No Body to Kick, No Soul to Damn: Responsibility and Accountability for the Financial Crisis (2007–2010)

Olivia Nicol ()
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Olivia Nicol: European University Institute (EUI)

Journal of Business Ethics, 2018, vol. 151, issue 1, No 9, 114 pages

Abstract: Abstract This article takes the 2008–2010 financial crisis as a case study to explore the tension between responsibility and accountability in complex crises. I analyze the patterns of attribution and assumption of responsibility of thirty-three bankers in Wall Street, interviewed from fall 2008 to summer 2010. First, I show that responsibility for complex failures cannot be easily attributed or assumed: responsibility becomes diluted within the collective. Actors can only assume collective responsibility, recognizing that they belong to an institution at fault. Second, I show that blaming is a social process that should be examined contextually, relationally, and dynamically. I build on sociological theories to depart from the normative focus of philosophers, and the cognitive focus of psychologists, who have dominated the study of responsibility so far.

Keywords: Attribution of responsibility; Assumption of responsibility; Accounts; Financial crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3279-3

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