Identity, Agency and Virtue: The Moral Life of a National Bank (original) (raw)
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Institutions and moral agency: the case of Scottish banking
Journal of Institutional Economics, 2019
It has been an enduring concern of institutional economics and critical realism to understand how individuals are able to exercise agency in the context of social structures, and to maintain appropriate connections, separations and balances between these two levels of causal power. This paper explores the contribution of Alasdair MacIntyre's neo-Aristotelian philosophy to the topic. Empirical data are provided from the career narratives of senior Scottish bankers recalled in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007/8. The method of the study is interpretive, using themes drawn from MacIntyre's writings. These bankers faced moral choices as tensions developed between their own professional standards and the new corporate goals of the banks. We discuss MacIntyre's understanding of individual moral agency as a narrative quest in the context of different types of institution with different and often conflicting ideas about what constitutes good or right action. Habituation and deliberation are important in enabling action, but fully developed moral agency also depends on individuals being able to make choices in the space opened up by tensions within and between institutions.
Ethics as a major USP: The Case of the Co- operative Bank
This paper which is mainly based on the primary research carried out for one of the authors’ PhD thesis. It examines the case of an organisation that has positioned itself in the marketplace as both ethical as well as ideologically green. The Co-operative Bank’s ethical and green policies are investigated in the process, as is its motivation in gaining a niche in the ethical market. A number of interviews were carried out with managers in the bank .The interviews used a number of ethical/green drivers (Jahdi, 2006) to ascertain these motives as well as to discover other relevant information. The organisation is amongst the minority of companies that genuinely seek to pursue an ethical path and who successfully manage to turn such a philosophy and business strategy into a significant Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
Ethical Banking in Practice: A Closer Look at the Cooperative Bank UK PLC [2016]
Ethical banking in practice: a closer look at the Co-operative Bank UK PLC, 2016
Purpose The main objectives of the study were to investigate the ethical banking operations based on the award winning-the UK Co-operative Bank which has successfully brought significant implications on sustaining the nations (the UK) socioenvironmental development. The Co-operative bank operations be conceptualised into a solid Ethical Banking Operations Framework (EBOF) to contribute theoretically into enriching the body of the knowledge. Besides, by understand the EBOF of an ethical banking system, the other banking players like Malaysian banks can learn from this best practice and gradually shaping its operation to become more ethical. Design/methodology/approach The case study on the UK Co-operative Bank the UK was based on primary data collected through a series of qualitative focus group conducted on twenty senior bank managers who were interested and being supportive on this research project. These experienced respondents are actively involved in the Co-op Bank’s ‘Corporate Ethical Policy’ formulation, as well as the implementation of this policy into the Co-op Bank’s daily operations. Besides, secondary data is reviewed in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding on the Co-operative Bank. The research began in December 2012 and completed in August 2014. The main reason the researchers opted for qualitative studies is to comply with the criteria of inductive approach, whereby the final outcomes (EBOF) are the crystallisation of the ethical banking operations, which could be generalised theoretically and empirically. Findings At the end of the study, the EBOF based on the Co-operative Bank’s ethical operations (as the case studied) is constructed. As a conclusion, the Co-operative Bank has done tremendous well in sustaining the UK’s socioenvironmental development, which justifies the Co-op Bank has won numerous prestigious awards and being well recognised nationally and regionally. Practical implications The novelty concept of ethical banking is driven by the global socioenvironmental initiative that influences some of the major financial institutions which are proactively and gradually shaping their corporate image in safeguarding the community around and environment. This research has successfully attained the ultimate objective to foster knowledge transfer through learning from the best (from the UK Co-operative Bank) in shaping local (Malaysia) ethical banking. Originality/value This study constructs the Ethical Banking Operations Framework (EBOF) based on the Co-operative Bank’s ethical operations that could be disseminated and adopted in other banks’ operations (across the globe) empirically. This is aimed in shaping the local banking industry to become more ethical (learning from the best practice of the UK Co-operative Bank) in wealth creation that highly emphasis on socioenvironmental benefits rather the economic gain on profit maximisation alone. Besides, the EBOF contributes and enrich the body of the knowledge about ethical banking operations.
