Virtue and Meaningful Work

This chapter considers empirical research into meaningful work from the perspective of the virtues. Research conducted over more than half a century has isolated a number of dimensions that animate the experience of meaningful work and a number of desirable consequences that are associated with it including improved job performance and job satisfaction. Research is fragmented however and there is no generally agreed explanatory framework though many potential candidates. A second significant problem in the field is the repeated finding that not all employees experience meaningfulness in jobs whose characteristics suggest that they should and that some employees craft meaning into otherwise mundane work. As a result of this some ethicists have maintained that meaningful work is an inherently subjective notion and therefore that it cannot function as the type of good that can be the subject of ethical claims. A MacIntyrean virtue ethics perspective overcomes this objection, in part because it accounts for the apparent subjectivity in the attributions of meaningfulness in terms of the virtues that agents have developed, or failed to develop. The case for meaningful work is its necessity to the development of the virtues.

Oxford Scholarship Online

Virtue at Work is about good organizations, good managers, and good people, and how these can contribute to good communities. It is aimed at practitioners—principally managers at all levels and in all kinds of organizations. It provides an integrated and philosophically grounded framework which enables a coherent approach to organizations and organizational ethics from the perspective of practitioners in the workplace, of managers in organizations, as well as of organizations themselves. The philosophical grounding comes from the work of the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. In line with MacIntyre’s own commitments, the book makes philosophy down to earth and practical. It provides a new way of understanding ethics and organizations which is both realistic and attractive, but also challenging. It also provides tough but realistic suggestions in order to put this approach into practice. Virtue at Work not only applies theory in a readable and compelling manner, but also shows how this ...

This study adds to the existing literature on meaningful work by offering a cross-cultural perspective. Since work shapes the kind of person that we are and plays an important role in our well-being, some theorists have adopted a virtue theory approach to meaningful work using Aristotelian-MacIntyrean framework. For lack of a better term, I will call this a Western virtue theory. This paper presents a contemporary virtue-focused Buddhist perspective on the topic. While a virtue-ethics interpretation of Buddhism is now widely accepted and has been applied to several issues, not much has been written about meaningful work using a Buddhist-Aristotelian comparative framework. Buddhism is an important cultural component not only of countries that are predominantly Buddhist, but of other societies that have come in contact with it. To develop a Buddhist framework, I draw heavily from the works of Buddhist scholars, particularly in the West who use a virtue framework in interpreting Buddhism. The aims of my essay are dual. The first is to articulate a straightforward application of Buddhism on the contemporary ethical discussion of meaningful work. The second is to discuss the similarities, clarify the differences, and demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses relative to each other of the Buddhist and the Western virtue theory. In my analysis, I argue that consideration of Buddhist perspective enables us to construct a cross-cultural, inclusive, and pluralistic conceptual model for the deliberation of meaningful work that complements the Western virtue theory.

2019

This study adds to the existing literature on meaningful work by presenting a contemporary virtue-focused Buddhist view. While a virtue-ethics interpretation of Buddhism is now widely accepted and has been applied to several issues, not much has been written about meaningful work using a Buddhist-Aristotelian comparative framework. To develop a Buddhist approach, I draw heavily on the works of Buddhist scholars, particularly in the West who use a virtue framework in interpreting Buddhism. The aims of my essay are dual. The first is to articulate a straightforward application of Buddhism to the contemporary ethical discussion of meaningful work. The second is to discuss the similarities, clarify the differences, and demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses relative to each other of the Buddhist and the Western virtue theories. In my analysis, I argue that while Buddhism is not an alternative to Western virtue theory, it offers significant contributions to the latter’s approach to mea...

In this essay I explore the prospects for a virtue ethic approach to business. First, I delineate two fundamental criteria that I believe must be met for any such approach to be viable: viz., the virtues must be exercised for the sake of the good of one’s life as a unitary whole (contra role-morality approaches) and for the common good of the communities of which one is a part as well as the individual good of their members (contra egoist approaches). Second, I argue that these two criteria can be met only if we are able to reconceive and transform the nature of work within contemporary business organizations. In particular, what is needed, I argue, is a retrieval of something like the older ideal of work as a ‘vocation’, or ‘calling’, whereby work can be viewed as a specific aspect of a more general calling to pursue, through the practice of the virtues, ‘the good life’ both for ourselves and for others. Lastly, I consider some important challenges to this ‘vocational virtue ethic’ approach to work within contemporary business organizations and offer a few suggestions for how they might be met.

Journal of Management Studies, 2019

In this introduction to the Journal of Management Studies Special Issue on Meaningful Work, we explain the imperative for a deeper understanding of meaningfulness within the context of the current sociopolitical environment, coupled with the growing use of organizational strategies aimed at 'managing the soul'. Meaningful work remains a contested topic that has been the subject of attention in a wide range of disciplines. The focus of this Special Issue is the advancement of theory and evidence about the nature, causes, consequences , and processes of meaningful work. We summarize the contributions of each of the seven articles that comprise the Special Issue and, in particular, note their methodological and theoretical plurality. In conclusion, we set forth a future research agenda based on five fundamental paradoxes of meaningful work.

