Call for Papers - Disaggregating Corporate Politics through Political Work: Implications for Business Ethics

Guest Editors

Onna Malou van den Broek, University of Exeter, UK & CBS, Denmark, Onna Malou van den Broek

Laura Olkkonen, LUT University, Finland, Laura Olkkonen

Tazeeb Rajwani, University of Surrey, UK, Tazeeb Rajwani

Kathleen Rehbein, Marquette University, USA, Kathleen Rehbein

Frank de Bakker, IESEG School of Management, France, Frank de Bakker

Corporations provide a context for a myriad of stakeholders to politically shape and contest corporate decisions and practices. Actors that engage in such political activities—the individuals doing political work—include CEOs (Olkkonen & Morsing, 2023), owner-managers (Soundararajan et al., 2018), public relations officials (Coen & Vannoni, 2020), sustainability officers (Wickert & de Bakker, 2018), professional lobbyists (Tyllström & Murray, 2021), industry association representatives (Marques, 2017), politicians and bureaucrats (van den Broek, 2024), social activists (den Hond et al., 2014), and many others. The recognition that a diversity of individuals engage in corporate political activities helps us minimize the risk of reifying such activities, of simply attributing them to some ‘faceless corporation’. Moreover, this recognition reveals that the individuals engaged in political work can be exposed to ethical dilemmas and opportunities as they navigate an increasingly complex and personalized landscape of corporate politics.

Some of the most pressing ethical dilemmas in corporate political work stem from polarizing societal challenges such as deglobalisation, inequality, climate change, sexual discrimination, and increased digitalisation (Swigart et al., 2020). In addition, these societal trends challenge the ways that scholars have traditionally conceptualised the intersection between business and politics. Considering these challenges, this Special Issue sets out to disaggregate corporate politics by unpacking how (groups of) individuals in- and outside corporations seek to manage, express, and negotiate their own political and ethical identity through corporate political work. It aims to bring corporations into the realm of ideologies and ideas around (re-)distribution, values and cultures, and political communities. This Special Issue seeks to develop a nuanced understanding about how recent political trends have evolved, and are shaped by, some of the ethical challenges that corporations as contexts for political work may incur and/or inflict.

Amongst other issues, we note that contentious issues such as those involving the LGBTQAI+ movements, multiculturalism discourses, populism, modern slavery debates, territorial disputes and related armed conflicts, ecological imbalances, and post-truth objections raise challenging political and ethical matters of corporate concern. Moreover, we believe that investigating such issues can be enriched by work that disaggregates corporate politics; that seeks to explain how individual (inter)actions shape corporate positions and affairs; and that aims at providing a clear(er) picture of the micro-foundations of corporate politics. Such an approach simultaneously aims to develop new analytical insights about aggregated corporate politics and discussions of corporations as unified political actors.

Areas of Interest and Potential Research Questions

We invite strong empirical studies, theoretical contributions, and are open to diverse research methods (qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods) that address these questions or any relevant topics that are aligned with the Special Issue. Studies may draw from a range of (inter)disciplinary approaches and theories as well. But they need to speak to the micro-foundations of corporate political work and its ethical connotations. We particularly welcome studies that examine contentious political issues associated with clashing cultural and ideological worldviews. More specifically, the contributions may seek to enrich discussions following the examples indicated below.

First, we invite contributions that focus on corporate political roles, activities, and responsibilities and corporate stakeholders’ use of these political tactics. Questions associated with this theme may include: who benefits from corporations’ political roles and activities and how can theories of redistributive justice help to assess these outcomes? How do corporations and their stakeholders address the ethical dilemmas and opportunities that their political roles pose to them, and what role does identity, reputation, and stigma play here?

Second, contributions could explore the individuals in and outside corporations doing the political work and, in doing so, bring a micro-understanding to political exchange mechanisms. Sample research questions may include: What ethical challenges relate to the outsourcing of political work to, for example, consultants, industry associations, or public affairs corporations? How does organisational culture affect, and is being affected by, corporate political work and how can we assess its ethicality? How does digitalization impact political access, and how is political access challenged by digital social movements?

Third, we welcome submissions that seek to identify, and explain, changing expectations regarding the political roles of corporations. Like Girschik et al. (2021), this research could seek to uncover the potential for alternative ideas, voices, and activities that go beyond the narrow idea of the “corporate” to better tease out the social justice impact of corporations. They could also investigate the ethical questions and challenges associated with expanding stakeholders’ political involvement. For example, what ethical challenges arise when CEOs, managers, or employees express their opinions about contentious societal issues, and how can we discern whose values and interests they represent e.g., personal versus organisational views? How are political positions formulated within a corporate context? What happens when the political viewpoints and/or identities of key stakeholders, such as employees or investors, conflict with the CEO’s political stance and/or the corporation’s political interests, and how do individuals deal with any type of discrepancy? What are the ethical considerations and consequences of discerning whose voices are excluded or included, such as stakeholders at the margins?

Fourth, we invite works that critique corporations’ political roles in different and diverse geographic and institutional contexts (Sun et al., 2021). Potential research questions may include: What are the effects of geopolitical, economical, institutional, organisational, and individual changes, uncertainties, risks and/or volatilities on corporate political work? How do corporate stakeholders navigate opposing worldviews on contentious issues and what is acceptable in various contexts, and how do they give sense to this when information on conflicting actions is widely (online) available?

