In the Name of Merit: Ethical Violence and Inequality at a Business School
| Autor: | Vivek G. Nair, Devi Vijay |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Economics and Econometrics
05 social sciences Foregrounding Caste Agency (philosophy) Gender studies 06 humanities and the arts 0603 philosophy ethics and religion General Business Management and Accounting Disadvantaged Silence Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) 0502 economics and business Meritocracy Narrative 060301 applied ethics Sociology Business and International Management Business ethics Law 050203 business & management |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Business Ethics. 179:315-337 |
| ISSN: | 1573-0697 0167-4544 |
| Popis: | This study examines how meritocracy as a collective social imaginary promoting social justice and fairness reproduces class and caste inequalities and fosters ethical violence. We interrogate discourse of merit in the narratives of the professional–managerial class-in-making at an Indian business school. Empirically, we draw on interviews, full-text responses to a qualitative questionnaire, and a student’s poem. We describe how business school students articulate merit as a neoliberal ethic, emphasizing prudential, enterprising attitudes, and responsibility. However, this positive, aspirational facade of merit masks practices of ethical violence, wherein individuals invoke an ethical principle as grounds for moral condemnation and linguistic injuries. These practices of ethical violence desubjectify disadvantaged students and result in silence as a form of inequality. We contribute to organizational research on inequalities by foregrounding ethical violence and desubjectification. We detail the possibilities of discursive agency in contesting and interrupting ethical violence. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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