Philosophy Now - Issue 160, 2024

Alessandro Colarossi has insights for the bored and understimulated. If you've ever found yourself staring blankly at a spreadsheet or nursing a lukewarm cup of coffee while daydreaming about your next vacation, this is for you. Yes, you, the one who periodically contemplates existential questions between email exchanges and Zoom meetings. If your work feels like a necessary yet uninspiring pursuit, a means to fund your 'real life' outside the office, let us delve together into the philosophical underpinnings of work. Who knows, we might find ways to render the banal a little more bearable, or even meaningful. Aristotle and the Dignity of Work Aristotle, one of the most influential philosophers in Western thought, had distinctive views on work. He made a clear distinction between chrematistics (wealth acquisition) and oikonomia (household management). In his view, work performed purely for the sake of livelihood, or chrematistics, was not inherently virtuous; it was simply a means to an end. However, work that contributed to the well-being of the community, or oikonomia, was considered virtuous as it served a higher purpose.

Journal of Business Ethics, 2014

In the human quest for meaning, work occupies a central position. Most adults spend the majority of their waking hours at work, which often serves as a primary source of purpose, belongingness, and identity. In light of these benefits to employees and their organizations, organizational scholars are increasingly interested in understanding the factors that contribute to meaningful work, such as the design of jobs, interpersonal relationships, and organizational missions and cultures. In a separate line of inquiry, scholars of business ethics have examined meaningful work as a moral issue concerning the management of others and ourselves, exploring whether there are definable characteristics of meaningful work to which we have moral rights, and whether there are moral duties to ourselves and others to fulfill those rights. In this article, we examine contemporary developments in both disciplines about the nature, causes, and consequences of meaningful work; we explore linkages between these disciplines; and we offer conclusions and research opportunities regarding the interface of ethical and organizational perspectives on performing and providing meaningful work. Keywords Business ethics Á Human rights Á Meaning of work Á Meaningful work Á Organization studies Á Positive organizational studies Á Prosocial behavior This article grew out of a panel discussion at the Society for Business Ethics Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, in 2010. The authors thank the members of the audience for their feedback. The authors also thank the editors and reviewers of the Journal of Business Ethics for their encouraging and constructive recommendations.

Humanities Bulletin, 2021

A number of paradigms have been proposed to understand the sources of meaningful work, but a non-Western approach has attracted little attention. This study aims to make a theoretical contribution toward an understanding of meaningful work from a virtue-ethics framework that is culturally meaningful and relevant to Filipino realities and their distinct cultural heritage. It develops a paradigm for a Filipino view of meaningful work that could guide both researchers and practitioners in business ethics by defining what is meaningful work, explaining why it is important, and presenting some examples of concrete measures that management can utilize to promote meaningful work in the Philippine workplace.

Journal of Youth Studies, 2009

What ethical framework provides the best guide for contemporary youth work is the central question in this article. An account is provided of why the two dominant ethical frameworks, namely, utilitarianism and deontic ethics are not appropriate. It is argued that virtue ethics is most relevant because it specifies the nature of social goods, and provides a relevant framework of thinking about good practice. Six key reasons are identified for why virtue ethics provides the most suitable ethical framework. They include its account of virtues expressed in our character, its focus on education to build character as a source of social transformation, its emphasis on our agential capacity to make choices, its interest in our capacity to think critically and act ethically, the connections it makes between the practice of virtues and social goods that define a good life individually or collectively, and its capacity to inform good professional judgment and good practice. What all this means for youth work is considered through a discussion about good judgment and practice-or to use the virtue ethics vocabulary, 'phronesis'. What that means in terms of the requisite skills, knowledge and dispositions is spelt out in relation to youth work practice. Ethical questions like 'how should I live' and 'what is the right or fair thing to do' challenge us every day. They are questions that are also part of a two and half thousand year history of philosophical discussion in the west. And, whether we always realize it or not, our ways of answering these questions and our personal and professional practices draw on those traditions which are as diverse as Aristotelianism, natural law theory, rule-based ethics, and utilitarianism. Today we witness a contemporary rediscovery of ethics in western societies. As John Finnis (1980) and Bent Flyvbjerg (2001) observed this revival is surprising given the influential arguments mounted against the idea of practical reasoning through the twentieth century. The dominance of scientific materialism for example seemed to threaten the idea of ethical discourse while Max Weber (1967) argued it was essential that the social sciences engage with the world in value-free ways. Meanwhile A.J. Ayer (1947) using the alleged fact /value distinction argued that to talk about ethical values was to talk emotional nonsense. Yet not even a modest degree of reflection description or analysis of our social world is possible without considering what is good for people (Putman 2004). In other words, it is simply not possible to avoid ethical evaluations because, to paraphrase Aristotle, all human action is informed by ideas about what is good and bad and how we ought to act. Whether it was the recognition that human action is always informed by ethical ideas which stimulated the contemporary enthusiasm for 'values', it is clear that business, government agencies and non-government organizations now routinely produce Codes of Ethical Practice, and promote themselves as ethical 'corporate citizens'. Likewise, public institutions like hospitals and universities have established elaborate committee systems with manuals of rules and 'ethical guidelines' or regulations designed to manage the ethical dimensions of research and practice in moral ways. A range of professions like medicine, accountancy, the law, psychology and social work also regularly debate, release, implement professional codes of ethics. Against this general background we can situate the move by many youth peak bodies and professional youth work organisations to produce codes of practice or codes of ethics (