistent with how organizational ideas follow “well-worn routes” (Czarniawska & Sevón, 1996 ) and “editing infrastructures” (Sahlin & Wedlin, 2017) that determine the spread and accommodation of models such as Yalla Trappan to new contexts. It is the connections between these actors in the field (Rogers, 1983), primarily Yalla Trappan and Coompanion, that explain the routes through which the Yalla Trappan model travelled across the country. The formation of these networks, routes, and then editing infrastructures in each setting enabled the idea to flow (Sahlin & Wedlin, 2017). These networks and infrastructures also constitute what Tronto considers the ethic of “taking care of”, whereby circuits of care and solidarity are constructed to support the conditions and well-being of foreign-born individuals and women, and for the travel of associated models.

Once the Yalla model reached each setting, the tactics of the expansion relied mostly on what March (1999, p. 137) has called the broadcasting mode of imitation whereby the model is broadcasted directly from the master idea to the new settings without intermediaries or other chains of imitation. During the broadcasting of the model, the talented entrepreneur who launched Yalla Trappan in Malmö, and the leaders of the other cooperatives were systematically in contact with the new settings, sharing their well-packaged solutions, procedures, and even contacts with supportive organizations as part of the local caring infrastructure (e.g. a representative of the Church of Sweden who was a former advisory board member) and corporations (i.e. IKEA and Hennes & Mauritz). The direct participation of the theorists, that is, the original creators, in coaching, mentorship, and the expansion of Yalla Trappan was a major factor facilitating the close imitation of the original model, as could be seen, for example, in the collaborative relations between Swedish multinational corporations and the new cooperatives in Hjällbo and Borlänge. The expansion of Yalla shows that when theorists are the carriers of the model, “when theoretization itself is the diffusion mechanism”, models flow better (Strang & Meyer, 1993 , p. 487):

The participation of C was fundamental in this. We got all these foundational components and experience directly … She’s been in all the settings where new Yalla Trappan groups have been created. (Interview M)

Also, as Sevón ( 1996 ) has observed, in the broadcasting model of imitation of Yalla Trappan, both those imitated and those imitating are active shapers. It was the imitators’ desire “and not ours” (Malmö) to reproduce the Yalla model. The contact between the original Yalla Trappan and the new organizations was constant during the expansion:

We have extensively used Yalla Trappan’s model. They are really good. We visited them, they have expertise in sewing, cleaning, cooking. And we can call them when we have questions. For example, we called H, who is responsible for cooking in Yalla Trappan Malmö, when we needed to buy food supplies to start selling our catering—“What do you use?”, “This and that” … We also get questions answered via Zoom about cleaning. Or they come back with recommendations—“Don’t clean like this, but like that”. And C started all this, she has been here for a visit for several days. They are easily accessible people to contact. I can call her whenever I need to [laugh]. (Interview M)

The broadcasting model of the imitation of Yalla Trappan was, in other words, driven by the active participation and commitment of those engaged in the imitation and by the direct inspiration of the original model. Theorists can also become central conduits of diffusion; their persuasion is fundamental to understanding the imitation and expansion of the model (Strang & Meyer, 1993 ). This persuasion emanates from their ethic of “taking care of” the collective of migrant women. The total availability of the “ethical” bricoleur (i.e. the theorist of the original model) and the followers in the other settings, together with their unconditional commitment, are fundamental for the spread of the model through broadcasting.

In sum, imitation practices are ingrained in an ethic of “taking care of” migrant women by keeping the model open and accessible, by building an institutional caring infrastructure, and by the unconditional readiness and availability of the engaged bricoleurs.

Such imitation led to considerable homogenization of practices in the new organizations. However, being central to broadcasting the Yalla model as it was, the implementation of imitation in each setting required further resourcing and translation efforts, as elaborated on below.

So … the pieces of the puzzle went together like this. (Interview H) We have been testing … we have done many quite different things. (Interview J)

Despite the general acceptance of the practices, structures, and solutions developed by Yalla Trappan, adaptations and local translations were always necessary in the new locations. What is more, the grant funding provided by the Swedish Economic Growth Agency proved insufficient to cover the costs of starting up new cooperatives and their activities. Project leaders had to mobilize all the resources at hand to implement the activities and start up the cooperatives. These various resourcing and translation efforts resonate with the concept of bricolage (Baker & Nelson, 2005 ; Di Domenico et al., 2010 ). In a situation of scarcity, constant and intensive bricolage was needed to gather resources and tinker with new solutions. Project leaders improvised and experimented with their professional and personal networks, exploiting their cultural background and identity as “foreign-born women”, their language skills, and whatever resources they could find (Johannisson & Olaison, 2007 ; Zahra et al., 2009 ). The expansion of the Yalla Trappan model was enabled as much by the strength of the broadcasting mode of imitation as by the local translations resulting from local bricolage. Local bricolage embraced tinkering with material resources and infrastructures, human and knowledge resources, and markets and other institutional arrangements. These multiple bricolage practices were also ingrained in an ethic of “care-giving” and “care-receiving” (Tronto, 1993 ), as described below.

