Ethical Complexity of Social Change: Negotiated Actions of a Social Enterprise

Journal of Business Ethics · 2022 · Volume 177 · Issue 4

Abstract

This paper investigates howsocial enterprises navigate through the ethical complexity of social changeand extends the ethical quandaries faced by social enterprises (SEs) beyond organisational boundaries. Building on the emerging literature on the ethics of SEs, I conceptualise ethics as an engagement with power relations. I develop theoretical arguments to understand the interaction between ethical predispositions of a SE and the normative structure of the social system in which it operates. I applied this conceptualisation in a hierarchical and heterogeneous rural Indian context to provide insights into the moral ambiguity of ethical decision-making and suggest pathways for ethical actions. Taking a qualitative case study approach, I followed an exemplary SE’s implementation process in India. I observed ethical challenges in designing the implementation process (efficiency versus equality), selecting the beneficiaries (fairness versus power) and sustaining the programme (cooperation versus autonomy). I also identified three actions of the SE—theaction of recognition, theaction of repositionand theaction of collaboration—and developed a transformative process model. I discuss the theoretical implications of this research for SEs and recommend a critical engagement with ethical theories to address systemic problems.

Keywords

Ethical complexity, Practice based approach, Principle based approach

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