Purpose

The links between moral communication and legal communication have long been studied in sociology of law. Little has yet been said about moral communication invoking when communication in the legal system is impossible, ineffective or uncertain. The paper fills this gap to demonstrate that systems theory-based sociology of law can effectively recognise the role of moral communication in such situations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents an empirical study of moral communication in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It focused on situations when SMEs' interactions with function systems, particularly the legal system, result in irremovable legal uncertainty. The data depict strategies of managing such uncertainty and were obtained in a paths-to-justice survey of 7,292 owners and managers of SMEs and 101 in-depth interviews. The findings are interpreted using the author's concept of “uncertainty translation”, rooted in Luhmann's systems theory. It suggests that business organisations such as SMEs deal with the ubiquitous uncertainty in their operations by translating it into a convenient type.

Findings

The study distinguishes between formative and absorbing moral communication and finds that both types play a role in steering the uncertainty translation mechanism in SMEs. Six scenarios of invoking moral communication are identified in SMEs dealing with legal uncertainty. In such scenarios, moral communication facilitates the translation of business uncertainty “away from law”. Under some circumstances, this, in turn, leads to latent systematic results, reflexively affecting the legal system, the economic system and the SMEs.

Research limitations/implications

In its core argument, the study is based on qualitative material. While it identifies empirical scenarios of invoking moral communication, it does not report the prevalence of these scenarios due to methodological limitations.

Originality/value

The study results pose questions related to the staple theoretical issue in post-Luhmannian social systems theory: functional differentiation. If moral communication–a type of communication not linked to any social system–can produce far-reaching, systematic results that affect function systems, then the functional differentiation thesis should be less pronounced than Luhmann typically stressed. This said, the paper argues that the contradiction between the findings and Luhmannian theory of morality is only apparent and may be reconciled.

中文翻译：

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中小企业的道德沟通和法律不确定性

目的

法律社会学长期以来一直研究道德传播与法律传播之间的联系。当法律系统中的沟通不可能、无效或不确定时，关于道德沟通的说法还很少。本文填补了这一空白，以证明基于系统理论的法律社会学可以有效地认识到道德交流在这种情况下的作用。

设计/方法/方法

本文对中小型企业 (SME) 的道德沟通进行了实证研究。它侧重于中小企业与功能系统，特别是法律系统的互动，导致无法消除的法律不确定性的情况。数据描述了管理这种不确定性的策略，是通过对 7,292 名中小企业所有者和经理进行的司法调查和 101 次深入访谈获得的。研究结果是使用作者的“不确定性翻译”概念来解释的，该概念植根于 Luhmann 的系统理论。它表明，中小企业等商业组织通过将其转化为一种方便的类型来应对其运营中无处不在的不确定性。

发现

该研究区分了形成性和吸收性道德交流，并发现这两种类型都在指导中小企业的不确定性转化机制中发挥作用。在处理法律不确定性的中小企业中，确定了调用道德沟通的六种情况。在这种情况下，道德交流有助于将商业不确定性转化为“远离法律”。在某些情况下，这反过来又会导致潜在的系统性结果，反射性地影响到法律制度、经济制度和中小企业。

研究限制/影响

在其核心论点中，该研究基于定性材料。虽然它确定了引发道德交流的经验情景，但由于方法上的限制，它没有报告这些情景的普遍性。

原创性/价值

研究结果提出了与后卢曼社会系统理论中的主要理论问题相关的问题：功能分化。如果道德交流——一种与任何社会系统无关的交流——能够产生影响功能系统的深远的、系统的结果，那么功能分化的论点应该没有卢曼通常强调的那么明显。话虽如此，该论文认为，研究结果与卢曼道德理论之间的矛盾只是显而易见的，可以调和。