Christian Kroll

Title of Dissertation:
Stakeholder Democracy & Multi-Rational Competence.
A Mixed-Methods Study in Search of Factors Determining a Viable, Sustainable, Ethical and Efficient Stakeholder Inclusive Process of Business Decision-Making.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons
University: University of Mannheim
Scholarship: Scholarship by the sdw (Foundation of German Business)
Cohort: 6th Cohort, 2019-2021

• Short Abstract

  Under the topic ‘Multi-Rational Competence & Shared Ethical Leadership’, the goal of my dissertation is to search for viable, efficient and ethical organizational decision-making processes to cope with the diverse rationalities and interests of various internal and external stakeholders. Thereby, I investigate elements which enable inclusive collective action able to solve complex challenges. My research is based on a mixed-methods approach with literature-based, qualitative and quantitative elements. The leading questions of this business ethical research are: How can a collective, multi-stakeholder decision-making process succeed? What are the factors determining successful multi-rational cooperation?

  Thus, my academic work contributes to the research question on how constructive cooperation between multiple stakeholders is possible through three elements:

  1.        competencies enabling multi-stakeholder collaboration, e.g. multi-rational competence;

  2.        cooperative and collective leadership styles, e.g. shared ethical leadership;

  3.        and new, stakeholder-inclusive forms and processes of organizing and decision-making to tackle grand challenges, e.g. Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives and Stakeholder Democracy.

  Thereby, my research follows a four-step procedure: I started my PhD journey by engaging in literature-based conceptual research with the goal to identify research gaps, develop and write a Literature Review and Research Agenda (1). In addition, I designed a qualitative (2) as well as an experimental study (3). The continuous goal of my journey was and is to reflect on the business ethical implications and develop a concept of Shared Ethical Leadership (4).

  The current stage of my research is that one conceptual paper is completed and in the second reviewing stage. In this first paper (in collaboration with my supervisor Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons) I reviewed and reflected the research area of ‘Corporate Power and Stakeholder Democracy’ and developed a research agenda to guide future research. A second conceptual paper (single author) is curently in the working paper stage. It conceptualizes ‘Shared Ethical Leadership’ with a special emphasis on multi-rational competence as a central element for collective action to succeed.

  I am now at the beginning of a new phase of my PhD, focussing on qualitative research. Currently I am working on two separate qualitative projects intending to explore ‘Multi-Rational Competence & Shared Ethical Leadership’ with a qualitative methodology. The first one looks at corporations with a democratic corporate structure (to various degrees). Here, I mainly work with interview data (Semi-Structured Single One-on-One Interviews; Grounded Theory; Gioia-Method). For this paper 25 semi-structured single one-on-one interviews were already conducted in three separate corporations by a co-author. Interviewing further representatives together is already planned. For coding and analysis the Gioia Method was chosen. The second paper is still in the developmental research design stage. I am currently in conversation with a potential practice partner. More specifically, I am in contact with an institute to discuss access to a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative, where I would be able to learn about the dynamics of the particular stakeholder interactions, to potentially include participatory observation and document analysis next to interviews. A start date in October for the data collection is envisioned.

  My planned quantitative study (design state) has the working title ‘Signalling Shared Ethical Leadership. The Effects of Self-Organisation, Democratic Governance & Stakeholder Inclusion on Corporate Attractiveness’. This study has a controlled experimental vignette design with manipulated signals on participation level and ethics.

  In the following, I will provide an overview of two of my projects:

  Project 1: Corporate Power and Stakeholder Democracy.

  A Business Ethical Reflection and Research Agenda.

  Corporations significantly influence the public and political spheres, e.g., through corporate socio-political activism, philanthropic donations, lobbying, or through their practices with regard to big data analytics and artificial intelligence. In light of the increasing corporate power, academics have criticized a lack of democratic legitimization for such activities (i.e., the legitimacy gap) and have pointed out a potential divergence between the allocation of corporate resources and the needs and preferences of the public (i.e., the social issues gap). To overcome these problems, stakeholder democracy, i.e., stakeholders’ active participation in corporate decision-making and governance, has been proposed as one potential solution. In line with this, the authors argue that an increase in corporate power outside the economic realm should be counterbalanced by more democratic corporate governance (i.e., an internalization of democracy). The authors present an overview of the literature on the link between corporate power and stakeholder democracy, argue for the necessity of legitimization, identify research gaps, and develop a research agenda to inspire and guide future research efforts. They find that, while important groundwork exists, research attention to these topics by the academic community is still limited. Conceptual and empirical research on the micro-, meso-, and macro-level as well as on cross-level effects is needed to advance this incipient area of research. Specifically, future research needs to (1) clearly define corporate power and discuss how stakeholder democracy could contribute to more legitimate corporate decisions, (2) unveil new ways of more democratic corporate governance, and (3) understand the organizational and individual-level factors that are necessary to realize the transition to stakeholder democracy.

  Project 2: Shared Ethical Leadership in a Complex, Polyphonic Environment.

  Enabling Collective Action via Multi-Rational Cooperation & Competence.

  The global organisational environment is marked by diversity, complexity and uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, the digital revolution, and populism are just a few of many crises and challenges of the 21st century revealing that it is an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA-)world we are living in. Consequently, organisational and societal challenges become increasingly multi-dimensional and polyvalent. More stakeholder-inclusive and participatory decision-making is discussed as one potential strategy to adapt and to solve grand challenges. However, a research gap exists concerning the elements that enable collective decision-making processes to succeed. The goal of this qualitative research, based on the grounded theory and the Gioia method, is to investigate and determine essential competences for such a process to succeed. The underlying hypothesis is that multi-rational competence (i.e. the conglomerate of abilities that enables entities to cope with the challenges of a pluralistic and polyphonic multi-stakeholder organisational environment by using their capabilities constructively in interaction with other ‘communities of meaning’) of all participating stakeholders is a central element as well as a necessary condition for constructive collaboration. Thus, the paper defines multi-rational competence and proposes that it enables collective decision-making and constitutes a pathway to shared ethical leadership. Ultimately, it will argue that shared ethical leadership is able to navigate collective action in a complex environment and to tackle grand challenges.

• PhD Related Publications

  • Kroll, Christian (2022): Mehr Ethik durch Multirationales Management. Sozial- und unternehmensethische Potenziale einer neuen ökonomischen Denkschule. Freiburg: Lambertus-Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-7841-3324-9

  • Kroll, Christian (2020) “Sozialökonomische Rationalität in Unternehmensberatungen? Eine qualitativ-empirische Spurensuche.” In: Bachmann et al. (Eds.): Wirtschaftsethik. Sozialethische Beiträge. Forum Sozialethik Band 21. Münster: Aschendorff, p. 223-247.
  • Heuritsch, Julia; Kroll, Christian & Zeuch, Andreas (2020): Unternehmensdemokratie zwischen Utopie und Wirklichkeit. Zum Stand der Selbstorganisation in deutschsprachigen Organisationen. Berlin: unternehmensdemokraten.