PDW 05: In Search of New Research Directions and Methods for Critically Studying Social Responsibility
Call for Applications
Facilitators:
Graham Hollinshead, University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Dirk
Matten, York University, Canada
André Spicer, Cass Business School, United Kingdom
Purpose
Questions
about whether corporations are able to act in social responsible and ethical ways are old ones and have been answered quite
controversial in the social sciences. There are also numerous normative publications, advising us on how social responsible
businesses should look like, including manuals for managers on ethical behaviour. Corporate scandals like the current one
about Volkswagen, a company which has widely been seen as a successful and social responsible business, raise not just critical
questions about social responsibility in general but also why it is quite difficult to study what companies do in practice
and whether they actually do what they say.
Mainstream research in the field often just measures and reports what
organisations say in regard of social responsibility. Therefore, this Pre-Colloquium Development Workshop (PDW) calls for
critical studies which alternatively look into questions of how social responsibility is actually managed in practice and
by whom, both locally and across national borders.
This PDW invites papers and project proposals which focus on
new research questions and alternative research methods, that can be applied in critical studies of social responsibility
in and around organizations.
The PDW consists of two parts:
In the first part, the convenors will reflect on the use of qualitative methods and empirical work to study institutional social responsibility as organizing.
In the second part, participants will develop their working papers in progress as well as project ideas in roundtable discussions. Each roundtable will be led by a facilitator.
The PW ends with a collective discussion on the potential
prospects and pitfalls of qualitative research in organization studies as well as how to publish qualitative research in management
journals.
Participants will be expected to read the papers of their fellow session presenters, attend both parts
of the PDW, and engage actively in discussions.
Application
This PDW is open to researchers
at all career stages who are interested in exploring the potential of using qualitative methods and perspectives in their
research and would like to discuss how best to do so. However, preference will be given to PhD students/early career scholars.
To be considered as an early-career scholar, the applicant needs to have completed his/her doctoral/PhD thesis within the
last five years.
Please submit – via the EGOS website! – a single document of application (.doc, .docx or
.pdf file) that includes:
On the first page: a short letter of application containing full details of name, address (postal address, phone and email), affiliation (date of PhD completion for early career scholars), and a statement of why you consider it valuable to attend this PDW as well as an indication of what journal(s) the paper is likely to be submitted to;
A two-page proposal (about 1,000 words in length) of the project idea that you want to develop to a publishable stage. The purpose of the roundtable session is to discuss work in progress as well as project ideas, not fully-developed papers.
Attendance of this PDW is limited to 20 participants.