Philosophical Foundations of Workplace Spirituality: A Critical Approach

It is an undeniable reality that workplace spirituality has received growing attention during the last decade. This fact is attributable to many factors, socioeconomic, cultural and others [Hicks, D.A. 2003: Religion and the Workplace. Pluralism, Sprtituality, Leadership (Cambridge University press, Cambridge)]. However the field is full of obscurity and imprecision for the researcher, the practitioner, the organisational analyst and whoever attempts to systematically approach this relatively new inquiry field. This article attempts to provide a critical review of the literature on workplace spirituality by examining the underlying rationale of the main trends regarding spirit at Work and by negotiating their strengths and weaknesses. Current approaches to workplace spirituality are distinguished to the exploratory, contextual and the consequential, acontextual ones. Particular attention is given to ‚Respectful Pluralism’ proposed by Douglas Hicks, as it is suggested that this theoretical framework is the most well-founded, elaborated and systematic up to date. However, it is proposed that even ‚Respectful Pluralism’ fails to fully capture the complexity of such a multidimensional phenomenon as spirituality. Drawing on mainstream ethical and philosophical traditions (deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics) supporting alternative value-systems, it is suggested that a more inclusive and philosophically affluent framework needs to be developed. Finally, some propositions and thoughts are made towards this direction. George Gotsis is an assistant professor at the department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Greece. His research interests include history of economic thought, business ethics and history of ideas. Zoi Kortezi is currently a research assistant at the department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Greece. Her research interests include organisational theory, employee relations and work ethics.     

Testing deontological warm glow motivation for carbon abatements

Do people contribute to CO₂ abatements even when these contributions are completely crowded out by a third party? This study reports from an experimental test of contributions to carbon abatements when the contributions are completely crowded out by the experimenter. Contributions are determined to decline by 44% compared to a policy in which the contributions are spent directly on carbon abatements. Still, contributions remain at 18% of endowments and are relatively stable over six rounds of the crowding-out policy. These results support previous psychological findings that a deontological warm glow is important for motivating environmentally friendly behavior.     

从康德到罗尔斯——道义论的历史进路及其理论局限

作为西方主流道德流派之一,道义论思想历史悠久、博大精深。从康德到罗尔斯,道义论经历了从传统到现代的嬗变。通过对康德道义论和罗尔斯正义论的扼要考察,梳理了道义论发展的历史进路,阐明了传统道义论和正义论的基本理念,同时指出了道义论所存在的理论局限。     

When Ethics Matters – Interpreting the Ethical Discourse of Small Nature-Based Entrepreneurs

This article examines the unique ethical concerns faced by small nature-based entrepreneurs in their everyday business operations. By using qualitative, empirical data, six kinds of business situations were identified to bring about moral consideration for all the entrepreneurs in this study. The business situations identified were the selection of raw material suppliers, reconciling the quality of production and the lack of resources, the pricing process, the content of marketing information, the close relationships to employees and the collaboration with other entrepreneurs. The ethical argumentation used in these business situations was examined in relation to three ethical theories: utilitarian ethics, deontology and virtue-ethics. This article shows that typical for the decision-making of the small nature-based entrepreneurs in an ethical sense is the variety of ethical arguments used and the important role of customers and employees influencing the ethical views of the entrepreneurs.     

Clearing Up the Egoist Difficulty with Loyalty

This paper seeks to analyze and to motivate a trend toward virtue ethics and away from deontology in the business ethics account of organizational loyalty. Prevailing authors appeal to “transcendent” values (deontology), skepticism (there is no loyalty), or Aristotelianism (loyalty is seeking mutual self-interest). I argue that the “Aristotelian” view clears up the “egoist” difficulty with loyalty. Briefly, critics feel we must “transcend,” “replace,” “overcome” and most especially sacrifice self-interest on the altar of ethics and loyalty. I argue that few things can be more ethical than loyalty to shared values. When a company and I both pursue the same value X, there becomes no difference between my seeking my best interest and my seeking the best interest of the company (and vice versa). Hence, the way out of the egoist difficulty with loyalty is seeing a company’s interests as my own (Aristotle’s third stage of friendship).     

道德必然还是道德运气——威廉姆斯对康德义务论的批判

威廉姆斯是英国著名的道德哲学家,他对康德义务论提出了激烈的批判,批评了康德义务论的不偏不倚性、普遍性以及对道德冲突的忽视,指出这种道德哲学在道德概念体系和日常道德两方面都是行不通的,并认为道德运气是道德活动的重要根据,使道德哲学的关注中心从康德式的“我的责任是什么”转到苏格拉底式的“我应该如何生活”这一思考上来.     

Legitimating Market Egoism: The Availability Problem

It is a common enough view that market agents are self-interested, not benevolent or altruistic – call this market egoism – and that this is morally defensible, even morally required. There are two styles of defence – utilitarian and deontological – and while they differ, they confront a common problem. This is the availability problem. The problem is that the more successful the moral justification of self-interested economic activity, the less there is for the justification to draw upon. Religious justifications of market egoism at least make a stab at dealing with the problem; secular accounts typically do not. I thank Annette Kilarr.     

Organizational Factors Encouraging Ethical Decision Making: An Exploration into the Case of an Exemplar

What factors in the organizational culture of an ethically exemplary corporation are responsible for encouraging ethical decision making? This question was analyzed through an exploratory case study of a top pharmaceutical company that is a global leader in ethics. The participating organization is renowned in public opinion polls of ethics, credibility, and trust. This research explored organizational culture, communication in issues management and public relations, management theory, and deontological or utilitarian moral philosophy as factors that might encourage ethical analysis. Our understanding of organiza tional ethics is enhanced by elucidating factors the case revealed as encouraging ethical analysisan organizational culture that emphasizes the importance of ethics, Theory Y management, a symmetrical worldview valuing innovation and dialogue, a counseling role for issues management or public relations in the dominant coalition, rewarding ethical behavior, ethical analysis using moral philosophy, consistency between individual values and organizational philosophy, and ethics training. These factors, and perhaps others as yet unidentified, worked together to create an environment that encouraged ethical decision making at the exemplar organization.     

Measuring the ethical nature of tourism operators

Selected ecotourism, adventure, fishing, cruiseline, and golf operators were studied in an effort to determine possible ethical differences among them as distinct groups. Through the implementation of a multidimensional ethics scale, the resulting data illustrate that ecotourism operators were in fact more ethical than their counterparts in the other groups. This became apparent on the basis of analyzing their responses to ethical economic, social, and ecological issues outlined in three scenarios. The paper examines the influence of education, organizational size, and the use of codes of ethics in day-to-day business operation and practice to help explain the differences that exist among the participating groups.