Material and Infrastructural Bricolage

Translating the Yalla Trappan method to the various local settings required material bricolage. In the town of Mellerud, women started patch-working to convert old curtains into new bags, facilitated by collaboration with the Red Cross; they also began rescuing food about to expire, transforming it into catering products, with a local supermarket as a partner.

Another example is from Jönköping, where unproductive lands in the city suburbs were used for urban farming. Rendering hidden resources visible is in fact a typical bricolage practice for enacting new resources (Gutberlet et al., 2016 ). This ability to see value-to-be is fundamental to bricolage, and represents an important part of translating the original model to a local setting.

The availability of local physical facilities, such as kitchen facilities or professional sewing equipment, also became decisive, so that various projects had to either adapt their plans to what was available, or improvise creative solutions (Zahra et al., 2009 ). For example, in Börlänge, a partnership contract was negotiated with the Church of Sweden, through which Yalla Trappan participants provided cleaning services in exchange for access to kitchen facilities.

In Jönköping, the local organizers decided to test urban farming, an activity that was not part of the original Yalla Trappan concept. The project was initially located in the suburbs, due to a partnership with a municipal housing company in a diverse neighbourhood, where there was land available for farming. However, the market for the products was insufficient, so the group decided to return to the original Yalla Trappan template.

Market Bricolage

This shift from urban farming in Jönköping’s city suburbs to the original economic activities in a central location of the city illustrates how project leaders also had to tinker with markets (Baker & Nelson, 2005 ). In Jönköping, market bricolage seemed to offer a better solution than the infrastructural bricolage.

Under the influence of a new partner, in Yalla Hjälbo (Gothenburg), a superdiverse neighbourhood similar to Öxnehaga in Jönköping or Rosengård in Malmö, the introduction of the model also required the testing of economic activities outside the original template, such as hair dressing, skin care, henna painting, and repair services. In fact, it is quite common for new actors joining in bricolage to bring in new market activities not originally scripted in the template to be imitated (Sahlin-Andersson, 1996 , 2000).

Another illustration of the need for bricolage with markets was from Karlskrona, where the Yalla Trappan food concept was adapted to “Swedish tastes”. Food services in the original Yalla Trappan concept were grounded in the multicultural culinary richness typical of superdiverse neighbourhoods such as Rosengård in Malmö, where the original idea was born. The project leader in Karlskrona decided to tinker with this activity to adapt the Yalla Trappan concept to the local market, as described by these words of one woman: “Here in Karlskrona [i.e. a small town], we can cook potatoes [i.e. a classic ingredient found in Swedish kitchens] [laughs]”. Karlskrona is a smaller and more homogeneous town than Malmö, which has obvious market implications. In comparison with market preferences in big cities such as Malmö, where large foreign-born populations live in superdiverse neighbourhoods and people are more open to trying international products, in Karlskrona, the food production aligned itself with traditional Swedish tastes. As Sahlin and Wedlin (2017) argued, as circulating models such as Yalla Trappan become disembedded from their original context and scale (i.e. a big city with large diverse populations and markets), they might require adjustments, or edits, to adapt to the context and scale of the new settings—that is, tinkering with the markets.

Knowledge and Identity Bricolage

Bricolage was also helpful in recruiting women to the project. For example, in Jönköping when neither the Swedish Public Employment Service (SPES) nor the local government provided a participant list (which was supposed to happen, according to the project application), project leaders had to recruit participants themselves, drawing on their personal contacts (Johannisson & Olaison, 2007 ), local embeddedness, and the associated knowledge of the local institutional environments (Zahra et al., 2009 ): “Luckily, there were people who said ‘Wait a second, I know somebody who could be good!’” (Interview J).

Most project leaders were professionally and personally embedded in the setting where the cooperative activities were carried out. Their social embeddedness (Granovetter, 1985 ) became a source of ingenuity. In Mellerud, the project leader mobilized her family ties (typically strong ties, according to Granovetter, 1985 ) to find sewing machines, fabrics, and even a place to sell through the local Red Cross, thereby tinkering with both material and infrastructural resources.

