This article assesses the proliferation of international accountability standards (IAS) in the recent past. We provide a comprehensive overview about the different types of standards and discus their role as part of a new institutional infrastructure for corporate responsibility. Based on this,...

Confronted with mounting pressure to ensure accountability vis-à-vis customers, citizens and beneficiaries, organizational leaders need to decide how to choose and implement so-called accountability standards. Yet while looking for an appropriate standard, they often base their decisions on...

This research-based essay offers a cross-disciplinary examination of ethics education in MBA programs. Based on data underlying the Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP) survey we find: that business schools doubled the number of ethics-related courses in different disciplines between 2005 and 2009, that...

This paper discusses so-called corporate responsibility standards (e.g., the Global Reporting Initiative and Social Accountability 8000) from the perspective of post-structuralist philosophy, in particular Derridian thinking. I introduce these different initiatives and contrast them against each...

This article distinguishes two approaches to study the political role of corporations. On the one hand, North American scholars have primarily understood the link between business and politics through the lens of corporate political activity (CPA) looking at how firms influence government...

This article examines under what conditions business schools may decouple the structural effects of their engagement in responsible management education from actual organizational practices. We argue that schools may be unable to match rising institutional pressures to publicly commit to...

This chapter discusses Jürgen Habermas’s contribution to social theory in general and organization studies in particular. Four pillars of Habermas’s thinking are highlighted: (1) his philosophy of language, (2) the resulting theory of communicative action, (3) his contribution to discourse...

This paper investigates different modes of organizing for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on insights from organization theory, we theorize two ways to organize for CSR. 'Complete' organization for CSR happens within businesses and depends on the availability of certain...

This article suggests that when the phenomenon of standards and standardisation is examined from the perspective of organisation studies three aspects stand out: the standardisation of organisations, standardisation by organisations, and standardisation as (a form of) organisation. Following a...

This article explains problems and opportunities created by standardized ethics initiatives (e.g., the UN Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative, and SA 8000) from the perspective of stakeholder theory. First, we outline differences and commonalities among currently existing initiatives...