Week 4: Organizational Values and Character

R. Nozick (1989) in Examined Life, outlined four "levels" of ethical practice, charting a perspective of ethics from its minimalist form to its most challenging form of practice.

• Ethics of Respect: Corresponds to an extended ethics mandating cooperation to mutual benefit. Rules and principles mandating respecting another person's life and autonomy.
• Ethics of Responsiveness: Underlying notion of inherent value of all individuals. Mandates acting in a way that is responsive to people's value, enhancing and supporting it, and enabling it to flourish.
• Ethics of Caring: Ranges from concern and tenderness to deeper compassion and love. Fullest development mandates no harm--ahimsa and love of all living creatures.
• Ethics of Light: Being a vessel of truth, beauty, goodness, holiness, etc.

People, families, organizations, teams, societies and nations have a choice of which one (or ones in the case of organizations, societies, etc. where more than one form may be practiced) they wish to practice.

Increasingly organizational culture and values are being understood as central shapers of leadership styles and managerial practices, and as critical elements in worker productivity and job satisfaction.

Business enterprises are recrafting their images and rethinking their values to be more socially responsible as corporations. They are trying to reshape their work policies and practices to put people first, making flexible work environments and giving workers more control over their jobs and work schedules. While they are doing this for mixed reasons--sustained profitability and productivity as well as concern for their workforce--there is a conscious effort to "re-humanize" the organization and see workers not as "cogs in a machine," but as "flesh and blood" people who have lives, interests and responsibilities beyond their work duties. This re-humanizing is also bringing to light again the sense of organzational integrity or character, and the organization's resposnibility to the community in which it operates, the community whose citizens it serves. It is bringing into prominence again that organizations are called to be good corporate citizens.

While the deontological approach to ethics supports such changes in organizations because of its focus on rights and dignity (that people have an inherent value), a virtue ethics perspective is even more applicable in a business situation for it focuses on organizational character and values.

Virtue ethics shifts the focus of ethics from the actions to be done to the way of being in the world. Emotions are vital avenues that enable us to process our experiences and understand the world (Nussbaum, 2001). As a person psychologically grows, (s)he develops perceptions of the world and values (Erikson & Erikson, 1998). In a community context, one discerns and incorporates into one’s personality and work ethic core values (Sherman, 1997) that guide one’s decision making (McIntyre, 1984). The focus is on building character (Hauerwas, 1975, Hillman, 1999, Flanagan & Rorty, 1997) and a work ethic that stems from the personal acquisition of the values contained in community stories and histories.

The ethic of care furthers this perspective. In contrast to Kolberg’s moral development concepts rooted in fairness and justice (Gibbs, 2003), and ethics of care poses compassion and caring relationships as the starting point for being and actions (Gilligan,1993, Nodding,1986), thus freeing people from their present diminished position in society (Tronto,1994). The challenge is to envision care and equity as essential and valued components of society (Walzer, 1983) and its business, enterprises, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.

For many, core Aristotelian values of courage, prudence, temperance, and justice are being promoted as key leadership characteristics for contemporary professionals.

Altruistic values and enlightened self-interest are important in making organizational decisions and addressing organizational issues, as are rights and civil law. It is important to incorporate more fully into organizational and business ethics the perspectives and challenges presented by virtue ethics and the ethics of care. A major reason being that the dignity of the human person is often not emphasized, or not considered as a primary starting point for ethical decision-making in business. In 1948 the United Nations took a stance that there were universal human rights with the first being the right to human dignity. (United Nations, 1948) This position makes the nature and dignity of the human person central to ethical decision-making. This is important for understanding and reclaiming worker dignity is a significant concern in today's 24/7 work environment.

What are the organizational values that you believe should be the foundation of organizational cultures, management styles, and and workplace practices? Why?

What is the role of responsibility, caring and justice in the business arena, and how organizations operate?