Corporate Greening as Amoralization

Abstract

This paper explores the moral dimension of corporate greening. Drawing on extensive case-study evidence from three organizational types, the proposition is advanced that there is a tendency in corporations for greening to be accompanied by a process of amoralization, i.e. a lack of moral meaning and significance for organization members in relation to the natural environment. By presenting corporate greening in terms of issue selling, specific processes of amoralization are identified in the symbolic action and impression management behaviours of policy champions. Variations in these processes across organizational types are explored and potential explanations are advanced with recourse to the organizational politics, power and culture literatures. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the actual and potential role played by morality in advancing corporate greening.

Keywords: corporate greening, business ethics, morality, issue selling, impression management