PHIL 200 BUSINESS ETHICS

LECTURE WEEK 4:
THE MEANING OF VALUE AND
WORK
Fall 2023
Narayan
 Examine the goals and values of your own career and
workplace decisions

the variety of meanings and values attributed to

Explain work

Learning Articulat business’ responsibility for providing employees

Objectives e with meaningful work

Describe aresponsibilities
framework for evaluating business’ ethical
to employees

Highlight aresponsibilities
framework for evaluating the rights and
of employees
Background of the Philosophy of
Labour/Work
◦ Plato’s three divisions in “The Republic”
◦ Labourers
◦ Mercantile/Military
◦ Philosopher-Kings
◦ Estlund, Gheaus and Herzog:
◦ Individuals seek out many social goods through work as it is the most important site of cooperative interaction and
sociability among adult citizens outside of family
◦ Fulfills various social roles
◦ Karl Marx’s labour theory of value and product of labour
◦ We find meaning in our work and what we produce
Defining Success
How would you define success?
• We all want to be successful, but what does it actually mean?
• Are there different types?
• If so, do they have anything in common?
• Where do you find success?
• What are the differences between a successful and unsuccessful
person?
• Is there an in-between?
Defining Success
◦ Unstated assumption that the pursuit of process is incompatible with the pursuit of personal or social
responsibility
◦ Ex. You cannot be successful if you are always donating money to charity or leaving work early to spend time with
family and friends
◦ Wall Street vs. NGOs
◦ Social Entrepreneurship; challenges the assumption that one cannot pursue both profit and social
causes
◦ Explicitly aim to be profitable, unlike NGOs
◦ Standard characteristics of innovation, creativity and risk-taking but uses these towards addressing social needs
◦ Untapped market is a social and ethical need
◦ A change in mindset from “why me” to “why not me”
Brief Case Study: Balancing Financial
and Social Success
◦ Mohammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh
◦ Economist who started as a university professor in Bangladesh, the United States and the United Kingdom
◦ Contributed to Bangladesh’s new independence in the early 1970s by offering direct help to the impoverished
through microloans
◦ Did it to help individuals that he cared about who were being taken advantage of by ‘loan sharks’
◦ Microloans: Very small amounts of capital loaned directly to individuals at low rates
◦ Social Need Identified: Allow craftspeople and other impoverished individuals a way to escape the cycle of
poverty
◦ Capital initially raised through donations at the start but then became self-sufficient through deposits and
interest earned from lending
◦ By 2009, ~8 million borrowers, 97% women, issued over $8 billion in loans with a repayment rate of 98%
◦ 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for helping create economic and social development
The Shift in Modern Conceptions of Work
20th century (especially in the decades
after WWII) Industrial Model
• Long-term relationship with a single
firm
• Employees received; Steady and
stable employment, secure wages,
benefits and opportunities for
promotion within the firm
• Employers received; increased
productivity created by a stable,
experienced and competent
workforce
1990s Increased Technological
Advancement and Productivity
• Workplace experienced major shifts
caused by significant corporate
layoffs: downsizing
• Outsourcing labour to offshore
markets for cheaper labour
• The “new normal” will be higher
unemployment rates
Three Common Aspects of the
Contemporary Work Scene
1. Few workers have significant choices and alternatives open to them in the workplace
◦ Few people are in the position to jeopardize their job, so they may be put in situations where they must accept less
than ideal working conditions
2. More people today seem likely to work many jobs over their lifetimes than they were in the past
◦ Job mobility is a fact of work life, sometimes as a choice but often as a result of factors over which employees have
no control
◦ Some of work’s values (income stability, self-esteem, etc.) are at a greater risk than before

3. Growth in Contingent Work

◦ Increasing temporary, part-time or subcontracted work
◦ Values and benefits of work are more conditional and uncertain
◦ Many social values get lost or are unavailable to these workers
Debate Surrounding Work
Division between glory
(admiration) and contempt
(disrespect/hate)
Work can provide
opportunities to valuable,
meaningful and uplifting
human activity
Business ethics is tasked with
articulating a vision of good
work and good workplace
• Would you play the lottery if the winnings was a full-time
job working the graveyard shift or $10 million
• From the Bible to Aristotle, work was seen as a necessary
evil
• But work can also be dehumanizing, degrading and
oppressive
• Burden we all have, so we must defend the conditions that
make it fair, just and humane
The Meaning of Work
◦ Our psychological attitude is greatly influenced by our understanding of work in general and our own
work in particular
◦ Meaning and value of work can contribute significantly to an employee’s self-esteem, physical, and mental health
◦ As a verb; activities involving perseverance, discipline performed with a degree of seriousness and
concentration
◦ Something you actively do and are invested in
◦ As a noun; particular accomplishments, general undertaking of a task or a job/employment
◦ A place you go to to and put effort into completing designated duties

