“What if you could buy social justice?” or Does ‘values shopping’ really make a difference?

Can for-profit, for-purpose organizations make a difference, if we patronize them?

Thinking about an organization’s authenticity invites us to examine simultaneously what the organization does and how it does it. When we think about organizations being authentic, we assume that organizations have their business purpose — the thing that they’re out there to "do", and their identity — the values displayed by the ways in which the organization goes about doing its thing.

Consumers can benefit from an Organization’s Authenticity

When an organization is authentic, it can contribute to the world not only by what it does but by the ways that it does what it does . Through the activities of production, an authentic organization can put its values into practice. By practicing its values the authentic organization makes not only a product but also a difference.

Related to this belief is the idea that we, as consumers and members, can choose to support organizations that demonstrate values we approve of, while withholding our support from organizations of whose values we disapprove.

One way to withhold support is, obviously, the boycott. The opposite of a boycott is "values shopping", the practice of intentionally giving our custom to organizations of whose values we approve.

We are surrounded by ratings systems, trust labels, and corporate social responsibility campaigns designed to tap into our desire to put out money/patronage where our values are.

Alonovo , GoodGuide (about whom I’ve posted before) , The Human Rights Campaign (and their Buying for Equality Guide) and other organizations that try to establish and evaluate the values demonstrated by various organizations exist to help us decide which organizations to support. Some organizations even legally define and construct themselves to align their values and their modes of production (such as B Corporations) .

They all take for a given the idea that we can change the world by shopping wisely — but can we?

I was delighted to discover that two of my favorite feminist bloggers, Professor, What if and Womanist Musings , are pooling their readership for a series of posts by Professor, What if that will address these very questions from another perspective. Here’s a little clip:

(read the rest at Womanist Musings… .).

The next 9 parts in this series, which will be posted approximately every other day, will include:

Part 2: The One True Religion: Consumerism (already up!)

Part 3: The Temple of Wal-Mart

Part 4: The Church of Disney

Part 5: The Mall as a Place of Worship

Part 6: Wearing Justice: T-shirts, Bracelets, and Ribbons, Oh my!

Part 7: Driving Your Way to Eco-Freedom: The ‘Go Green’ Message on Auto-drive

Part 8: Saving the world Oprah style: I’ll give you a million dollars to save the world…

Part 9: Think Pink: Cancer Profiteering

Part 10: Avoiding the ATM: Breaking the Consumerist Mindset

Looks pretty interesting, don’t you think?

I’m delighted when there is an explicit overlap between conversations in the feminist blogosphere and conversations in the ‘organizations and markets’  blogosphere .

Most of the time the link between these domains is apparent (at least to me) but is two or three layers below the surface, and needs to be called out to the average organizations scholar (not you all…) or business person. I’m pleased to have the chance to make the connections salient.

Plus, I read these two blogs religiously. The quality and content of what they address strengthens both the mind and the heart. And, for bonus learning, the comments on both blogs rock.

No doubt, this series of posts will be provocative and worth reading.

Of course, it would be easier to shop our values — if organizations were authentic, and were transparent about what values they prioritized and acted upon. We’ll think more about that, too.

Tagged as: Alonovo, B Corporations, boycotts, consumerism, consumers, feminism, for-purpose for-profit, GoodGuide, Human Rights Campaign, making a difference, organizational values, Professor What if?, social justice, social responsibility, values shopping, Womanist Musings