The discredit of a certain brand of capitalism — and the managers that practice it — continues apace. The increasing lack of tolerance for short-term thinking and a systematic neglect of the social, regulatory, and economic conditions in which business ought to operate means we are entering a time of trouble and questions — an era of economic, social, and environmental turbulence.

There is a critical need for business educators and trainers to expose students and managers to these issues to examine, explore, and understand the different multifaceted, complex phenomena of our late capitalist era. There is also a need to foster a climate for future and current business managers to reflect, feel, and think differently both ethically and cognitively. The 16 innovative case studies in The Dark Side: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business are designed for this very purpose: to provoke reflection and debate; to challenge and change perceptions; and to create responsible managers.

The cases are innovative in two ways. First, in terms of content they acknowledge the diversity of actors and interests in and around organizations. They contain different levels of analysis, and propose different points of view and logics. They recognize that decisions that seem sound when they are made may actually contain the seeds of their later failure. Second, these cases are innovative in terms of format. Whereas most cases are formatted around decision-making situations, these are more diverse and open-ended. This stimulates the use of judgment — the capacity to synthesize, integrate, and balance short- and long-term effects, appreciate effects on different groups, and learn to listen and evaluate. Whereas decision-making is the key skill when confronting complicated issues and situations, judgment-making relies on experience and is a far better tool in the complex, murky, gray areas typical of business ethics.

The cases included here are all finalists or award-winners from the first seven years of the Dark Side of Business Case Competition, a joint event of the Academy of Management’s Critical Management Studies Section and Management Education Section. In many areas of management, case studies are almost exclusively devoted to “best practice” cases or difficult decisions faced by basically well-managed firms. When educators look for resources to illustrate to students the more typical cases, let alone the really scandalous practices of the worst firms, the cupboard is almost entirely bare. From the beginning, the Dark Side competition aimed at encouraging case studies that integrate socio-political issues with organizational dynamics, thus contextualizing organizational and management problems within the broader system of capitalism.

These cases comprise a diverse and rich collection from a range of countries, continents, and issues and focus on interactions in business organizations as well as between business organizations and groups and societies. The Dark Side: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business is divided into four sections. The first sheds light on gray areas in the behavior of businesses. The second concerns the interactions between business and local communities in diverse countries. The third concerns crises, and specifically how firms may create or manage them. Finally, the fourth section concerns gray areas in business behavior in the global context.

Teaching notes for all of the cases are available free of charge to educators from the publisher. Apply here.

The Dark Side: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business will be an essential purchase for educators and is expected to be a widely used resource at all levels of management education.

I often get asked, “What if we don’t consider sustainability/do environmental management/implement a safety program?” by company managers and owners. This book is a sober warning of what could happen if businesses cut corners on social, environmental, ethical and regulatory standards.

The book is split into four parts:- Part one covers “gray areas in the behaviour of businesses”; Part two looks at “business and local communities”; Part three explores “creating (or managing) crises”; and Part four looks at “gray areas in the global context”.

The editors have chosen an eclectic selection of case studies ranging from entrepreneurship and sexism to the responsibilities of (South African) mining companies and informal settlements, sub-standard underground mine safety, and lead-tainted toys. All of the case studies pose questions which do not always have clearly defined solutions, but illustrate the importance of dialogue with stakeholders (whoever they may be).

The book also demonstrates the value of developing case studies as a means of identifying key management and communication strategies. So often, corporates will focus on a one way communication strategy which does not listen to responses and reactions. This often results in vital intelligence and status information being lost or not collected.

A fascinating case study included in the book relates to Google’s decision making on whether or not to enter the China market and locate a Chinese language version of the Google search engine on Chinese servers. The ethical questions raised here make absorbing reading. The Westray mine explosion case study was also a powerful tale of corporate deceit and irresponsibility.

This book has many useful and thought provoking messages for Sustainability Mangers and directors dealing with corporate social responsibility and ethics issues. It will not provide all the answers but it will indicate what and how things can go wrong and provides a powerful motivation to understand the dynamics in your organisation and ensure that stakeholder communication channels are open and two way.

Arend Hoogevorst, Eagle Bulletin 19.3 (November 2009)

1. Gray areas in the behavior of businesses

1.1 Leading the team out of the hazing blues yonder: the case of the Windsor Spitfire hockey team
Francine K. Schlosser

1.2 John Hamilton’s work and eldercare dilemma. Break the silence? Sustain the silence?
Rosemary A. McGowan

1.3 Hugh Connerty and Hooters: what is successful entrepreneurship?
Mary Godwyn

1.4 Antiquorum Auctioneers: building brands on ignorance?
Benoit Leleux

1.5 The Lidl international career opportunity: from dream to nightmare in eight weeks
Matt Bladowski and Rosemary A. McGowan

2. Business and local communities

2.1 Food Lion vs. the UFCW: time for a change?
Paul Michael Swiercz

2.2 Manipulation, placation, partnership, or delegated power: can community and business really work together when surface-mining comes to town?
Sherry Finney

2.3 The smell of power: Yves Rocher in La Gacilly, France
Emmanuel Raufflet and Monique Le Chêne

2.4 Who takes responsibility for the informal settlements? Mining companies in South Africa and the challenge of local collaboration
Ralph Hamann

3. Creating (or managing) crises

3.1 The Westray Mine explosion
Caroline J. O’Connell and Albert J. Mills

3.2 The story behind the water in Walkerton, Ontario
Elizabeth A. McLeod and Jean Helms Mills

3.3 Dark territory: the Graniteville chlorine spill
Jill A. Brown and Ann K. Buchholtz

4. Gray areas in the global context

4.2 Mattel Inc.: lead-tainted toys
Adenekan (Nick) Dedeke and Martin Calkins

4.4 Genocide in Rwanda: leadership, ethics, and organisational “failure” in a post-colonial context
Brad S. Long, Jim Grant, Albert J. Mills, Ellen Rudderham-Gaudet, and Amy Warren

Albert J. Mills, PhD is a professor of management and director of the Sobey PhD (Management) programme at Saint Mary’s University (Nova Scotia, Canada). He is the author, co-author and co-editor of over 20 books, including Sex, Strategy and the Stratosphere (Routledge, 2006), Understanding Organizational Change (Routledge, 2008), and the Sage Encyclopedia of Case Study Research (Sage, 2009). He is the former president of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada and serves on the editorial boards of seven scholarly journals; he is the critical management studies editor of Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, and the associate editor of Gender, Work and Organization and Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management. A former winner, finalist and organiser of the Academy of Management (AoM) Darkside Case Competition, he currently serves as the co-chair of the Critical Management Studies Division of the AoM.

Emmanuel Raufflet (PhD McGill) is an associate professor in management at HEC Montréal. He has co-edited Responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise: enjeux de gestion et cas pédagogiques (2008) as well as two other books. His work has been published in Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Management International and in International Studies in Management and Organization. He has won several case awards including the Emerson Award for Best Case in Business Ethics (2005 and 2007) and the Best Workshop Case (Bronze) Award (2008) at NACRA (North American Case Research Association).