Significant value for attaining an
income which helps us pursue many
other ends we desire
• High instrumental value; necessary
to attain many other goods
• Money allows us to go to the
market to get things we want or
need
The Value of Work
Extent of instrumental value can be
seen when asked “if we would
continue working if we attained all the
other goods”
• But there seems to be more to work
than making money:
• Feeling satisfaction from achieving
challenging goals?
• Maybe you just even like the
culture of your workplace?
Robert Bellah on Work and Identity
◦ Job; Simply a role that one steps in and out of as a means for earning money
◦ No meaning other than the instrumental value as a means for earing wages
◦ Career; Involves a developing relationship between the self and the activity
◦ “Intending to X” or “Pursuing X”- One develops throughout a career in the sense of mastering stages and
advancing to new levels
◦ Involve social status and self-esteem which progresses
◦ Calling; Returns to earlier traditions of work, where one’s identity and activities are morally inseparable
◦ Who you are is determined by what you do
◦ These three distinctions illustrate how complex the notion of work is- can be intimately tied to our values
or just a temporary gig to help us acquire capital
General Categorizations of Goods
Stemming from Work
◦ People will continue working even if they no longer need the income if employment can provide these
other goods
◦ Instrumental value of work involves many goods beyond wages and benefits
◦ Psychic Goods; Goods that have value but cannot be priced, thus not achieved solely through money
earned through work
◦ Feelings of achieving, self-worth, satisfaction, happiness
◦ Representative of character and attitudes
◦ Social Meaning; Associated with an entire lifestyle and the status or recognition that comes with it
◦ Can be tied to a personal story
◦ Doesn’t need to be high paying, but possesses high social value
General Categorizations of Goods
Stemming from Work
◦ Valuable/Worthwhile to Society; Positions that make an important contribution to their community
◦ Important jobs any stable community must fill
◦ For many, that is reason alone to pursue such work
◦ Can be for the product alone or the quality of the product
◦ Remember; work can refer to both an activity performed with patience and effort and it can refer to basic
employment
◦ Values involved in both of these activities, but lesser towards employment
Disliking Employment
◦ Can happen due to various reasons and is quite common and carries different
implications on different types of employment
◦ Disliking what you do for employment is not too complicated of an issue
when you are talking about a job because you are not too invested in it
◦ Not being used to your full potential
◦ Ethical divergence from work culture
◦ Your in a temporary position with hopes to move on elsewhere
◦ A new career often contains a little bit more optimism
◦ A growing relationship may have ups and downs
◦ There are always new challenges and skills to acquire and master
◦ Cannot really hate your career until you are properly inserted and
experienced in it
◦ The real issue occurs with Callings and Careers that form a fundamental
aspect of their identity
Janna Koretz: The Issue of Enmeshment
◦ An ‘existential’ crisis of sorts and a mental health issue
◦ Concerns the meaning or purpose of our lives and ourselves as individuals
◦ With people who have callings or established careers, somebody’s entire idea of self can be grounded on what they
do for work which creates a very close relationship between a person and what they do for a living
◦ Enmeshment: A situation where the boundaries between people and what they do for work dissolve because their
lives are so dependent on their specific form of employment
◦ Enmeshment does not allow for a person to create a single stable sense of self or identity
◦ Can occur for various reasons
◦ Intense competitiveness
◦ Familial pressure and values
◦ Overwork and burnout
◦ Grounded in a work culture that rewards longer hours and high pressure with raises, prestige and promotions
◦ Associated Status
The Effects of Enmeshment and
Methods to Adapt
◦ An identity centered solely around things like wealth, achievement, and influence depends significantly
on how you are perceived by others and solidifies your work defining your identity
◦ Becoming disconnected with your work can lead to significant issues:
◦ Depression and Anxiety
◦ Substance use/abuse
◦ Loneliness and loss of personal relationships outside of the workplace
◦ Decreased self-worth
◦ Common methods used to disconnect and establish your own identity away from your employment:
◦ Free up time so you can get that separation from your work environment
◦ Adopt small changes and step out of comfort zones to find new hobbies and interests
◦ Invest time into rebuilding your social networks and strengthening relationship
Major Theories of Work
◦ The Conventional Model
◦ The Classical View
◦ The Hedonistic View
◦ The Human Fulfillment Model
◦ E.F. Schumacher
◦ Karl Marx
◦ The Liberal Model
◦ Norman Bowie’s Kantian Model
The Conventional View
◦ Conventional View; Work is something difficult, arduous and laborious that must be endured to our
chagrin
◦ Work is to be avoided whenever possible and endured when we must
◦ The Classical View; There are higher and more meaningful activities than work, so it must be avoided so
one can pursue those more valuable and refined good
◦ Ancient Greek thought- contemplation and higher pleasures
◦ Humans are intellectual and free beings but work is physical and necessary
◦ Defends a very specific content for human happiness
◦ Various cultural activities
The Conventional View
◦ The Hedonistic View: Work as a necessary means for obtaining life’s pleasure
◦ Another interpretation of the conventional model but is much more common in the contemporary world
◦ One works to buy things that will make them happy- work is the price to pay to get both the necessities and
desirables in life
◦ Allows individuals to choose whatever ends they desire
◦ Happiness is simply getting whatever one wants
◦ Drudgery of work prevent humans from obtaining happiness
◦ Compatible with the assumptions of neoclassical economics
