Although visual material has been increasingly incorporated in organization and management studies, visual has arguably not been sufficiently “taken seriously” as an independent force which is perpetually organizing social life. This study aims to address this limitation by employing Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical theory to analyze the role of “faces” in covid-19 vaccine advocacy videos. Departing from rationalist and humanist approaches to organizational ethics, this research explores how these videos subject the audience to an ethical responsibility that precedes all reflection and impose a subjectivity characterized by a profound passivity, through the presentation of four types of others: the Dedicated Other, the Fragile Other, the Marginalized Other, and the Ordinary Other. These presentations, by issuing moral commands and shaping subjectivity, demonstrate how visual materials organize ethical encounters and responsibilities. This study contributes to the conversation on ethics and responsibilities in business by acknowledging the ethical force of visual communication and by re-conceptualizing organizational ethics to emphasize its mediating role in the complex landscape of ethical encounters, where organizations impose moral commands in the name of the other.
