Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:12:58.493Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Caring or Not Caring for Coworkers? An Empirical Exploration of the Dilemma of Care Allocation in the Workplace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2020

Anne Antoni ,
Juliane Reinecke  and
Marianna Fotaki
Anne Antoni
Affiliation:
Grenoble Ecole de Management Université Grenoble Alpes
Juliane Reinecke
Affiliation:
King’s College London
Marianna Fotaki
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Organization and management researchers praise the value of care in the workplace. However, they overlook the conflict between caring for work and for coworkers, which resonates with the dilemma of care allocation highlighted by ethicists of care. Through an in-depth qualitative study of two organizations, we examine how this dilemma is confronted in everyday organizational life. We draw on the concept of boundary work to explain how employees negotiate the boundary of their caring responsibilities in ways that grants or denies care to coworkers. We argue that the possibility of an ethics of care for coworkers requires boundary work that suspends the separation of personal and professional selves and constitutes the worker as a whole person. We contribute to research on care in organizations by showing how care for coworkers may be enabled or undermined by maintaining or suppressing the care allocation dilemma.

Keywords

ethics of carecare allocation dilemmaboundary workcoworker relationships
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 447 - 485
Copyright
© 2020 Business Ethics Quarterly

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, R. E., Boscarino, J. A., & Figley, C. R. 2006. Compassion fatigue and psychological distress among social workers: A validation study. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76: 103–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alacovska, A., & Bissonnette, J. 2019. Care-ful work: An ethics of care approach to contingent labour in the creative industries. Journal of Business Ethics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04316-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
André, K., & Pache, A.-C. 2016. From caring entrepreneur to caring enterprise: Addressing the ethical challenges of scaling up social enterprises. Journal of Business Ethics, 133: 659–675.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anteby, M. 2010. Markets, morals, and practices of trade: Jurisdictional disputes in the US commerce in cadavers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55: 606–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barsade, S. G., & O’Neill, O. A. 2014. What’s love got to do with it? A longitudinal study of the culture of companionate love and employee and client outcomes in a long-term care setting. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59: 551–598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belmi, P., & Pfeffer, J. 2015. How “organization” can weaken the norm of reciprocity: The effects of attributions for favors and a calculative mindset. Academy of Management Discoveries, 1: 35–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, D. F., Fernandez, W., Levina, N., & Nasirin, S. 2013. Grounded theory method in information systems research: Its nature, diversity and opportunities. European Journal of Information Systems, 22: 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bridge, K., & Baxter, L. A. 1992. Blended relationships: Friends as work associates. Western Journal of Communication, 56: 200–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, M., & Staeheli, L. A. 2003. “Are we there yet?” Feminist political geographies. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 10: 247–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, B. K., & Dunn, C. P. 1996. Feminist ethics as moral grounding for stakeholder theory. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6: 133–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Chou, S. Y., & Stauffer, J. M. 2016. A theoretical classification of helping behavior and helping motives. Personnel Review, 45: 871–888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, S. C. 2000. Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance. Human Relations, 53: 747–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colbert, A. E., Bono, J. E., & Purvanova, R. K. 2016. Flourishing via workplace relationships: Moving beyond instrumental support. Academy of Management Journal, 59: 1199–1223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, E. B., & Coultrap-McQuin, S. M. 1992. Explorations in feminist ethics: Theory and practice. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Contu, A. 2008. Decaf resistance: On misbehavior, cynicism, and desire in liberal workplaces. Management Communication Quarterly, 21: 364–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creed, D. W., Hudson, B. A., Okhuysen, G. A., & Smith-Crowe, K. 2014. Swimming in a sea of shame: Incorporating emotion into explanations of institutional reproduction and change. Academy of Management Review, 39: 275–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dutton, J. E., & Ragins, B. R. E. 2007. Exploring positive relationships at work: Building a theoretical and research foundation. Mahwa, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Dutton, J. E., Worline, M. C., Frost, P. J., & Lilius, J. 2006. Explaining compassion organizing. Administrative Science Quarterly, 51: 59–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, K. E. 1984. The feminist case against bureaucracy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Ferris, G. R., Liden, R. C., Munyon, T. P., Summers, J. K., Basik, K. J., & Buckley, M. R. 2009. Relationships at work: Toward a multidimensional conceptualization of dyadic work relationships. Journal of Management, 35: 1379–1403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Figley, C. R. 2002. Compassion fatigue: Psychotherapists’ chronic lack of self care. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58: 1433–1441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, B., & Tronto, J. C. 1990. Towards a feminist theory of caring. In Abel, E. K. & Nelson, M. K. (Eds.), Circles of care: Work and identity in women’s lives: 36–54. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Fotaki, M. 2011. Towards developing new partnerships in public services: Users as consumers, citizens and/or co‐producers in health and social care in England and Sweden. Public Administration, 89: 933–955.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fotaki, M. (2015). Why and how is compassion necessary to provide good quality healthcare? International journal of health policy and management , 4: 199–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fotaki, M., & Hyde, P. 2015. Organizational blind spots: Splitting, blame and idealization in the National Health Service. Human Relations, 68: 441–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fotaki, M., Islam, G, & Antoni, A. 2019. Business ethics and care in organizations. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fotaki, M., & Prasad, A. 2015. Questioning neoliberal capitalism and economic inequality in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14: 556–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabriel, Y. 2009. Reconciling an ethic of care with critical management pedagogy. Management Learning, 40: 379–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabriel, Y. 2015. The caring leader: What followers expect of their leaders and why? Leadership, 11: 316–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatrell, C. 2019. Boundary creatures? Employed, breastfeeding mothers and “abjection as practice.” Organization Studies, 40: 421–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gehman, J., Trevino, L. K., & Garud, R. 2013. Values work: A process study of the emergence and performance of organizational values practices. Academy of Management Journal, 56: 84–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, J. M. 2014. Compassion and capitalism: Implications for organizational studies. Journal of Management, 40: 5–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, J. M., & Dane, E. 2011. Workers as whole people with their own objectives. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4: 109–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, C. 1982. In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gittell, J. H., & Douglass, A. 2012. Relational bureaucracy: Structuring reciprocal relationships into roles. Academy of Management Review, 37: 709–733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Golden-Biddle, K., & Locke, K. 2007. Composing qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, R., Clegg, S., & Kornberger, M. 2009. Embedded ethics: Discourse and power in the New South Wales police service. Organization Studies, 30: 73–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, A. M., & Patil, S. V. 2012. Challenging the norm of self-interest: Minority influence and transitions to helping norms in work units. Academy of Management Review, 37: 547–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunn, A. M. 2011. The discursive construction of care when there is no care to be found: Organizational life (re)framed by those on the socio‐economic margins facing job loss. Culture and Organization, 17: 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Held, V. 1993. Feminist morality: Transforming culture, society, and politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Held, V. 2006. The ethics of care: Personal, political, and global. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hobson-West, P. 2012. Ethical boundary-work in the animal research laboratory. Sociology, 46: 649–663.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holton, J. A. 2007. The coding process and its challenges. In Bryant, A. & Charmaz, K. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of grounded theory: 265–289. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooper, C., Craig, J., Janvrin, D. R., Wetsel, M. A., & Reimels, E. 2010. Compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses compared with nurses in other selected inpatient specialties. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 36: 420–427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackall, R. 1988. Moral mazes: The world of corporate managers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kanov, J. M., Maitlis, S., Worline, M. C., Dutton, J. E., Frost, P. J., & Lilius, J. M. 2004. Compassion in organizational life. American Behavioral Scientist, 47: 808–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kantola, A., & Kuusela, H. 2019. Wealth elite moralities: Wealthy entrepreneurs’ moral boundaries. Sociology, 53: 368–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kao, F. H., Cheng, B. S., Kuo, C. C., & Huang, M. P. 2014. Stressors, withdrawal, and sabotage in frontline employees: The moderating effects of caring and service climates. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 87: 755–780.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karasek, R. A. 1979. Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: Implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24: 285–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreiner, G. E., Hollensbe, E. C., & Sheep, M. L. 2006. Where is the “me” among the “we”? Identity work and the search for optimal balance. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 1031–1057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreiner, G. E., Hollensbe, E. C., & Sheep, M. L. 2009. Balancing borders and bridges: Negotiating the work–home interface via boundary work tactics. Academy of Management Journal, 52: 704–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamont, M., & Molnár, V. 2002. The study of boundaries in the social sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 28: 167–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, A., Lindberg, K., Mørk, B. E., Nicolini, D., Raviola, E., & Walter, L. 2019. Boundary work among groups, occupations, and organizations: From cartography to process. Academy of Management Annals, 13: 704–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, T. B., & Maitlis, S. 2012. Care and possibility: Enacting an ethic of care through narrative practice. Academy of Management Review, 37: 641–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liedtka, J. M. 1996. Feminist morality and competitive reality: A role for an ethic of care? Business Ethics Quarterly, 6: 179–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lilius, J. M., Worline, M. C., Dutton, J. E., Kanov, J. M., & Maitlis, S. 2011. Understanding compassion capability. Human Relations, 64: 873–899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linehan, C., & O’Brien, E. 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, 141: 763–777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linsley, P. M., & Slack, R. E. 2013. Crisis management and an ethic of care: The case of Northern Rock Bank. Journal of Business Ethics, 113: 285–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llewellyn, S. 1998. Boundary work: Costing and caring in the social services. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 23: 23–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, L. 2005. A caring profession? The ethics of care and social work with older people. British Journal of Social Work, 36: 1171–1185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lok, J., Creed, W. E. D., DeJordy, R., & Voronov, M. 2017. Living institutions: Bringing emotions into organizational institutionalism. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Lawrence, T. B., & Meyer, R. E. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism: 591–620. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, P., Townsend, K., & Wharton, A. 2013. The legitimation and reproduction of discourse–practice gaps in work–life balance. Personnel Review, 42: 205–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moberg, D. 1997. Virtuous peers in work organizations. Business Ethics Quarterly, 7: 67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moberg, D. J., & Meyer, M. J. 1990. A deontological analysis of peer relations in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 9: 863–877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molinsky, A. L., Grant, A. M., & Margolis, J. D. 2012. The bedside manner of homo economicus: How and why priming an economic schema reduces compassion. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 119: 27–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mottier, V. 2004. Pragmatism and feminist theory. European Journal of Social Theory, 7: 323–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, J. A. 2001. Value as relationality: Feminist, pragmatist, and process thought meet economics. The Journal of Speculatative Philosophy, 15: 137–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolini, D. 2012. Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nippert-Eng, C. E. 1996. Home and work: Negotiating boundaries through everyday life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noddings, N. 2003. Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ollier-Malaterre, A., Rothbard, N. P., & Berg, J. M. 2013. When worlds collide in cyberspace: How boundary work in online social networks impacts professional relationships. Academy of Management Review, 38: 645–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palazzo, G., Krings, F., & Hoffrage, U. 2012. Ethical blindness. Journal of Business Ethics, 109: 323–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmar, B. 2014. From intrapsychic moral awareness to the role of social disruptions, labeling, and actions in the emergence of moral issues. Organization Studies, 35: 1101–1126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peifer, J. L. 2015. The inter-institutional interface of religion and business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25: 363–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peus, C. 2011. Money over man versus caring and compassion? Challenges for today’s organizations and their leaders. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32: 955–960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeffer, J. 2016. Why the assholes are winning: Money trumps all. Journal of Management Studies, 53: 663–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pillemer, J., & Rothbard, N. P. 2018. Friends without benefits: Understanding the dark sides of workplace friendship. Academy of Management Review, 43: 635–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinecke, J., & Ansari, S. 2015. What is a “fair” price? Ethics as sensemaking. Organization Science, 26: 867–888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruddick, S. 1995. Maternal thinking: Toward a politics of peace (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Rynes, S. L., Bartunek, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Margolis, J. D. 2012. Care and compassion through an organizational lens: Opening up new possibilities. Academy of Management Review, 37: 503–523.Google Scholar
Sanchez-Burks, J. 2002. Protestant relational ideology and (in)attention to relational cues in work settings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83: 919–929.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, S. 1998. Citizenship and the ethics of care: Feminist considerations on justice, morality and politics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, S. 2000. Caring in the third way: The relation between obligation, responsibility and care in Third Way discourse. Critical Social Policy, 20: 5–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, S. 2003. The place of care: The relevance of the feminist ethic of care for social policy. Feminist Theory, 4: 179–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, A. V., Cunha, M. P. E., & Rego, A. 2015. Compassion in the context of capitalistic organizations: Evidence from the 2011 Brisbane floods. Journal of Business Ethics, 130: 683–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, R. C. 1998. The moral psychology of business: Care and compassion in the corporation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8: 515–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonenshein, S. 2005. Business ethics and internal social criticism. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15: 475–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonenshein, S. 2007. The role of construction, intuition, and justification in responding to ethical issues at work: The sensemaking–intuition model. Academy of Management Review, 32: 1022–1040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toubiana, M., & Zietsma, C. 2017. The message is on the wall? Emotions, social media and the dynamics of institutional complexity. Academy of Management Journal, 60: 922–953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronto, J. C. 1993. Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tronto, J. C. 2010. Creating caring institutions: Politics, plurality, and purpose. Ethics and Social Welfare, 4: 158–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhlmann, E. L., Heaphy, E., Ashford, S. J., Zhu, L., & Sanchez-Burks, J. 2013. Acting professional: An exploration of culturally bounded norms against nonwork role referencing. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34: 866–886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vijayasingham, L., Jogulu, U., & Allotey, P. 2018. Enriching the organizational context of chronic illness experience through an ethics of care perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 153: 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waerness, K. 1996. The rationality of caring. In Gordon, S., Benner, P., & Noddings, N. (Eds.), Caregiving: Readings in knowledge, practice, ethics, and politics: 231–255. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Walsh, I., Holton, J. A., Bailyn, L., Fernandez, W., Levina, N., & Glaser, B. 2015. What grounded theory is…A critically reflective conversation among scholars. Organizational Research Methods, 18: 581–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, M. 1930. The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (trans. Parsons, T.). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Weiskopf, R., & Willmott, H. 2013. Ethics as critical practice: The “Pentagon Papers,” deciding responsibly, truth-telling, and the unsettling of organizational morality. Organization Studies, 34: 469–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. 2012. Bankers in the dock: Moral storytelling in action. Human Relations, 65: 111–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrenn, M. V., & Waller, W. 2017. Care and the neoliberal individual. Journal of Economic Issues, 51: 495–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, A. L., Zammuto, R. F., & Liesch, P. W. 2017. Maintaining the values of a profession: Institutional work and moral emotions in the emergency department. Academy of Management Journal, 60: 200–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar