Mapping the cultural grammar of reflexivity: the case of the Enron scandal

Ailon, Galit

doi:10.1080/03085147.2011.529331

Cited by 21 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Widening the RE scholar's lens from the development stage of a start-up as one determinant of governance to additional factors such as regulation could also reveal valuable insights (this is summarized in Table 6). After all, flawed governance systems have been identified as a major cause of numerous corporate scandals in recent years (Ailon, 2011), and an enhanced understanding of determinants of firms' governance 2 Three topics were not labeled within our framework, but as "Generic." We briefly discuss these in the section Overview of data.…”

Section: Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature

Tiba

Rijnsoever

Hekkert

2018

Corp Soc Responsibility Env

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The scholarly literature has so far paid limited attention to responsibility by commercial entrepreneurs. This paper compares responsible entrepreneurship (RE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholarship in order to identify future fields of research.For this purpose, we assess the strengths and weaknesses of extant RE scholarship through the lens of CSR. We have reviewed 11,260 papers via latent Dirichlet allocation for our work. We find that existing RE literature places disproportionate emphasis on how firms can benefit society instead of on how contributions to sustainable development can benefit a firm. Furthermore, the RE literature pays limited attention to employee well-being, customer preference, and civil society as a stakeholder. Also, environmental issues and their balancing with financial and social issues remain relatively under-researched. Overall, we hope that scholarly works inspired by this study may ultimately help to ensure responsible behaviour of start-ups.

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Section: Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature

Tiba

Rijnsoever

Hekkert

2018

Corp Soc Responsibility Env

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“…The second way in which financialization undermines the status of profit as an ultimate measure in organizations is related to the recent sensational financial crises, and the accounting debacles of quite a few well-known organizations (see, e.g., Ailon, 2011;Boje et al, 2004;Williams, 2008). These debacles have raised public awareness of accounting's significant degrees of interpretive freedom.…”

Section: Why There Is Reason To Believe That Change Is Comingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting Sail on Stormy Waters: On the Role of Organizational Ethnographers in the Age of Financialization

Ailon¹

2013

jba

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Current financialization marks a broad cultural shift in the economy. It also marks a cultural shift within organizations. Primarily, it seems to challenge the status of profit as an ultimate measure that no logic transcends, sanctifying in its place the concept of ‘shareholder value’. This article discusses this transformation and argues that it has two major implications for organizational ethnographers. First, it holds the potential for overcoming the traditional suspicion towards ethnography in the fields of business and management, and the accompanying wariness towards the type of social reflexivity that ethnography entails. Second, it raises new questions to be asked of the ethnographic method and how new cultural issues might be examined.

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“…Ailon, 2011: 159-160;see Boltanski and Chiapello, 2007). Ailon's (2011) analysis is pertinent for appreciating how, when limited attention is paid to the cultural grammar that endows 'reflexive governance' with meaning(s), the outcome can be 'a sense-making mechanism cast in the shape of its own beliefs' (Ailon, 2011: 160).When confined within a dominant, taken for granted 'cultural grammar' where refl exivity takes the form of a single loop, the legitimacy of established preconceptions and priorities is assumed (Ailon, 2011: 142). This possibility is signalled by the distinction drawn by Argyris and Schön (1978) (Ailon, 2011: 142) with regard to the forces, processes and stakeholders that condition the governance of corporate activity.…”

Section: Single and Double Loop Reflexivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Ailon (2011), who directly addresses the cultural grammar of reflexivity, we are persuaded that claims about reflexivity should be treated cautiously. Ailon's key point is this: where the notion of reflexivity becomes abstracted from specific practices, it can defy, or even escape, critical examination as it becomes absorbed into, and diluted by, a prevailing 'cultural grammar' 6 in which its meaning and significance is (narrowly and superficially) framed.…”

Section: Single and Double Loop Reflexivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The cultural grammar of governance: The UK Code of Corporate Governance, reflexivity, and the limits of ‘soft’ regulation

Veldman¹,

Willmott

2015

Human Relations

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Governance that is celebrated for its 'reflexivity'. By placing the historical genesis of the Code within its politico-economic context, it is shown how its scope and penetration is impeded by a shallow, 'single loop' of reflexivity. Legitimized by agency theory, the Code is infused by a 'cultural grammar' that perpetuates relations of shareholder primacy as it restricts accountability to narrow forms of information disclosure directed exclusively at shareholders. Engagement of a deeper, 'double loop' reflexivity allows account to be taken of the historical conditions and theoretical conceptions that shape practices and outcomes of corporate governance. Only then is it possible to disclose, challenge and reform narrow conceptions, boundaries and workings of 'reflexive governance'. Permanent repository link

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Mapping the cultural grammar of reflexivity: the case of the Enron scandal

Cited by 21 publications

References 11 publications

Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature

Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature

Setting Sail on Stormy Waters: On the Role of Organizational Ethnographers in the Age of Financialization

The cultural grammar of governance: The UK Code of Corporate Governance, reflexivity, and the limits of ‘soft’ regulation

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