SIM Division, AOM

The Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division studies the social issues, institutions, interactions, and impacts of management. The common logic of SIM scholarship is our shared interest in understanding responsible behavior by organizations and the people and groups working in and around them. Such investigation leads us to ask fundamental questions about the ethical systems, roles, functioning, and legitimacy of business institutions. Members also bridge scholarship to applied social practices, developing understanding and methods to promote social change and sustainable development. Specifically, we address: Individual and organizational ethics. Descriptive, including behavioral, work covers individual characteristics, group/organizational influences, and firm-environment interactions. Prescriptive work includes ethical theories; e.g., rights and justice, and the study of norms, values, and moral principles. Organizational and systemic governance. The study of relationships and responsibilities covering both top-level corporate and within-organization governance, and social/environmental governance, including regulatory partnerships, corporate corruption/compliance, strategic issues/public affairs management, and corporate political activity. Stakeholder behaviors, relationships, and systems. Descriptive approaches illuminate interactions with multiple stakeholders; e.g., corporate philanthropy and management of natural environmental issues. Instrumental approaches investigate the impacts of stakeholder management on firm goals. Prescriptive approaches consider the organization’s responsibilities to stakeholders; e.g., corporate social responsibility, corporate social performance, corporate citizenship; and stakeholders’ responsibilities to the organization.