Corporate Philanthropy as a Context for Moral Agency, a MacIntyrean Enquiry

Ron Beadle,Helen Nicholson,Richard Slack

doi:10.1007/s10551-019-04188-7

Ron Beadle, Helen Nicholson + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04188-7

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Abstract

It has been claimed that ‘virtuous structures’ can foster moral agency in organisations. We investigate this in the context of employee involvement in corporate philanthropy, an activity whose moral status has been disputed. Employing Alasdair MacIntyre’s account of moral agency, we analyse the results of eight focus groups with employees engaged in corporate philanthropy in an employee-owned retailer, the John Lewis Partnership. Within this organisational context, Employee–Partners’ moral agency was evidenced in narrative accounts of their engagement in philanthropic activities and in their disputes about the moral status of corporate philanthropy.

Highlights

Background and Organisational ContextThe John Lewis Partnership on which this research is based has been praised for its constitutional settlement, embedding accountability and employee involvement in decision-making (Flanders et al 1968; Erdal 2011; Paranque and Willmott 2014; Salaman and Storey 2016)
Partners valued their involvement in decision-making through both nominating and decision–making rights about the philanthropic causes to be supported. To further understand this from a partners’ perspective, participants were asked about their involvement in the nomination of projects. This is facilitated by the employment of a full-time community liaison co-ordinator (CLC) in each store to garner partner opinion
The CLC manages the process of selecting beneficiaries, creating a short-list circulated to partners before an open meeting and partner vote

Summary

Introduction

The John Lewis Partnership on which this research is based has been praised for its constitutional settlement, embedding accountability and employee involvement in decision-making (Flanders et al 1968; Erdal 2011; Paranque and Willmott 2014; Salaman and Storey 2016). By contrast Cox quotes Spedan Lewis as writing: as a whole the staff were getting just a bare living, with very little margin beyond absolute necessities and correspondingly little chance to get much fun out of life. In all such ways the management could hardly have been more ruthlessly close-fisted. To me all this seemed shocking (Cox 2010, p. 32)

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