Beyond Rational Persuasion: How Leaders Change Moral Norms

Charles Spinosa (), Matthew Hancocks (), Haridimos Tsoukas () and Billy Glennon ()
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Charles Spinosa: VISION Consulting
Matthew Hancocks: Missions That Matter Ltd
Haridimos Tsoukas: University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, and University of Warwick
Billy Glennon: VISION Consulting

Journal of Business Ethics, 2023, vol. 184, issue 3, No 3, 589-603

Abstract: Abstract Scholars are increasingly examining how formal leaders of organizations change moral norms. The prominent accounts over-emphasize the role of rational persuasion. We focus, instead, on how formal leaders successfully break and thereby create moral norms. We draw on Dreyfus’s ontology of cultural paradigms and Williams’s moral luck to develop our framework for viewing leader-driven radical norm the change. We argue that formal leaders, embedded in their practices’ grounding, clarifying, and organizing norms, get captivated by anomalies and respond to them by taking moral risks, which, if practically successful, create a new normative order. We illustrate the framework with Churchill’s actions in 1940 and Anita Roddick’s Body Shop. Last, we discuss normative orders, when ordinary leaders change norms, evil, and further research.

Keywords: Leadership; Morality; Norms; Practice; Moral luck; Moral entrepreneurship; Institutionalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05149-3

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