When the necessary knowledge and competences were not available, the project leaders themselves would create them. Finding trainers who could speak “easy Swedish” and communicate their knowledge successfully was not always easy, as the integration policy literature has shown (Bucken-Knapp et al., 2018 ; Schierenbeck & Spehar, 2021 ). For example, in Karlskrona, due to the impossibility of finding a cleaning trainer, the project leader herself embarked on a theoretical education. She bought a handbook on professional housekeeping and cleaning and went through it with the women providing such services, even though she had no previous experience in this area. This example also illustrates the attitude of not giving up in the face of challenges, looking for any kind of solution, and refusing to accept limitations (Baker & Nelson, 2005 ; Garud & Karnøe, 2003 ), because of her commitment to caring for these women, which resulted in the enactment of new competences and resources when needed (Gutberlet et al., 2016 ).

Another resource mobilized by project leaders was their common cultural background and identity as foreign-born women as a communication device to facilitate the women’s learning process, supporting their empowerment:

When I was talking to the women whom I was trying to recruit, all the time I was showing them that I was one of them … One day I said that we would cook rice with chicken as we do in Cameroon. I was completely open to their criticism, assuming that they could suggest changes that would improve my skills. (Karlskrona)

The Yalla Trappan concept itself concerned the transformation of traditional women’s household practices such as housekeeping, sewing, and cooking into professional knowledge. In other words, it required tinkering with amateur, tacit, local, non-professional knowledge developed at home, in order to transform the women’s care-giving work (Tronto, 1993 ) into professional knowledge suitable for the workplace. Mobilizing immigrant women’s resourcefulness, rendering their hidden resources visible and revalorizing them, again showcases bricolage as a practice of enacting new resources (Linna, 2013 ).

Also, the women participating in the activities actively engaged in knowledge bricolage by taking advantage of their common cultural background and language skills, and becoming trainers themselves. For example, one experienced participant was sent to improve her proficiency in reading and writing Swedish, and six months later she became the cleaning trainer for the other women. With the extra effort of these women, traditional professional knowledge could be translated into knowledge to which the other women could easily relate. This identity bricolage involved inverting their identities and roles: either project leaders emphasized their identities as foreign-born women, like the participants, or the participants became trainers. Being an immigrant woman can advantageously enable the exploitation of the ambiguities coming from belonging to different worlds, and the consequent articulation of a broad repertoire of resources, such as language, culture, and local knowledge (Phillimore et al., 2021 ; Zapata & Zapata Campos, 2023 ).

Beyond inverting roles, bricolage was also embedded in an ethic of care-giving and care-receiving (Tronto, 1993 ), whereby migrant women actively engaged, supporting each other through reciprocal learning, acknowledging the care the women received, and contributing positively to the learning of other members of the group.

“We help each other”. “We do this together”. (Focus group K) “Our motto is, one learns one thing, one teaches it to others”. (Interview C) “Here I have taught other women. I have helped as a teacher in the housekeeping programme. It felt good. First time around women did not understand anything I was saying! But I have learnt how to be a teacher”. (Focus group K)

Care-giving thus leads to care-receiving and vice versa. Together with the revalorization of their previously unrecognized skills, the inverting of roles, and active contribution to reciprocal learning, this recursiveness contributes to the women’s empowerment and emancipation.

Institutional Bricolage

Local translations of the Yalla Trappan model were also shaped by pre-existing relationships and historical pathways of collaboration (Spencer et al., 2005 ) in each particular setting—between social enterprises, civil society organizations, SPES, local governments, and local Coompanion offices.

Project leaders had to tinker with such local institutional arrangements (Zahra et al., 2009 ). For example, as a result of the centralization of SPES and the closure of hundreds of local SPES offices, many public officers liaising with local actors such as the Yalla Trappan initiatives disappeared. This disruptive event (Hoffman, 1999 ) affected the quantity and quality of the participant recruitment, for instance, in Skellefteå and Jönköping, forcing project leaders to find new venues for recruitment.

