My research

The research I currently lead focuses on the construction and enactment of individual ethics for climate change in the oil and gas industry. This research seeks to investigate the experiences and ethical construction of oil and gas industry employees in relation to climate change, under their industry’s practices of corporate environmentalism. The project is split in three qualitative studies:

Analysis of oil majors’ discourses in relation to climate change, and ethical construction and positioning of industry employees gathered from interviews with 30 current employees

In-depth analysis of stories of former oil and gas industry employees who left the industry due to environmental concerns to engage in climate activism or lobbying – seven stories gathered from mixed sources including interviews and written material (social media posts, blogs and articles)

Experimentation of the potential for co-creation of collective visions for a sustainable future between oil and gas industry employees and climate activists or lobbyists – conducted through workshops developed using dialogical storytelling and visual methods

Research blog posts

Publications

Islam, M., Littel, F., Das,N., Odaro, L. (2024). PGR Student Partners – Empowering doctoral students through partnership and co-creation in institutional equality, diversity and inclusion change projects. Educational Developments. 25.3.

Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, U., Edmondson, M., Harris, A., & Littel, F. (2023). Moving from responsibility learning inaction to ‘responsibility learning-in-action’: A student-educator collective writing on the ‘unnoticed’ in the hidden curriculum at business schools. Management Learning. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076231164011

Papers submitted / in development

Littel, F., Yu, A. & Rodgers, P. Beyond ‘adoption or resistance’: Oil and gas employees' ethical self-formation and Telos under corporate environmentalism. Status: revised resubmission under review with Organisation Studies (ABS 4*)
Littel, F., Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, U. Navigating moral uncertainty and institutional wilful ignorance: The case of the British defence industry. Status: submitted to special issue of Journal of Business Ethics (ABS 3*)
Littel, F., Yu, A. Moral disengagement as micro-foundation of neoliberal environmentalism. Status: submitted to Academy of Management 2025 conference – journal submission pending
Littel, F., Yu, A. Radical or immanent? A (post-)structural narrative analysis of climate ethics enactment stories. Status: in development
Littel, F., Yu, A. When carbon production meets climate action: co-creating sustainable development for climate change via innovative storytelling. Status: in development

Contributions to conferences

“Navigating moral uncertainty and institutional wilful ignorance: The case of the British defence industry” – British Academy of Management (BAM), Nottingham, UK, 5th September 2024
“When carbon production meets climate action: Co-creating sustainable development for climate change via innovative storytelling” – British Academy of Management (BAM), Nottingham, UK, 4th September 2024
“From oil and gas to climate action: Temporality in the search for meaning through radical change” – European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Milan, Italy, 6th July 2024
“Resisting hegemonic discourses: Enacting ethical subject positioning for climate change in the oil and gas sector” – European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Milan, Italy, 6th July 2024

“From moral disengagement to practices of the self: enacting moral subjectivities for climate change in the oil and gas sector” – European Academy of Management (EURAM), Bath, UK, 26th June 2024
“Moving from responsibility learning inaction to ‘responsibility learning-in-action’: A student-educator collective writing on the ‘unnoticed’ in the hidden curriculum at business schools.” Presented with co-author U. Chatrakul Na Ayudhya at the following conferences:
- International Critical Management Studies – Nottingham, UK, 21st June 2023
- British Academy of Management – Brighton, UK, 5th September 2023
- Society for Research into Higher Education – Online, 4th December 2023