Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - How do firms manage ethically-contested organisational paradoxes? Insights from two historical case studies of modern slavery
AU - Wong, Nicholas D.
AU - Smith, Andrew
AU - Cruz, Allan Discua
AU - Burton, Nicholas
AU - Charalambous, Elenia
PY - 2025/3/31
Y1 - 2025/3/31
N2 - Management researchers, particularly those focused on socially important issues such as worker exploitation, are increasingly interested in what this study terms ethically-contested organisational paradoxes. Such paradoxes occur when there is an incongruity between the ethical dimensions of a firm’s action in one area, geographical or functional, and another. To understand how firms manage ethically-contested organisational paradoxes, this study conducts historical research on two twentieth century firms, Cadbury and Rowntree, who were lauded by contemporaries for their enlightened treatment of domestic workforces whilst simultaneously being engaged in labour practices overseas that were controversial and exploitative. This study examines how two multigenerational family firms managed the paradox inherent in the significant difference in how they treated their workers at home and abroad. This study identifies three types of strategies that firm leaders used to manage the existence of ethically-contested organisational paradoxes: disinforming, subordinating, and self-doubting.
AB - Management researchers, particularly those focused on socially important issues such as worker exploitation, are increasingly interested in what this study terms ethically-contested organisational paradoxes. Such paradoxes occur when there is an incongruity between the ethical dimensions of a firm’s action in one area, geographical or functional, and another. To understand how firms manage ethically-contested organisational paradoxes, this study conducts historical research on two twentieth century firms, Cadbury and Rowntree, who were lauded by contemporaries for their enlightened treatment of domestic workforces whilst simultaneously being engaged in labour practices overseas that were controversial and exploitative. This study examines how two multigenerational family firms managed the paradox inherent in the significant difference in how they treated their workers at home and abroad. This study identifies three types of strategies that firm leaders used to manage the existence of ethically-contested organisational paradoxes: disinforming, subordinating, and self-doubting.
KW - Organisational paradox
KW - business ethics
KW - family business
KW - modern slavery
KW - worker exploitation
U2 - 10.1080/00076791.2024.2442337
DO - 10.1080/00076791.2024.2442337
M3 - Journal article
VL - 67
SP - 629
EP - 657
JO - Business History
JF - Business History
SN - 0007-6791
IS - 2
ER -