Our first contact [at SPES] was very good. She was very good at recruitment, fantastic. And then she quit, like many others. This was no good at all … We are dependent on the fact that somebody at SPES knows what we are doing and thinks well of it. And that somebody must have time to do a good job, which they didn’t have recently. (Interview J)

In other cases, it was the local government that failed to deliver what it initially promised. For example, despite recent legislation that provided a wider repertoire of instruments for collaboration between local governments and social enterprises, either these novel tools for economic inclusion were still unknown to municipal officials and politicians, or local governments were competing to recruit similar target groups, so that they could deliver work training services under their own umbrellas (Norbäck & Zapata Campos, 2022 ):

There were many other projects in our municipality that were targeting foreign women. So then there was almost a tug of war here—a bit silly on the part of the municipality, in fact. (Interview J)

In other cities, new collaborative governmental arrangements were developed as a result of long-standing and ongoing bricolage with governance structures. For example, despite the fact that in Mellerud the initial relationship with the local government did not run very smoothly, the project leader managed to develop a “community–public partnership” with the municipality, providing cleaning services to a cultural centre in exchange for using its professional kitchen. The inventiveness of tinkering with new collaborative governmental arrangements (see also Ek Österberg & Qvist, 2022 ; Zapata & Zapata Campos, 2023 ) brings “people into new constellations across the boundaries between the private, public, and non-profit/voluntary sectors” (Johannisson, 2018 , p. 394), at the same time multiplying resources in contexts characterized by scarcity.

Even in settings where previous social and professional relations were rare, and local institutional arrangements were unsupportive, local project leaders refused to give up:

The project leader there, she is a fantastic young lady who worked so hard … with very little help … I truly admire her, for her ways of managing this activity. But … she must feel like that lion that goes around and roars and nobody else cares. (Interview M)

This confirms that the bricoleur’s identity is grounded in the principle of “making it work”, whatever the implications (Janssen et al., 2018 ; Stinchfield et al., 2013 ), driven by an ethic of care-giving (Tronto, 1993 ). Driven by this ethic, bricoleurs assume responsibility for and commitment to migrant women, undertaking necessary actions and assembling resources with which to replicate, adapt, and translate the model to the local context “no matter what”. While the original bricoleur in Malmö and other actors such as Coompanion Sweden took concrete actions to address the needs of these women through “imitation” (“taking care of”, in Tronto’s [1993] terms), it is the local bricoleurs in each setting who actively provide care both to meet women’s specific needs and to translate the initiative to the local context where care-giving is recursively transformed into care-receiving.

Expansion Made Possible via Imitation and Bricolage

The findings thus illustrate how the expansion of Yalla Trappan to other cities in Sweden was possible, thanks to simultaneous practices of imitation and bricolage. While an important part of the activities was developed by replicating a successful model known through its broadcasting and based on an emergent institutional infrastructure (i.e. “taking care of”), other activities were locally translated through material, human, cultural, identity, market, and institutional bricolage (e.g. care-giving and care-receiving) (see Fig.  1 ).

The study also shows that the bricolage necessary for expanding this alternative form of organizing labour market integration is of a particular kind. First, it is collective, despite the unquestionable importance of individual agency. Market, institutional, identity, and material types of bricolage all require intensive and unconditional commitment in order to perform collective action that addresses the societal responsibility to support migrants in the receiving society (Nail, 2018 ). This collective approach to bricolage is permeated by an ethic of care (Tronto, 1993 ) whereby actions are conducted jointly through reciprocal engagement, drawing on group dynamics and at times blurring the boundaries between roles such as trainers and trainees, care-recipients, and care-givers.

Second, it is a bricolage that is multi-scalar, not just local. While the local embeddedness of social bricolage is essential, the scope of action of bricoleurs goes well beyond the local. Bricoleurs’ work cuts across multiple governance scales, for example, extending from the individual and city scales, through the regional and national, to the EU scale (see also Banerjee, 2020 ). It also embraces a broad repertoire of skills and other multicultural resources, such as languages and identities, typical of migrant communities. This is possible as migrants in superdiverse neighbourhoods have access to a wide range of resources, from global to local (Castellani & Roca, 2021; Glick Schiller & Çağlar, 2011 ). It is also possible as bricolage builds on multi-scalar infrastructures of caring—for example, local, regional, or national associations—that facilitate the expansion of alternative methods of integration across settings.

