Call for Papers

Management and organization studies have creatively engaged with democracy in the past. For instance, democratic organizing is about – as its name indicates – applying the principles of democracy, such as governing for the people by the people, to organizations. It typically examines how employees and other stakeholders can become more involved in organizational governance and how decision-making can be made more participative and inclusive (Battilana et al., 2022; Matten & Crane, 2005). Others have adapted Habermas’ political philosophy of deliberative democracy to our understanding of corporate social responsibility (Scherer & Palazzo, 2007), to govern global business activities in a more democratic fashion (Mena & Palazzo, 2012). Other streams of research engage with democracy as a key construct in their theories but with less adaptation, such as how international firms’ strategies can match varieties of capitalism and according liberal democratic regimes (e.g., social-democratic vs market-based) (Jackson & Deeg, 2008).
 
Independently from how creatively democracy is used in management and organization studies, the use of and reference to democracy varies widely. Some discuss democracy at a national level (e.g., Mair et al., 2023), while others discuss organizational (e.g., Davis, 2016) or workplace (e.g., Reinecke & Donaghey, 2021) democracy. Sometimes, democracy is used colloquially, sometimes conceptualized in much more depth (e.g., Nyberg, 2021). Some even explicitly draw and build on political theory, conceiving of democracy differently than its common liberal understanding (e.g., Dawkins, 2015; Lee & Romano, 2013; Moon et al., 2005; Pek et al., 2023). Perhaps the only common thread across these streams of research is the acknowledgement that democracy (however defined) is desirable and to be preferred to alternatives.
 
Yet, democracy is under threat. There is rising populism and polarization, anti-democratic and authoritarian sentiments on both the right and the left, and the rise of anti-democratic social movements and political parties, especially on the far right (Al-Esia et al., 2023). The economy and the business sector have no small role to play in such trends, contributing to inequality, manipulating – willingly or not – elections and political campaigns, influencing directly public policy and institutions through lobbying and other non-market efforts (Nyberg, 2021) or by undermining democracies’ core principles through human rights misbehaviour (Wettstein et al., 2019). Some point the finger to the economic system and capitalism in particular, underlining the need to move from a market-conforming to a democracy-conforming capitalism (Merkel, 2019).
 
If we are to reimagine the relationship between democracy and capitalism, management and organization studies have important contributions to make – given the different streams building on democracy outlined above. Yet, we lack a clear picture of how democracy is leveraged and discussed in our field. The goal of this sub-theme is to provide one of the first steps in doing so, mapping the different perspectives on/of democracy, examining their (in)compatibility, to ultimately reimagine democracy in management and organization studies to foster more inclusive and participative forms of capitalism and economic relationships. By inviting wide-ranging contributions leveraging democracy, the sub-theme will seek to systematize these uses of democracy, and question how we can foster and reimagine democracy as management and organization scholars.
 
We thus invite scholars using a variety of theoretical, methodological and phenomenological perspectives to join us in exploring democracy in management and organization studies. Submissions to our sub-theme could for instance tackle the following list of indicative, but not exhaustive, topics and questions:
 
Conceptions of democracy:

• How could other perspectives/conceptions/theories on democracy than liberal ones (such as agonistic, deliberative or republican) be useful in enhancing our understanding of organizations, organizing processes, and the organized?

• How can these perspectives help reimagine democracy and its relation to capitalism?

 
Democratic organizing:

• What does it mean to be democratically organized beyond voting and increased employee involvement?

• What are the theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of developing stakeholder democracy, and what role can it play in a shift to stakeholder capitalism?

• How can democratic principles at the state level be applied at the organizational level? And throughout global value chains?

 
Organizations’ effects on democracy:

• What are the effects on democracy by organizations beyond their boundaries?

• How can we conceive of the role of organizations, and business in particular, for democracy?

• What role do businesses play in advancing anti-democratic political movements such as populism and authoritarianism, and what can they do to counter them?

 
Bringing change in democracy and/or capitalism:

• How are innovative efforts at bringing about change in democracy organized? How could such creative efforts deal with dangers to democracy we observe worldwide, such as polarization?

• How are prefigurative organizational models and efforts dealing with democracy? Are they only explicit about how to change the economic system/capitalism? What about the political system/democracy?

• To what extent do different prefigurative organizational models have different visions of democratic organizing? Are there democracy-related tensions between different prefigurative organizational models?

References

• Al-Esia, Z., Crane, A., & Iatridis, K. 2023. Political CSR and Populism: Toward an Information-Based Theory of Political CSR. Business & Society, 00076503231168078.

• Battilana, J., Yen, J., Ferreras, I., & Ramarajan, L. 2022. Democratizing work: Redistributing power in organizations for a democratic and sustainable future. Organization Theory, 3(1): 26317877221084714.
• Davis, G. F. 2016. Can an economy survive without corporations? Technology and robust organizational alternatives. Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(2): 129–140.
• Dawkins, C. 2015. Agonistic pluralism and stakeholder engagement. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(1): 1-28.
• Jackson, G., & Deeg, R. 2008. Comparing capitalisms: Understanding institutional diversity and its implications for international business. Journal of International Business Studies, 39: 540–561.
• Lee, C. W., & Romano, Z. 2013. Democracy’s new discipline: Public deliberation as organizational strategy. Organization Studies, 34(5–6): 733–753.
• Mair, J., Kindt, J., & Mena, S. 2023. The Emerging Field of Political Innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 21(2): 24–29.
• Matten, D., & Crane, A. 2005. What is stakeholder democracy? Perspectives and issues. Business Ethics: A European Review, 14(1): 6–13.
• Mena, S., & Palazzo, G. 2012. Input and output legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(3): 527–556.
• Pek, S., Mena, S. & Lyons, B. 2023. The role of deliberative mini-publics in improving the deliberative capacity of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Business Ethics Quarterly, 33(1): 102-145.
• Merkel, W. 2019. Past, Present and Future of Democracy-Policy Review. Publications Office of the European Union.
• Moon, J., Crane, A., & Matten, D. 2005. Can corporations be citizens? Corporate citizenship as a metaphor for business participation in society. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15(3): 429–453.
• Nyberg, D. 2021. Corporations, politics, and democracy: Corporate political activities as political corruption. Organization Theory, 2(1): 2631787720982618.
• Reinecke, J., & Donaghey, J. 2021. Political CSR at the coalface – The roles and contradictions of multinational corporations in developing workplace dialogue. Journal of Management Studies, 58(2): 457–486.
• Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. 2007. Toward a political conception of corporate responsibility: Business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective. Academy of Management Review, 32(4): 1096–1120.
• Wettstein F., Giuliani E., Santangelo G., Stahl G. (2019) International Business and Human Rights: A research agenda. Journal of World Business, 54(1): 54-65.
•