IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v29y2019i04p461-489_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethics as a Fabric: An Emotional Reflexive Sensemaking Process

Author

Listed:
  • Fatien Diochon, Pauline
  • Nizet, Jean

Abstract

The ethical sensemaking approach stands as an essential alternative to the dominant rational and objectivist paradigm of ethical decision-making in organizations. From this perspective, this research explores the intrapersonal interplay of emotions and reflexivity in ethical sensemaking. We analyzed thirty-seven semi-structured interviews conducted with executive coaches sharing a critical incident about an issue they framed as ethical. Our findings show that their ethical decisions unfolded over a three-phase emotional reflexive sensemaking process, where reflexivity allowed for the management of emotions in the form of emotional awareness, emotional unpacking, and emotional (dis)engagement. Therefore, we portray ethics as a fabric, produced through the knitting of emotions and reflexivity. And, while ethics certainly appear to be produced by the subject, we suggest a reciprocal relationship, whereby the very fabric of ethics contributes to the production of the ethical subject.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatien Diochon, Pauline & Nizet, Jean, 2019. "Ethics as a Fabric: An Emotional Reflexive Sensemaking Process," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(4), pages 461-489, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:29:y:2019:i:04:p:461-489_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X19000113/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tongyu Meng & Jamie Newth & Christine Woods, 2022. "Ethical Sensemaking in Impact Investing: Reasons and Motives in the Chinese Renewable Energy Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(4), pages 1091-1117, September.
    2. Elisabeth Nöhammer, 2022. "Meaning, Needs, and Workplace Spirituality," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, December.
    3. John F. Hulpke & Michael P. Fronmueller, 2020. "Review of Evidence-Based Management: How to Make Better Organizational Decisions by Eric Barends and Denise Rousseau," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 417-419, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:29:y:2019:i:04:p:461-489_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.