IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v180y2022i2d10.1007_s10551-021-04907-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managerial Control of Employees’ Intercorporeality and the Production of Unethical Relations

Author

Listed:
  • Géraldine Paring

    (Paris School of Business)

  • Stéphan Pezé

    (Université Toulouse Capitole)

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to intercorporeal ethics studies by enlarging their political understanding. Intercorporeal ethics revolve around the idea that, within organizations, our embodied interaction with each other is a conduit to enact genuine ethical relations of autonomy, mutual recognition, respect, care and responsibility. However, how intercorporeality can also be a means for organizations to shape and control their members’ ethical relationships in pursuit of corporate interests remains to be examined. We explore this political perspective on intercorporeality by combining insights from Merleau-Ponty and Nussbaum. We analyze how the deployment of a lean management program in a financial institution produces unethical relations of objectification between employees by influencing their embodied interactions. Our study thus enlarges the political understanding of intercorporeality by showing the processes through which the embodied experience of one another is conditioned not only by our corporeal sensibility but also by managerial prescriptions. This provides a more nuanced understanding of intercorporeality as a basis to counter control and domination in organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Géraldine Paring & Stéphan Pezé, 2022. "Managerial Control of Employees’ Intercorporeality and the Production of Unethical Relations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 393-406, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:180:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-021-04907-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-021-04907-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-021-04907-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-021-04907-z?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. Mar Perezts & Eric Faÿ & Sébastien Picard, 2015. "Ethics, embodied life and esprit de corps : an ethnographic study with anti-money laundering analysts," Post-Print hal-02313280, HAL.
    2. Karen Dale, 2012. "The Employee as ‘Dish of the Day’: The Ethics of the Consuming/Consumed Self in Human Resource Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 13-24, November.
    3. Karen Dale, 2001. "Anatomising Embodiment and Organisation Theory," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-333-99382-8.
    4. Mar Perezts, & Eric Faÿ & Sébastien Picard, 2015. "Ethics, Embodied Life and Esprit de Corps an ethnographic study with anti-money laundering analysts," Post-Print halshs-01263262, HAL.
    5. Samuel Mansell, 2008. "Proximity and Rationalisation: The Limits of a Levinasian Ethics in the Context of Corporate Governance and Regulation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 565-577, December.
    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. Silvia Gherardi & Oliver Laasch, 2022. "Responsible Management-as-Practice: Mobilizing a Posthumanist Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(2), pages 269-281, November.
    2. Emmanouela Mandalaki & Mar Pérezts, 2022. "It takes two to tango : Theorizing inter-corporeality through nakedness and eros in researching and writing organizations," Post-Print hal-02944194, HAL.
    3. Mollie Painter & Mar Pérezts & Ghislain Deslandes, 2021. "Understanding the human in stakeholder theory : a phenomenological approach to affect-based learning," Post-Print hal-03188192, HAL.
    4. Anna‐Liisa Kaasila‐Pakanen, 2021. "Close encounters: Creating embodied spaces of resistance to marginalization and disempowering representation of difference in organization," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1805-1822, September.
    5. Harry Hummels & Patrick Nullens, 2022. "‘Other-wise’ Organizing. A Levinasian Approach to Agape in Work and Business Organisations," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 211-232, October.
    6. Eleni Damianidou & Andri Georgiadou, 2021. "“LOOK at YOU!”: Disembodiment between ugly bodies and able minds," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1823-1839, September.
    7. Carol Linehan & Elaine O’Brien, 2017. "From Tell-Tale Signs to Irreconcilable Struggles: The Value of Emotion in Exploring the Ethical Dilemmas of Human Resource Professionals," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 763-777, April.
    8. Dorian Aliu & Ayten Akatay & Armando Aliu & Umut Eroglu, 2017. "Public Policy Influences on Academia in the European Union," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(1), pages 21582440176, February.
    9. Wee Chan Au & Siân Stephens, 2023. "I Am Not Just a Nurse: The Need for a Boundaried Ethic of Care in the Context of Prolific Relationality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 493-510, September.
    10. Afshin Omidi & Cinzia Dal Zotto, 2022. "Socially Responsible Human Resource Management: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.
    11. Gabriella Alberti & Francesco E. Iannuzzi, 2020. "Embodied intersectionality and the intersectional management of hotel labour: The everyday experiences of social differentiation in customer‐oriented work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1165-1180, November.
    12. Bazin, Yoann, 2013. "Understanding organisational gestures: Technique, aesthetics and embodiment," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 377-393.
    13. Bernadette Loacker & Sara Muhr, 2009. "How Can I Become a Responsible Subject? Towards a Practice-Based Ethics of Responsiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 265-277, December.
    14. Kevin Gibson, 2011. "Toward an Intermediate Position on Corporate Moral Personhood," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 71-81, March.
    15. Nilüfer Narlı & Ayşegül Akdemir, 2019. "Female Emotional Labour in Turkish Call Centres: Smiling Voices Despite Low Job Satisfaction," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 24(3), pages 278-296, September.
    16. Gärtner, Christian, 2013. "Cognition, knowing and learning in the flesh: Six views on embodied knowing in organization studies," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 338-352.
    17. Gazi Islam, 2020. "Psychology and Business Ethics: A Multi-level Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-13, August.
    18. Gareth R. T. White & Anthony Samuel & Robert J. Thomas, 2023. "Exploring and Expanding Supererogatory Acts: Beyond Duty for a Sustainable Future," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 665-688, July.
    19. Carolyn Hunter & Nina Kivinen, 2016. "Constructing Girlhood: Abject Labour in Magazine Offices," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(6), pages 551-565, November.
    20. Chris Mallin & Kean Ow-Yong, 2010. "The UK Alternative Investment Market – Ethical Dimensions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 223-239, September.

    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:180:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-021-04907-z. 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.