Figures of Trust - Changing Organisational Identity in the Banking Sector
Our theoretical paper focuses on trust as a fundamental social practice for the changing of an organization’s culture. The empirical basis of our reflections is an organizational development process carried out on behalf of a banking institute. Due to a longstanding misguided engagement on the financial markets, the institute risked insolvency and was sold to a hedge fund. By re-boosting the retail business as the institute’s core activity, the new owners achieved an economic recovery. Still, the new executive board has not yet successfully re-established trust as a pillar of organisational culture and necessary precondition for the acceptance of strategic change. The aim of our intervention was to transform a problem that initially was represented as a task of change communication into a process apt to resolve the underlying collective action dilemmas. The problem of changing organizational identity was addressed by establishing collective action modes and actor- networks that are “enacted” as exemplary figures of trust. By spreading their trust-based culture across the organisation, these actor-networks contribute to the re-building of organisational identity.
Meditari Accountancy Research, 2020
This paper aims to explore how accountants manage the processes of identity (re)construction after identity crisis, resulting from increasing pressures and regulatory requirements, considering both introspective and the extrospective issues. The study drew on an integrated framework drawing on Luigi Pirandello’s views about identity crises and the search for individual coherence and possible representation strategies. It used an ethnographic approach based on photo-elicitation, conversations and documentary sources to explore the identity reconstruction processes of Italian Commercialisti. Several conditions caused an identity crisis among Commercialisti, including regulatory requirements, public administration demands and increasing power of IT providers. Commercialisti reacted to these circumstances by re-constructing their image through strategies designed to impress both themselves and others. The paper has implications for the accounting profession in general and in Italy, suggesting that further pressure may result in rapid change efforts among accountants. It provides a broader and more systematic understanding of the threats to the role of accountants and suggests how they can manage complexity to create new opportunities. It also encourages accountants to focus on alternative roles as a possible new strategy that few have tried. The paper provides a novel contribution to the understanding of identity crisis issues and related representation strategies in the accounting profession. Unlike past contributions, it made a full assessment of both the dynamics of an identity crisis and the micro-level responses to it, in a new, non-Anglo-Saxon context.
Identity Drift: The Multivocality of Ethical Identity in Islamic Financial Institution
Journal of Business Ethics
In today's neo-liberalist world, Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) face many difficulties combining contemporary financial thinking with Islamic, faith-based principles, on which their day-today operations ought to be based. Hence, IFI are likely to experience shifts/changes in organizational and ethical identity due to tensions that the combination of these principles invokes. We present an in-depth case study that focuses on these shifts in a major European based IFI across a 14-year period. We conceptualize identity change as drift, highlighting the multivocal nature of identity construction. The ethico-faith principles that were meant to serve as living codes of ethics guiding the IFI's organizational culture, operational processes, and strategy formation turned out to mainly have been discursively rationalized to respond to regulatory, market and institutional imperatives. The company is aware that it needs to engage in a continuous dialogue with those who set these requirements. Its ethico-faith principles may consequently be adapted quite radically, especially in periods of turmoil and takeover, as we show across the analysed time period. The paper provides valuable insights for faith-inspired organizations to reflect on the extent to which they wish to engage in the discursive justification and legitimization of current market hegemonies, whilst they actively encourage their managers to behave ethically as well.
Accounting finance & governance review, 2014
O ur empirical study of a government regulatory agency examines how external stakeholders respond to policy-driven change in a way that potentially threatens organisational legitimacy. Specifi cally, we focus upon the United Kingdom (UK) tax agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and its move away from its traditional regulatory role towards enabling its 'customer', the corporate taxpayer, to 'shelter' tax. We theorise such policy as one of organisational identity change. Focusing upon organisational identity as 'moral', we highlight that should a government regulatory agency lose the support of external stakeholders as it engages in identity change, it may threaten the legitimacy and survival of that agency. Policy makers need to recognise that their power in defi ning organisational identity has its limits in public services organisations, where the public and media are likely to debate their moral purpose.