Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality

271 Pages·2020·1.868 MB·English

by  Ruth Yeoman

Ethics, Meaningfulness,
and Mutuality
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 that 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 that 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 that 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 that are not
only instrumentally beneficial for addressing wicked problems but are
normatively desirable for human flourishing.
Ruth Yeoman is a Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, and
an Associate Researcher at King’s College, University of London. Ruth
researches the concepts and application of meaningfulness and mutuality
to work, organisations, and systems.
Routledge Studies in Business Ethics
Business ethics is a site of contestation, both in theory and practice. For
some it serves as a salve for the worst effects of capitalism, giving busi-
nesses the means self-regulate away from entrenched tendencies of mal-
feasance and exploitation. For others business ethics is a more personal
matter, concerning the way that individuals can effectively wade through
the moral quagmires that characterise so many dimensions of business
life. Business ethics has also been conceived of as a fig leaf designed to
allow business-as-usual to continue while covering over the less savoury
practices so as to create an appearance of righteousness.
Across these and other approaches, what remains critical is to ensure
that the ethics of business is the subject of incisive questioning, critical
research, and diverse theoretical development. It is through such scholarly
inquiry that the increasingly powerful purview of corporations and busi-
ness activity can be interrogated, understood and, ultimately, reformu-
lated. This series contributes to that goal by publishing the latest research
and thinking across the broad terrain that characterised business ethics.
The series welcomes contributions in areas including: corporate social
responsibility; critical approaches to business ethics; ethics and corporate
governance; ethics and diversity; feminist ethics; globalization and busi-
ness ethics; philosophical traditions of business ethics; postcolonialism
and the ethics of business; production and supply chain ethics; resistance,
political activism and ethics; sustainability, environmentalism and cli-
mate change; the ethics of corporate misconduct; the politics of business
ethics; and worker’s rights.
The Rise of Business Ethics
Bernard Mees
Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality
Ruth Yeoman
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.
com/Routledge-Studies-in-Business-Ethics/book-series/SE0900
Ethics, Meaningfulness,
and Mutuality
Ruth Yeoman
First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Taylor & Francis
The right of Ruth Yeoman to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-8153-8040-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-12512-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
I dedicate this book to:
My daughters, Hannah and Abigail.
And Peter, Rachel, Tim, David, Rachel, and Max; my nephews,
Alex and Georgie; my god-daughter, Bethany; and their
many local and international friends.
With love, respect, and hope.

Contents
Preface xi
Overview: Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality 1
The Sustainability Imperative 1
Motivating Humanity 6
A Human Capability for Ethical World-Building 8
Meaningfulness and Mutuality 9
Towards a Philosophy of Ethical World-Building 10
Organisations and Organising 12
Becoming World-Builders 13
Overview of Chapters 14
1 The Realm of Values 22
Relational Conception of Values 25
Eudaimonic Reflection and Cosmopolitan Morality 27
Organisational Values 30
Values-Work 32
Values in Ethical Organising 34
Moral Free Space 35
Liberal Value Pluralism 36
Moral Progress 39
Moral Imagination 40
Meanings, Understanding, and Knowledge 41
Common Knowledge 43
Changing Values 44
viii Contents
2 The Meaning of Value 51
Value and the Sustainability Imperative 51
The Meaning of Value 52
Forms of Value 53
Value Worth Creating 58
Worth 59
Integrative Worth and Publicness 61
Ethical Worlds 63
Creating Life Value 64
Live Worth Living in the Anthropocene 65
Valuing in Life Value Organisations 66
The Life Value Model 68
Materialist Ethics 69
Framing Life Value Organisations 69
Elements of the Life Value Model: Source, Target,
Process, and Significance 71
3 Meaningfulness and Mutuality 81
The Value of Meaningfulness 81
Meaningfulness: Objective, Subjective, Hybrid 83
Sources of Meaning and Public Meaningfulness 86
Practical Reasoning 88
Ethic of Care 89
Domination and Alienation 90
Mutuality as an Organising Principle 92
Roots of Mutuality 93
Mutuality and Reciprocity 94
Constrained and Expansive Mutuality 96
Dimensions of Mutuality 98
Ethical Orientations: Fairness, Care, and
Flourishing 100
Voice: Democratic World-Building 103
Structures and Institutions 103
Mêtis: Overcoming Muteness and Harnessing
Mutancy 107
4 Collective Action: Integrity, Purpose, Work 117
Normatively Desirable Collective Action 118
Collective Moral Agents 120
Contents ix
Integrity 121
Emotions and Reasons 123
Morally Worthy Organisations 124
Philosophy of Purpose 125
Organisational Purpose 128
Aspects of Purpose and Purposing 129
Work: Complex Contribution 132
Agonistic Republicanism 135
Consensus and Conflict 136
Agonism: Constructive Conflict 137
Republicanism: Responsible Difference-Making 138
5 Judging, Responsibility, and an Ethic of Care 146
Judging as Thinking and Feeling 146
Objects 149
Concern for Objects 149
Bringing Objects into View 150
Responsibility to Create Collective Moral Agents 152
Duties to Organise 154
Responsibility to See Others 156
Ethic of Care 158
Materialist Ethics of Care 160
Becoming a Self-Determining Being 161
Ethic of Care and Systems of Social Cooperation 162
Separations of Distance, Power, and Culture 163
Supply Chains as Systems of Social Cooperation 164
6 A Philosophy of Ethical Organising: Justice, Capabilities,
Meaningfulness 173
Capability Justice 173
Social Constructivism and Justice 175
Seeing Ourselves as World-Builders 179
Constructing Basic Structures 180
Contesting Ethical Worlds 182
A Capability for Ethical World-Building 185
Individual Capabilities 186
Collective Capabilities 188
Organisational Capabilities 190
Life Capabilities 195
Ethical Organising at the Base of the Pyramid 197