Third, this bricolage is embedded in an ethic of care-giving and care-receiving, rather than in a market logic (André & Pache, 2016 ; Gibson-Graham, 2008 ; Tronto, 1993 ). Trainers, the women themselves, and other supportive stakeholders showed a remarkable sense of responsibility for the well-being of the women and the Yalla Trappan officers. These ethics of caring served as a “moral compass” (Interview M) preventing the risk of mission drift (André & Pache, 2016 ; Ebrahim et al., 2014) resulting from the tensions of navigating between social and commercial activities. For officers supporting the cooperative, close contact with these migrant women increased this sense of “individual responsibility, not to drop these women again” (Interview S). For the immigrant women participating in the cooperatives, bricolage reinforced their ability to take care “and help others too” (Interview K), moving beyond being merely recipients of help to giving care as well (Tronto, 1993 ). The engagement in ethical bricolage work came, however, at a price. The officer creating each Yalla Trappan cooperative was at times seen as “a lion that goes around and roars”, making it work, no matter the implications (Janssen et al., 2018 ), as the moral value of her goal of supporting the women outweighed the material resources available for her duties. This approach to organizing the work resulted in more humane and ethical training methods, based on an ethic of care, in which the women felt for the first time, often after years of living in Sweden, that they were part of the host society:

And I began to see [i.e. after participating in Yalla Trappan] that there is an opportunity for me to succeed in this society after all. My place is not just at home, waiting for somebody to get something for me. I can contribute to this—you can look for help from me too. And I belong as a person in this society. (Focus group K)

Scaling Locally Embedded, Alternative Practices

The findings reported here also foster new insight into the ambiguous role of local embeddedness in the expansion of social entrepreneurship (Busch & Barkema, 2021 ; Resch & Steyaert, 2020 ). First, they illustrate how bricolage does not necessarily compromise the quality and effectiveness of the learning process for organizational expansion (e.g. Johannisson & Olaison, 2007 ; Senyard et al., 2014 ). Quite the opposite was the case. This is because local adopters combined the faithful replication of the standardized practices of the original model (imitation practices) with their locally embedded knowledge in the multiple new settings (bricolage practices). These simultaneous practices supported the organizational expansion beyond the original setting and helped overcome the militant particularism (Harvey & Williams, 1995 ) of local bricoleurs, their lack of interest in scaling beyond their home communities (Smith et al., 2017 ; Zahra et al., 2009 ), and their lack of knowledge of the new settings (Phillimore et al., 2016 ).

Second, the study also illustrates how local embeddedness and bricolage in resource-scarce but superdiverse immigrant communities (Castellani & Roca, 2021; Phillimore et al., 2021 ) open up access to a wide range of practices and resources to tinker with, resources otherwise invisible to non-local actors (Gutberlet et al., 2016 ; Scheurle & Schmitz, 2016), all of which supports the expansion of such initiatives in different settings (Glick Schiller & Çağlar, 2011 ).

Conclusions

The paper demonstrates how the expansion of alternative and more ethical forms of organizing labour market integration is enabled by simultaneous practices of imitation and bricolage. The concept of bricolage is particularly useful for explaining the expansion of alternative forms of organizing the social and economic inclusion of migrants in resource-scarce, deprived, complex, and superdiverse contexts, in which resources often invisible to the state or the market can be made visible and mobilized by committed actors, driven by an ethic of care for the migrant community. The paper also demonstrates how both local embeddedness and an ethic of care not only facilitated the development of the original model but also enabled its expansion to other settings, making an original contribution to the literature on social entrepreneurship and bricolage (e.g. Dahles et al., 2020 ). In the remainder of this paper, we discuss the implications of these findings for the labour market integration of immigrants, and for the ethic of care and migration.

Labour Market Integration of Immigrants

Traditional activation methods and programmes prioritizing work are reported to be insufficient (Strindlund et al., 2020 ), potentially oppressive, and thus unethical, instead of empowering, thereby jeopardizing migrant rights. For practitioners such as public officers, nongovernmental organizations, social enterprises, and cooperatives supporting the labour market integration of foreign-born citizens, a better understanding of the role of imitation and bricolage could improve the potential to expand more ethical methods to support migrants’ rights and “repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible” (Fischer & Tronto, 1990 , p. 40). The study reported here also shows that such expansion requires, as a prerequisite, the construction of national and local institutional infrastructures of care (e.g. legislation, reserved procurement, non-profit–public partnerships, and intermediary organizations). More systematic and sustained support is necessary at the macro-level of business, ethics, and migration, to facilitate the fluid and rapid expansion of these caring initiatives, and generally to address our societal responsibility to migrant communities (Carens, 2013 ).

