Organizational Colonization, Corporate Responsibility and Nation-Building in India: “More Dreams Per Car”, Or Less?
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ORGANIZATIONAL COLONIZATION, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND NATION-BUILDING IN INDIA: “MORE DREAMS PER CAR”, OR LESS? Rahul Mitra A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2009 Committee: Radhika Gajjala, Advisor Joshua Atkinson Canchu Lin © 2009 Rahul Mitra All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Radhika Gajjala, Advisor This study examines the discourse of organizational colonization of the life-world and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India through the launch of the world‟s cheapest car, the Nano, by leading automotive company Tata Motors in January 2008. At stake is the affirmation of corporate responsibility as a „national‟ task of social uplift in the emerging economy context, and the framing of alternative views as opposed to nation- building. A three-dimensional mode of analysis (Fairclough, 1992) was used to study organizational discourse at the levels of social context/ practice, text, and discursive practice. Accordingly, a vast corpus – including the company‟s web site, various reports and documents produced by the company, media releases issued by it, research reports by investment houses, CSR reports by non-governmental organizations, and news articles published by India‟s largest English daily corresponding to the Nano launch – were examined. Four specific research questions were asked: (1) How is the Organization crafted as a social agent, in the case study at hand? (2) How is the Organization-State relationship framed in the case study, and what implications does this have for the nation- building ethic of corporate development and social responsibility? (3) How does the Organization address or engage with dissidents to the Nano project, especially the rural farmers protesting the land acquisition for the car factory? (4) How is the Organizational Project framed between the Organization-authored text (media releases) and the Media coverage? The analysis reveals dialectical understandings of corporate responsibility, iv spanning the „business case‟, stakeholder accountability, ethical/ philanthropic and Gandhian ethics, and Statist models. Corporate development is framed in terms of nation- building, especially in terms of (urban) emerging economy aspirations, Othering rural voices. While the infusion of politics operates as an effective organizational strategy against dissidence, the Organization-State linkage problematizes the role of the organization as neo-capitalist agent. Moreover, the Organization-Media linkage addresses the role of social memory, whereby organizational colonization is enacted. The limitations of the research design and implications for future study are also discussed. v This thesis is dedicated to my parents. Because they always tried their very best to help me find my very best. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to extend my thanks to my advisor, Dr. Radhika Gajjala, for all her help and support during the past two years, steering me successfully through several research projects, and ordering me to “WRITE!” this thesis, when I seemed to lack the willpower. Thank you for problematizing my life for me! I would also like to thank my Committee Members for their patience, help and inputs with this thesis. Thanks to Dr. Canchu Lin, in whose class I first started working on this topic, and whose detailed feedback has been immensely helpful. Thanks also to Dr. Joshua Atkinson, for his incisive observations on theory and methodology that have kept me on track here, and for his help on my other research projects. Additionally, I would like to thank: Dr. Srinivas Melkote, for whose class I started engaging with organizational ethics and development; Dr. Terry Rentner, who has always helped and encouraged me; and Dr. Sandra Faulkner, for being so readily available with help and suggestions (on this project and many others!). Thanks also to my cohort and all the amazing graduate students, faculty and staff members who made my two years at Bowling Green State University so memorable! Quite frankly, this thesis would never have been possible without John Fred Cassidy (Jack). I‟m not a 100% he‟ll ever get around to reading this whole thesis, but just in case he reads this page, I want him to know: thank you. For all the endless pots of coffee, seemingly never- ending (!) manuscript read-aloud sessions, amazing food, understanding, love, and for You. Finally, my family… It has been hard for my parents to have their younger son far across the oceans from them, but they have always cheered me on, in this endeavor and all else. My grandmother is another person who has perennially been there for me, and an amazing inspiration. As has my brother, without whom I would not be here, sitting at this desk, finishing this thesis. My family has been a stolid pillar of support throughout my life. Thank you all. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Title Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Posing the Research Problem and Questions ..................................................................... 6 Sites of Discourse Analysis .............................................................................................. 9 The Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATIONAL COLONIZATION AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: MEANINGS, POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS ....................................................................... 13 Colonization and Responsibility ....................................................................................... 13 Organizational Colonization ................................................................................ 13 „New‟ Capitalism ................................................................................................ 18 Sustainable Development .................................................................................... 20 The Dominant Paradigm or the „Business Case‟.................................................... 22 Resisting Silence .............................................................................................................. 25 Silence and Deconstruction .................................................................................. 25 Critiquing Corporate Responsibility ..................................................................... 28 Fundamental Difference .......................................................................... 28 Organizational Myopia ............................................................................ 29 Accountability/ Regulation ...................................................................... 31 Voicing Dissent ............................................................................................................... 34 Space/ Place Frameworks ..................................................................................... 35 Constitutive Discourse Frameworks ..................................................................... 37 Enhanced Stakeholder Frameworks ..................................................................... 39 CHAPTER III. GLOBALIZATION, ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN THE INDIAN FIRM ................................................................................. 44 Conceptualizing Globalization ......................................................................................... 44 viii Nature and Meaning of Globalization ................................................................... 44 Multiple Impacts .................................................................................................. 46 Globalization, Organizational Culture and Corporate Responsibility ................................. 48 The Indian Firm ................................................................................................................ 52 Ethics of Corporate Responsibility in India ....................................................................... 55 Confluence of Ethics ............................................................................................ 56 Current Situation and Future Trends ..................................................................... 58 Failure of the „Business Case‟............................................................................... 64 Mainstreaming Corporate Responsibility .............................................................. 66 Nation-Building and Corporate Responsibility ...................................................... 68 CHAPTER IV. METHODOLOGY AND METHOD ................................................................... 72 Tenets of Social Constructionism ...................................................................................... 74 Some Key Methodological Concepts ................................................................................. 77 Constitutive Discourse ......................................................................................... 78 Power …. ............................................................................................................. 79 Ideology ............................................................................................................... 81 Hegemony ...........................................................................................................