Resisting a corporate code of ethics and the reinforcement of management control

• This study is about how a corporate code of ethics travels into a multinational corporation's subsidiary, focusing on how members of the subsidiary recontextualize, relabel and explain the code (to themselves and others). What emerges is the story of a code that is disliked by its receivers, but yet signed by them all, avowing that they have 'read, understood and accepted' it, thereby reinforcing the parent's control system. We argue that this seeming contradiction can be explained in terms of the receivers resisting the code by distancing themselves from it through the devaluation of (i) social referents, (ii) the code's core ethical content and (iii) the expected outcome of implementing the code. These distancing practices enable the receivers to position themselves as outside of power, which, in turn, enable them to sign the code.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

code

control

distance

ethics

power

resistance

travel of ideas

Business studies

Företagsekonomi

Business Studies

Företagsekonomi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)