Ethical Innovation in Organizations: The Integrated Causal Model
This paper reviews Schumacher and Wasieleski's (2013) article on institutionalizing ethical innovation in organizations through their Integrated Causal Model (ICM). The review examines the authors' argument that ethics and business innovation are not mutually incompatible but complementary processes. It discusses how ethical systems contain both stable moral values and flexible functional imperatives, how the ICM draws on organizational culture, structural functionalism, and evolutionary theory, and how the model's four-stage decision-making framework guides organizations in evaluating ethical implications across short- and long-term horizons.
- Introduction: Ethics and Business Innovation: Ethics and financial survival as complementary, not opposed
- Rethinking the Ethics–Innovation Divide: Organizational change must include ethical schema evolution
- Components of an Ethical System: Stable moral values alongside flexible functional imperatives
- The Integrated Causal Model (ICM): ICM blends social science and evolutionary theory
- Applying the ICM: A Four-Stage Decision Framework: Four stages guide real-world ethical decision-making
- Conclusion: ICM integrates ethics across all business processes
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What makes this paper effective
- The review closely follows the source article's argument while adding clear interpretive framing, helping readers understand both what the authors claim and why it matters.
- Each paragraph builds logically on the previous one, moving from the problem (ethics vs. innovation tension) to the theoretical model to its practical application.
- Precise in-text citations are used consistently, demonstrating engagement with specific page-level evidence rather than general paraphrase.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective article summary with analytical commentary. Rather than simply restating the source, it interprets key concepts — such as the distinction between ontological imperatives and "grand options" — in plain language, bridging technical academic content and accessible explanation. This technique is especially useful for book reviews and article critiques at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with the central tension (ethics vs. financial survival), introduces the source article's reframing of that tension, then systematically covers the theoretical components of the ICM: ethical system components, interdisciplinary foundations, and the four-stage decision-making model. The conclusion synthesizes how the ICM integrates ethics into all business processes in a balanced, realistic way. The structure mirrors the source article's own progression from theory to application.
Introduction: Ethics and Business Innovation
A business's financial survival and pursuing an ethical course of action are often seen as mutually incompatible. However, according to the article Institutionalizing Ethical Innovation in Organizations: An Integrated Causal Model of Moral Innovation Decision Processes by Schumacher and Wasieleski (2013), viewing ethics as part of the process of business innovation makes it far more likely to be embraced in a positive light. Just as organizations must change with the marketplace, so must their ethical schemas. Ignoring ethics can put a business at profound risk, just as ignoring any other aspect of organizational innovation can.
Rethinking the Ethics–Innovation Divide
Ethics has traditionally been seen as separate from the process of innovation: "managers are expected to compromise standards in order to innovate and create short-term economic value to the organization" (Schumacher & Wasieleski 2013: 16). Stability and change are treated as mutually incompatible rather than complementary. The processes of change must, however, be built into the structure of the organization — including the processes of ethical change (Schumacher & Wasieleski 2013: 19). The organizational culture must support ethical conduct as well, rather than view it as anathema to the firm's survival.
Components of an Ethical System
Ethical systems have multiple components, including ontological imperatives "in the form of fundamental moral values" that are unwavering; functional imperatives, defined as organizational necessities; and "grand options," which are "integrated in a context of choice" and exist in a "long-term" context of "non-permanence and particularity" (Schumacher & Wasieleski 2013: 22). In other words, certain aspects of an ethical system are stable and unchanging, but this does not mean the system must be insensitive to the day-to-day workings of the business. There is a need for flexibility in response to future market conditions and other environmental pressures that could affect the organization's evolution.
Conclusion
Ethics is integrated into all business processes in an equal and realistic fashion. The ICM's four-stage framework ensures that no ethical consideration is treated as an afterthought, while still allowing organizations the flexibility to respond to changing market conditions and human factors. By treating ethical innovation as inseparable from organizational innovation more broadly, Schumacher and Wasieleski offer a model that is both theoretically grounded and practically applicable.
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