Beneath the veil of givenness: a reflexive theoretical foundation for organization studies of morality

Abstract

International audience

Organization research is increasingly becoming a host of studies that touch upon moral phenomena. Oftentimes these studies depict morality as an empirically given phenomenon, one that is automatically and unmistakably recognizable. The present paper challenges this appearance of givenness by arguing that a theory of morality precedes any empirical study of moral phenomena, and that much of the confusion and inconsistency in the studies of this field in due to keeping the theoretical frames unspoken and unexamined. Accordingly, I distinguish between two starkly different theoretical frames on the ontological connection between the notions of morality and organization - heterologous and homologous - based on whether the two of them are viewed as distinct and independent from each other or orders of the same constitutive fiber on people's life. Drawing on a critical examination of this distinction, I present a reflexive theoretical foundation for organization research on morality, which systematizes the existing literature and opens up an array of unexplored possibilities for advancing studies in this area.