Foundation of Neoclassical Economics
◦ Individuals are free to choose their own preferences and the goal of economic activity is to satisfy
preferences
◦ Individuals exchange labour in the market as a means for obtaining satisfaction
◦ Neoclassical economics greatly influences the world
◦ Consistent that the most common view of work (hedonistic interpretation) is grounded in an
assumption of human happiness
◦ Not ironic that a workplace structured around neoclassical economics where employees work simply to
earn wages and employers treat them as means to productive ends gives rise to resentment and
dissatisfaction
◦ No value of its own right, work is merely a necessary price that is tolerated to achieve other ends
The Human
Fulfillment Model
◦ Human Fulfillment Model; Work is the primary
activity through which people develop their full
potential as human beings
◦ Opposite the conventional model, which believed
work to hinder the development of human
potential although both views hold that the good
life involves the flourishing and development of
the human potential
◦ Rooted in teleological ethics- duty derives from the
fulfillment of our potential (the greatest purpose)
◦ Telos = purpose
◦ Work can be the process through which this
potential is fulfilled
◦ Work as a verb and as employment develops
characteristics through which we can better fulfill
our purpose
The Human Fulfillment Model
◦ Psychological and social benefits gained from work are connected to living a fulfilled and meaningful
human life
◦ More than merely subjective and personal preferences
◦ Connected to attaining the human telos
◦ Not every job contributes to the development of human potential
◦ The proper kind of work and workplace can, however
◦ Individuals and work exist in a reciprocal relationship where they influence and shape each other
◦ Challenge for business ethics to articulate the type of work than can foster the full development of human
potential
◦ Q: What considerations do you think should be taken into account?
The Human Fulfillment Model
◦ Schumacher; Bad work is mechanical, artificial, divorced from nature, using a tiny fragment of our
potential capabilities due to no worthy challenges or stimulus to self-perfection
◦ No element of beauty, truth, goodness
◦ “Automata” or Robots
◦ Moving assembly lines or factory sweat shops
◦ Marx concept of Alienation; There exists a telos that can be drawn out or repressed by work
◦ Prevents the full development of human potential
◦ Humans are alienated/separated from their true selves (their potential)
◦ Several forms of this under the capitalist structure
◦ Humans as social beings who create and express themselves through their labour
◦ Create both products and the very social world in which they live
◦ When a human can reach their potential through the things they create at work, then that work is fulfilling
◦ If not, then it is repressing
Liberal Model of Work
◦ Liberal Model of Work; Individual workers should be free to choose the ends of their own work
◦ Free to choose undesirable jobs simply as a means to earn money
◦ A middle-ground between the conventional model and human fulfillment model
◦ There is no single human end that all work should serve or norm to determine what kind of person
everyone should be
◦ Recognize that humans can be significantly influenced by their work and argue that we should make
ethical assessments of work on the basis of how work affects workers
◦ Grounds of assessment: How work affects a worker’s ability to make free and autonomous decisions about their
own life
Liberal Model of Work
◦ Bowie’s Kantian Theory; One of the moral obligations of the firm is to provide meaningful work to the
employees
◦ Is meaningful work to be defined by the employees subjectively or given a normative definition which would allow
employers and employees to disagree over it
◦ Subjective and individual vs. difficult to find an objective normative definition
◦ Open-ended interpretation would fail to distinguish rights from desires and doesn’t adequately outline managerial
duties
◦ The more people that are compelled to work, the greater responsibility to ensure the workplace conditions are as
humane as possible
◦ General reluctance of the human telos or common good
Liberal Model of Work and a Note on
‘Liberal’ Philosophy in General
◦ Tension between: Shared specific ways we should all live and people being free to live how they want
◦ To resolve this tension, liberals often appeal to primary goods
◦ Primary goods; goods necessary to achieve other goods an individual chooses to pursue
◦ These are at the heart of allowing individuals to attain their ends and that rights in the workplace must function to protect these
goods

◦ Liberal philosophy in general, appeals to these robust values/goods/principles that are referred to as thick
concepts (Bernard Williams)
◦ This poses significant difficulties for liberal theories to provide ‘solid’ responses
◦ Different values or goods for different people
◦ This can be both a good thing or a potentially dangerous thing
Business’ Responsibility For
Meaningful Work
◦ Classical Model: Work cannot be made meaningful, so employers have little responsibility to make it so
◦ Employment and wage labour could never make work intellectual, leisurely and free
◦ Hedonistic Model; Work is meaningful when it is used to attain the goals of the worker which could be
arrived at through bargaining which employers would be responsible for what they freely agreed to in the
contract
◦ Bowie; Difficult to hold a business responsible for such an open-ended and vague goal
◦ Liberal Model; Employer has a range of responsibilities derived from primary goods
◦ Difficult to pin which conditions are necessary or conducive to the good of employees
◦ Different employers will have different responsibilities which can vary significantly from another similar position
◦ Hard to evaluate whether an employer successfully does so
Summary
◦ The meaning and value one gains from their employment depends on various considerations on what is
important to an individual
◦ The major frameworks of meaning and work share similarities and differences
◦ Enmeshment and identity show the deep relationship between psychological well-being and employment