What do the films There Will be Blood, Michael Clayton, Up the Yangtze and It’s a Free World have in common? Dodgy business practices and an imaginary Oscar nomination.
With the buzz of Oscar night in the air, York business professors Andrew Crane and Dirk Matten are rallying members of the York community to choose an imaginary Oscar for the film they think best captures the issues of business ethics. The York duo have posted the four movie titles on their Crane and Matten blog, along with a synopsis of each film.
So with just three days to go until the Oscars, which airs Sunday, Feb. 24, make a pick.
Right: Andrew Crane
All four movies deal with the fallout of shady business practices along with business ethics and corporate social responsibility. There Will be Blood and Michael Clayton are both nominated for several real Oscars, including best picture.
The idea for an imaginary Oscar for the best business ethics film, came out of Crane and Matten’s teaching, researching and writing on matters of business ethics and corporate social responsibility and their interest in films. Their blog deals with a variety of issues, views, news and reflections to do with business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
Left: Dirk Matten
Both are professors at York’s Schulich School of Business. Crane is the George R. Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics, while Matten is the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility.
Together they wrote the textbook, Business Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2003) and the second edition, Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the Age of Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2006). They also co-edited, along with three others, The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2008) and, along with Laura Spence, Corporate Social Responsibility: Readings and Cases in a Global Context (Routledge, 2007).