The start-up and expansion of alternative approaches is often associated with multi-level governance processes, for example, when EU funds support the development of the social and solidarity economy. Yet while the intervention of multi-level governance in labour market integration enables the development of novel practices for taking care of these collectives, it also challenges their stabilization once resources are exhausted. Although local bricolage can enable the expansion of alternative approaches to labour market integration, the stability and reach of such initiatives will be jeopardized if the actors involved must constantly tinker with resources and improvise solutions. To avoid this risk, we urge the construction of institutions of integration (Gregson et al., 2020) conducive to bricolage (Carstensen et al., 2022) and embedded in an ethic of care (Tronto, 1993 ). That is, institutions characterized by a degree of flexibility that facilitates improvisation, experimentation, and joint learning in collaboration with bricoleurs such as migrant organizations, and with an ethic of care as a moral and political compass.

The Ethics of Migration

Previous literature has amply shown how migrants are not “just mere victims” (Agustín, 2003 ), subjects of activation policies (Vesterberg, 2015 ), or care-recipients (Tronto, 1993 ). Rather, they are resourceful and have agency. This paper follows up calls to emphasize the productive manifestations of migrant agency (Agustín, 2003 ), shifting the focus from individual to collective agency. It deepens scholarly discussion of the ethics of migration (Rajendra, 2017 ; Shanahan, 2021 ) through work (Carens, 2013 ) in contexts in which migrants themselves collectively create their own working spaces (Cañada et al., 2023 ) and self-organize their working rights (e.g. Jiang & Korczynski, 2016 ). Immigrant women engage in collective bricolage to address the challenges of their migration journeys and their social and economic inclusion (Segarra & Prasad, 2020 ), via an ethic of care. We have shown how migrant cooperatives can develop alternative and more ethical forms of organizing work, striving to put “life first” (André & Pache, 2016 ), based on principles of open-source sharing, unconditional commitment, reciprocal engagement, democracy, equity, and participation.

This paper shows how migrant cooperatives can play a pivotal role in restoring the human rights of immigrants in the receiving communities through their emancipatory power. The marginalization of these women can paradoxically generate the conditions for “a new place and a new time” (Nail, 2018 , p. 18) in which more ethical forms of organizing work and inclusion, for and by migrant women, can emerge. This study particularly highlights the emancipatory potential of migrant cooperatives, emphasizing the virtue of collective bricolage (Phillimore et al., 2021 ). This involves recognizing, revalorizing, and integrating women’s resourcefulness, transforming previously overlooked and unpaid traditional female skills into professional competences with value in both the labour market and the public sphere (Authors, 2023). This revalorization of caring work resonates with the calls from feminist economists (e.g. Federici, 2018 ) to collectively reinvent caring activities essential for social reproduction (e.g. sewing, housekeeping, or cooking) as collective and revalorized practices.

The study further demonstrates that the emancipatory potential of migrant cooperatives is grounded in the creative mobilization of inherent repertoires of resources characteristic of migrant communities, including language, culture, and local knowledge of their neighbourhood institutions. Through bricolage, migrant cooperatives can render visible the otherwise concealed value of these resources (Phillimore et al., 2021 ). By rendering visible the skills and resources of both women and migrants, these forms of self-organizing work contribute to the emancipation of migrant women and align themselves with the moral imperative to restore the rights and value of these communities. Finally, the potential of migrant cooperatives to emancipate individuals from oppressive structures and standardized activation policies hinges on their transformative power, turning victims into agents of change (Agustín, 2003 ). This transformation empowers individuals to become advocates of their rights, and to transition from being mere care-receivers to becoming proactive care-givers, as observed through the lens of an ethic of care (Tronto, 1993 ). This perspective offers a valuable lens through which to understand and address the ethical dimensions inherent in migration.

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Acknowledgements

This article would have not been possible without the involvement of many courageous women. The women of Yalla Trappan who generously shared their challenges, failures and triumphs; my dearest colleague Maria Norbäck for the joint fieldwork and the encouraging discussions; and our cherished professor Barbara Czarniawska, for her thoughtful contribution to the first draft of this paper. Barbara was so many things. One of them, the first female professor in Business Administration at the University of Gothenburg, a role model, and an inspiration for many of us. She has recently passed away, leaving behind an invaluable legacy but also a void impossible to fill. Barbara, I miss you.

Open access funding provided by University of Gothenburg. This article was funded by Vetenskapsrådet, 2019-02109 “The changing role of local governments in labour market integration”, FORTE grant Forskningsrådet om Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd, 2016-07205 “Organising Integration”, and the FORTE grant 2023-00091 “Women For Integration”.

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Zapata Campos, M.J. The Expansion of Alternative Forms of Organizing Integration: Imitation, Bricolage, and an Ethic of Care in Migrant Women’s Cooperatives. J Bus Ethics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05773-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05773-1

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