IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v172y2021i3d10.1007_s10551-020-04506-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Leadership and Mass Atrocity

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Federman

    (University of Baltimore)

Abstract

With the last Holocaust survivors quietly passing away, one might also expect to see accountability debates slowing to a trickle. Surprisingly, however, recent years show an upswing in corporate World War II-related atonement debates. Interest in corporate participation in mass atrocity has expanded worldwide; yet what constitutes ethical corporate behavior during and after war remains understudied. This article considers these questions through a study of the French National Railways’ (SNCF) roles during the German occupation and its more recent struggle to make amends. This study demonstrates that ethical business leadership requires taking responsibility for past as well as current decisions. Most executives grappling with complex corporate histories work in isolation, in part because the scholarship on business ethics fails to provide guidance. Without such guidance, corporations often respond to accusations about their pasts with carefully crafted statements and legal strategies rather than deep expressions of moral leadership. To assist in remedying this tendency, this paper simultaneously encourages companies to engage in deeper reflection on corporate history, while urging scholars to help guide corporations through critical ethical conversations.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Federman, 2021. "Corporate Leadership and Mass Atrocity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 407-423, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:172:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04506-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04506-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04506-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-020-04506-4?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. Simon Robinson, 2009. "The Nature of Responsibility in a Professional Setting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 11-19, August.
    2. S. Sethi, 2015. "United Nations’ Endeavors to Protect and Enhance Human Rights Around the World. A Reflective Essay and Review of Eric A. Posner, The Twilight of Human Rights Law," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 505-507, October.
    3. Mairi Maclean, 1999. "Corporate Governance in France and the UK: Long-Term Perspectives on Contemporary Institutional Arrangements," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 88-116.
    4. Ying Liu & Feng Mai & Chris MacDonald, 2019. "A Big-Data Approach to Understanding the Thematic Landscape of the Field of Business Ethics, 1982–2016," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 127-150, November.
    5. Al Rosenbloom & RuthAnn Althaus, 2010. "Degussa AG and its Holocaust Legacy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 183-194, March.
    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. Simone Carmine & Valentina De Marchi, 2023. "Reviewing Paradox Theory in Corporate Sustainability Toward a Systems Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 139-158, April.
    2. AnnMarie Bennett & Breda Murphy, 2017. "The Tax Profession: Tax Avoidance and the Public Interest," Economics Department Working Paper Series n286-17.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    3. Wendelin M. Küpers, 2011. "Integral responsibilities for a responsive and sustainable practice in organization and management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 137-150, May.
    4. Christopher Nobes & Alan Roberts, 2000. "Towards a Unifying Model of Systems of Law, Corporate Financing, Accounting and Corporate Governance," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 10(20), pages 26-34, March.
    5. Branston, J. Robert & Cowling, Keith & Sugden, Roger, 2002. "Corporate Governance And The Public Interest," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 626, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    6. Simona Fiandrino & Alberto Tonelli, 2021. "A Text-Mining Analysis on the Review of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive: Bringing Value Creation for Stakeholders into Accounting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Arindam Das & Dimple Grover, 2022. "Ethical climates in South Asian Organizations: empirical findings from India," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(6), pages 1-26, June.
    8. Branston, J. Robert & Cowling, Keith & Sugden, Roger, 2001. "Corporate Governance and the Public Interest," Economic Research Papers 269400, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    9. Malcolm Anderson, 2000. "Accounting History Publications 1999," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 385-393.
    10. Harvey, Charles & Maclean, Mairi & Price, Michael, 2020. "Executive remuneration and the limits of disclosure as an instrument of corporate governance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    11. Béatrice Vincent & Carole Jean-Amans & Marie-Annick Montalan, 2016. "Tensions contradictoires et accountability dans un processus de décisions collectives d'achat de produits de santé," Post-Print hal-03830819, HAL.
    12. David Carassus & Khaled Albouaini & Marie Caussimont, 2013. "Une analyse de l'Audit Expectation Gap dans le contexte français," Post-Print hal-02432110, HAL.
    13. Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez & Iván Pastor Sanz, 2021. "Mapping the (anti-)corruption field: key topics and changing trends, 1968–2020," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 851-881, November.
    14. Hans Rämö, 2011. "Visualizing the Phronetic Organization: The Case of Photographs in CSR Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 371-387, December.
    15. Maribel Blasco, 2022. "“We’re Just Geeks”: Disciplinary Identifications Among Business Students and Their Implications for Personal Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 279-302, June.
    16. Bag, Surajit & Rahman, Muhammad Sabbir & Srivastava, Gautam & Shore, Adam & Ram, Pratibha, 2023. "Examining the role of virtue ethics and big data in enhancing viable, sustainable, and digital supply chain performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    17. Donthu, Naveen & Kumar, Satish & Mukherjee, Debmalya & Pandey, Nitesh & Lim, Weng Marc, 2021. "How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 285-296.
    18. Kumar, Vivek & Srivastava, Arpita, 2022. "Trends in the thematic landscape of corporate social responsibility research: A structural topic modeling approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 26-37.

    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:172:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04506-4. 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.