Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality

Description

There is an urgent need to understand how private and public organisations can play a role in promoting human values such as fairness, dignity, respect and care. Globalisation, technological advance and climate change are changing work, organisations and systems in ways which foster inequality, alienation and collective risk. Against this backdrop, organisations are being urged to make their contribution to the common good, take account of the interests of multiple stakeholders, and respond ethically as well as efficiently to complex challenges which transcend traditional organisational and state boundaries. Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality poses critical questions related to organisational design by challenging limits to current thinking, such as the neglect by political philosophers of markets, firms and stakeholders, or by organisational theorists of business ethics. In so doing, the book advances our understanding of the theory and practice of ethical organising. Specifically, meaningfulness and mutuality will be used to yield values and principles for a philosophy of ethical organising which includes an account of human values in morally desirable collective action, and examines the relationship of collective action to the contested concept of shared value creation. Within a philosophy of ethical organising, mutuality permits an examination of the unavoidable relational nature of collective action, whereas meaningfulness addresses fundamental human concerns for significance and leading a life we have reason to value. By addressing our status as relational beings with human needs for meaning, a philosophy of ethical organising brings critical thinking to the creation of morally informed organisational practices which are not only instrumentally beneficial for addressing wicked problems, but are normatively desirable for human flourishing. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Overview: Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality The Sustainability Imperative Motivating Humanity A Human Capability for Ethical World-Building Meaningfulness and Mutuality Towards a Philosophy of Ethical World-Building Organisations and Organising Becoming World-Builders Overview of Chapters 1 The Realm of Values Relational Conception of Values Eudaimonic Reflection and Cosmopolitan Morality Organisational Values Values-Work Values in Ethical Organising Moral Free Space Liberal Value Pluralism Moral Progress Moral Imagination Meanings, Understanding, and Knowledge Common Knowledge Changing Values 2 The Meaning of Value Value and the Sustainability Imperative The Meaning of Value Forms of Value Value Worth Creating Worth Integrative Worth and Publicness Ethical Worlds Creating Life Value Live Worth Living in the Anthropocene Valuing in Life Value Organisations The Life Value Model Materialist Ethics Framing Life Value Organisations Elements of the Life Value Model: Source, Target, Process, and Significance 3 Meaningfulness and Mutuality The Value of Meaningfulness Meaningfulness: Objective, Subjective, Hybrid Sources of Meaning and Public Meaningfulness Practical Reasoning Ethic of Care Domination and Alienation Mutuality as an Organising Principle Roots of Mutuality Mutuality and Reciprocity Constrained and Expansive Mutuality Dimensions of Mutuality Ethical Orientations: Fairness, Care, and Flourishing Voice: Democratic World-Building Structures and Institutions Mêtis: Overcoming Muteness and Harnessing Mutancy 4 Collective Action: Integrity, Purpose, Work Normatively Desirable Collective Action Collective Moral Agents Integrity Emotions and Reasons Morally Worthy Organisations Philosophy of Purpose Organisational Purpose Aspects of Purpose and Purposing Work: Complex Contribution Agonistic Republicanism Consensus and Conflict Agonism: Constructive Conflict Republicanism: Responsible Difference-Making 5 Judging, Responsibility, and an Ethic of Care Judging as Thinking and Feeling Objects Concern for Objects Bringing Objects into View Responsibility to Create Collective Moral Agents Duties to Organise Responsibility to See Others Ethic of Care Materialist Ethics of Care Becoming a Self-Determining Being Ethic of Care and Systems of Social Cooperation Separations of Distance, Power, and Culture Supply Chains as Systems of Social Cooperation 6 A Philosophy of Ethical Organising: Justice, Capabilities, Meaningfulness Capability Justice Social Constructivism and Justice Seeing Ourselves as World-Builders Constructing Basic Structures Contesting Ethical Worlds A Capability for Ethical World-Building Individual Capabilities Collective Capabilities Organisational Capabilities Life Capabilities Ethical Organising at the Base of the Pyramid 7 The Society of Meaning-Makers: Dignity, Empathy, Power The Society of Meaning-Makers All Affected Mutuality in the Society of Meaning-Makers Creating the Moral Community The Capacity to Dignify Moral Expansiveness and Empathy Empathy and Organisational Emotions Distributed Power System Organisational Power Relational Power Discursive Authority Conclusion: Towards an Empirical Research Agenda Creating Mutual Organisation Mutual Public Service Economy The Meaningful City Index