Finally, we also encourage the submission of studies that examine broader societal consequences: such as positive and negative spillover effects, influence on political structures and norms. Importantly, disaggregating corporate politics through the political work of individuals allows us to go beyond analysing business outcomes and instead focus on the direct and indirect implications for the broader society (Rehbein et al., 2020), an area which has been underrepresented (Katic & Hillman, 2023). As actors of political work, corporate stakeholders are using and shaping political ideas that have deep ethical consequences (Scholte 2000), an example is engaging with recent political trends to confine access to reproductive justice. These political ideas are embedded in ideologies or so-called “culture wars” (Hunter, 1991) between clashing conservative and progressive world views. Increasing structural instability and growing legitimacy of corporations as political actors require business ethics scholars to develop new theories and analytical tools to better explain how corporate stakeholders are reshaping the social order and the ethical consequences thereof. Research questions associated with this broad theme include: How do the political ideologies of individuals in and outside of corporations impact societal debates and discourses? How do the political ideologies of such individuals contribute to societal divisions, social polarization, as well as social movements? How do corporations’ covert political activities – e.g., bribery, darknet activities, deep fakes, and involvement in adult entertainment – raise ethical concerns for those actually doing the political work and how does this invigorate (or not) the idea of the “faceless corporation”?

Submission process and deadlines

The deadline for full papers is March 1, 2025. Before submitting, please note that a paper rejected from this Special Issue cannot be resubmitted to a regular issue of the Journal of Business Ethics. Instructions for submissions:

•The length of the manuscript should be approximately 8,000 - 10,000 words (including references). Articles should be no longer than 12,000 words.

•Submitted papers must adhere to the Editorial style of Journal of Business Ethics submission guidelines.

•All papers must be submitted through the Journal of Business Ethics online submission system Editorial Manager®.

•The submissions are reviewed on the basis of a double-blind peer-review process.

•Upon submission, please indicate that your submission is to this Special Issue.

We welcome questions relating to the Special Issue, proposed topics, and potential fit with the Special Issue objectives. Please direct any questions on the Special Issue to the corresponding Guest Editor, Onna Malou van den Broek o.m.van-den-broek@exeter.ac.uk.

Additional Information

Peer Review Policy, Process and Guidance

Peer Reviewer Selection

Paper development workshops

Two paper development workshops will be organised to support the submissions for this Special Issue. The first workshop is open for anyone interested in submitting to this Special Issue and takes place in November, 2024 aimed at outlining the ideas behind this Special Issue and offering opportunities to discuss and exchange ideas. The second workshop is for authors who receive a revise & resubmit decision for their submitted work and will be planned for late 2025. Both workshops will be organised in a hybrid format.

Coen, D., & Vannoni, M. (2020). The strategic management of government affairs in Brussels. Business & Society, 59, 612–641.

den Hond, F., Rehbein, K. A., de Bakker, F. G. A., & Kooijmans-van Lankveld, H. (2014). Playing on two chessboards: Reputation effects between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA). Journal of Management Studies, 51(5), 790– 813.

Girschik, V., Svystunova, L., & Lysova, E. I. (2022). Transforming corporate social responsibilities: Toward an intellectual activist research agenda for micro-CSR research. Human Relations, 75(1), 3–32.

Hunter, J. D. (1991) Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York, US: Basic Books.

Katic, I. V., & Hillman, A. (2023). Corporate political activity, reimagined: Revisiting the political marketplace. Journal of Management, 49(6), 1911–1938.

Marques, J. C. (2017). Industry business associations: self-interested or socially conscious? Journal of Business Ethics, 143, 733–751.

Olkkonen, L., & Morsing, M. (2023). A processual model of CEO activism: Activities, frames, and phases. Business & Society, 62(3), 646–694.

Rehbein, K., Leonel, R., den Hond, F., & de Bakker, F. G. A. (2020). How do firms that are changing the world engage politically? Rutgers Business Review, 5(2), 203–225.

Scholte, J. A. (2000). Globalization: A Critical Introduction. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave

Soundararajan, V., Spence, L. J., & Rees, C. (2018). Small business and social irresponsibility in developing countries: Working conditions and “evasion” institutional work. Business & Society, 57(7), 1301–1336.

Sun, P., Doh, J. P., Rajwani, T., & Siegel, D. (2021). Navigating cross-border institutional complexity: A review and assessment of multinational nonmarket strategy research. Journal of International Business Studies, 52(9), 1818-1853.

Swigart, K. L., Anantharaman, A., Williamson, J. A., & Grandey, A. A. (2020). Working while Liberal/Conservative: A review of political ideology in organizations. Journal of Management, 46(6), 1063–1091.

Tyllström, A., & Murray, J. (2021). Lobbying the client: The role of policy intermediaries in corporate political activity. Organization Studies, 42(6), 971–991.

van den Broek, O. M. (2024). How political actors co‐construct CSR and its effect on firms’ political access: A discursive institutionalist view. Journal of Management Studies, 61(2), 595–626.

Wickert, C., & de Bakker, F. G. A. (2018). Pitching for social change: Toward a relational approach to selling and buying social issues. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(1), 50– 73.