CORPORATE RECKONING

How corporations can address legacies of historical oppression in ways that are good for them and good for others.

Increasingly, corporate executives find themselves called upon to atone for their predecessors’ moral transgressions. While many are prepared to address inherited failed product lines or dysfunctional teams, few know how to handle demands that their enterprise address legacies of mass atrocity such as slavery, genocide, or colonialism. In Corporate Reckoning, Sarah Federman provides a corporate atonement model for corporate leaders and employees across industries around the world.

When survivors and descendants demand reckoning, many corporate leaders initially shirk the responsibilities that follow from these requests. They may claim that history belongs to the historians, that their company’s activities were legal at the time, or that too much time has passed. If it comes to it, courts will rule in their favor, they reassure themselves. Others avoid these issues simply because they have no idea how to address them.

Demands for reckoning ebb and flow, but these histories do not disappear. This book offers a way forward that serves companies and those affected by these historical harms. Taking responsibility for irreparable harm is not easy or comfortable. Despite the dilemmas and difficulties, the only way out is through.

Sarah Federman is Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies. She is the author of the award-winning books Transformative Negotiation and Last Train to Auschwitz, as well as two coauthored anthologies, Introduction to Conflict Resolution and Narratives of Mass Atrocity. In 2022, Federman testified before Congress concerning the responsibility of US banks to respond to their slavery ties. Federman’s TEDx talk on this topic has been selected by TED’s main conference for wider promotion.