IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v177y2022i1d10.1007_s10551-020-04725-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organizational Virtues and Organizational Anthropomorphism

Author

Listed:
  • Felix Martin

    (Lancaster University Management School)

Abstract

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human features to non-human subjects. Anthropomorphized organizations acquire in the minds of their members a unique identity, which becomes capable of guiding members’ motivations, with important managerial implications. Ashforth et al. (Acad Manage Rev https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0496 , 2018) offered a theoretical model of anthropomorphism in organizations, including “top-down” and “bottom-up” processes of organizational anthropomorphism as antecedents, and sensemaking and the sense of social connection of the organization as outcomes. Using SEM, this study operationalizes Ashforth et al.’s (Acad Manage Rev https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0496 , 2018) model using a two-trait scale of organizational virtue (Empathy and Courage) derived from Chun (J Bus Ethics 57:269–284, 2005), including measures of CSR and OCB as antecedents, and organizational justice and affective commitment as outcomes. The model is tested on survey data from seven UK managed service organizations in the hotels, logistics and legal sectors. As secondary contribution, moderation analysis is undertaken by industry, offering further insight into the evaluation of organizational anthropomorphism. Firstly, we note that high evaluations of Empathy influence evaluations of Courage through a halo effect. Secondly, we note that heuristic evaluation of the firm’s CSR practice also influences perceptions of Empathy and Courage. The paper also includes a discussion of the critique of organizational virtues by virtue ethicists in an effort to advance the dialogue between the two traditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Martin, 2022. "Organizational Virtues and Organizational Anthropomorphism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:177:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04725-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04725-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04725-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-020-04725-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hudson, Simon & Huang, Li & Roth, Martin S. & Madden, Thomas J., 2016. "The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 27-41.
    2. Shelley L. Brickson, 2013. "Athletes, Best Friends, and Social Activists: An Integrative Model Accounting for the Role of Identity in Organizational Identification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 226-245, February.
    3. David Bright & Bradley Winn & Jason Kanov, 2014. "Reconsidering Virtue: Differences of Perspective in Virtue Ethics and the Positive Social Sciences," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(4), pages 445-460, February.
    4. Alejo José G. Sison & Ignacio Ferrero & Gregorio Guitián, 2019. "Characterizing Virtues in Finance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 995-1007, April.
    5. Hart, Timothy A. & Gilstrap, J. Bruce & Bolino, Mark C., 2016. "Organizational citizenship behavior and the enhancement of absorptive capacity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 3981-3988.
    6. Meghan A. Thornton & Deborah E. Rupp, 2016. "The Joint Effects of Justice Climate, Group Moral Identity, and Corporate Social Responsibility on the Prosocial and Deviant Behaviors of Groups," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(4), pages 677-697, September.
    7. Leisen, Birgit & Hyman, Michael R., 2004. "Antecedents and consequences of trust in a service provider: The case of primary care physicians," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(9), pages 990-999, September.
    8. Mingqiong Zhang & David Fan & Cherrie Zhu, 2014. "High-Performance Work Systems, Corporate Social Performance and Employee Outcomes: Exploring the Missing Links," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 423-435, March.
    9. Pankaj Aggarwal & Ann L. McGill, 2007. "Is That Car Smiling at Me? Schema Congruity as a Basis for Evaluating Anthropomorphized Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 468-479, June.
    10. Rosa Chun, 2017. "Organizational Virtue and Performance: An Empirical Study of Customers and Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(4), pages 869-881, December.
    11. David A. Waldman & Donald S. Siegel & Mansour Javidan, 2006. "Components of CEO Transformational Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 1703-1725, December.
    12. Astakhova, Marina N., 2016. "Explaining the effects of perceived person-supervisor fit and person-organization fit on organizational commitment in the U.S. and Japan," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 956-963.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Velasco, Franklin & Yang, Zhiyong & Janakiraman, Narayanan, 2021. "A meta-analytic investigation of consumer response to anthropomorphic appeals: The roles of product type and uncertainty avoidance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 735-746.
    2. Xie, Yi & Chen, Ke & Guo, Xiaoling, 2020. "Online anthropomorphism and consumers’ privacy concern: Moderating roles of need for interaction and social exclusion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    3. Sharma, Monika & Rahman, Zillur, 2022. "Anthropomorphic brand management: An integrated review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 463-475.
    4. Lunardo, Renaud & Alemany Oliver, Mathieu & Shepherd, Steven, 2023. "How believing in brand conspiracies shapes relationships with brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    5. Darima Fotheringham & Michael A. Wiles, 2023. "The effect of implementing chatbot customer service on stock returns: an event study analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 802-822, July.
    6. Gary F. Peters & Andrea M. Romi & Juan Manuel Sanchez, 2019. "The Influence of Corporate Sustainability Officers on Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1065-1087, November.
    7. Johan Graafland, 2020. "Competition in technology and innovation, motivation crowding, and environmental policy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 137-145, January.
    8. Irina Heimbach & Oliver Hinz, 2018. "The Impact of Sharing Mechanism Design on Content Sharing in Online Social Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 592-611, September.
    9. Katharina Klein & Luis F. Martinez, 2023. "The impact of anthropomorphism on customer satisfaction in chatbot commerce: an experimental study in the food sector," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 2789-2825, December.
    10. Aubel Martin & Pikturniene Indre & Joye Yannick, 2022. "Risk Perception and Risk Behavior in Response to Service Robot Anthropomorphism in Banking," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 30(2), pages 26-42, June.
    11. Maria del Mar Miras & Bernabe Escobar & Amalia Carrasco, 2014. "Are Spanish Listed Firms Betting on CSR during the Crisis? Evidence from the Agency Problem," Business and Management Research, Business and Management Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(1), pages 85-95, March.
    12. Sohyun Bae, 2021. "Holding an entity mind-set deters consumption of recycled content products: the role of perceived product quality," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 18(4), pages 553-571, December.
    13. Dong Hoo Kim & Doori Song, 2019. "Can brand experience shorten consumers’ psychological distance toward the brand? The effect of brand experience on consumers’ construal level," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 255-267, May.
    14. Robin Stevens & Nathalie Moray & Johan Bruneel, 2015. "The Social and Economic Mission of Social Enterprises: Dimensions, Measurement, Validation, and Relation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(5), pages 1051-1082, September.
    15. Dimple & Mamta Tripathi, 2024. "Bridging the Gap Between High-Performance Work System and Organizational Performance: Role of Organizational Agility, Transformational Leadership, and Human Resource Flexibility," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 25(2), pages 369-393, June.
    16. Zhang, Chu-Bing & Zhang, Zhuo-Ping & Chang, Ying & Li, Tian-Ge & Hou, Ru-Jing, 2022. "Effect of WeChat interaction on brand evaluation: A moderated mediation model of para-social interaction and affiliative tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Anastasia Stathopoulou & Tommy Kweku Quansah & George Balabanis, 2022. "The Blinding Effects of Team Identification on Sports Corruption: Cross-Cultural Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 511-529, August.
    18. Iftekhar Hasan & Panagiotis Karavitis & Pantelis Kazakis & Woon Sau Leung, 2025. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Profit Shifting," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 1-29, January.
    19. Jeong, Nara & Kim, Nari & Arthurs, Jonathan D., 2021. "The CEO’s tenure life cycle, corporate social responsibility and the moderating role of the CEO’s political orientation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 464-474.
    20. Soderlund, Magnus & Oikarinen, Eeva-Liisa & Tan, Teck Ming, 2021. "The happy virtual agent and its impact on the human customer in the service encounter," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    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:kap:jbuset:v:177:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04725-9. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.