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Mutuality talk in a family-owned multinational: anthropological categories & critical analyses of corporate ethicizing

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 20:07 authored by Paul GilbertPaul Gilbert, Catherine Dolan
This article draws on work carried out as part of a collaboration between an elite business school and a family-owned multinational corporation, concerned with promoting ‘mutuality in business’ as a new frontier of responsible capitalism. While the business school partners treated mutuality as a new principle central to an emergent ethical capitalism, the corporation claimed mutuality as a long-established value unique to their company. Both interpretations foreground a central problem in recent writing on the anthropology of business/corporations: the tension between the claim that economic life is always embedded within a moral calculus, and the shift towards increasingly ethical behaviour among many corporations. Further, recent work in the anthropology of business rejects normative evaluations of corporate ethicizing. When corporations lay claim to ethical renewal, but maintain a commitment to competition and growth, then anthropologists must balance a sympathetic engagement with corporate ethicizing, and critical engagement with growth-based strategies

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of Business Anthropology

ISSN

2245-4217

Publisher

Copenhagen Business School

Issue

1

Volume

9

Page range

19-43

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-01-06

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-01-06

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-01-06

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