Paul Ricœur: A Hermeneutic Perspective on Humanizing Business

Abstract

The hermeneutic perspective of humanizing business is based on an utopian vision and ideal of politics of the realization of the “good life with and for others in just institutions”. The starting point for ethical business is the existential commitment with the ethical vision of the good life in business and organizations. The hermeneutic study of humanity of business focusses on the historicity of temporal narrative identities of meaning and forms of action of individuals, cultures and collectivities in organizations. Organizations are viewed as political communities and concepts from political philosophy are important to capture the humanity of business. Ricœur sees the desire to live together according to universal norms as the foundation of the just community, business or organization. This is an important normative dimension of the critical hermeneutic study of organizations. A good organization or a good society opens for personal search for the good life. Individual ethics is based on ontological commitment, responsibility, promise and integrity of narrative identity of individuals in community. The market system should facilitate the good political community and market interactions should be built on the virtues and norms as the foundation of search of excellence. Moreover, the firm or corporation may be viewed as a form of life or a culture of excellence, which must combine the vision of the good life of personal and collective narrative identity with respect for the moral norm and co-existence in the ethical life and mutual recognition of just organizations. Business and society are characterized by conflictual-consensual interactions, tensions between individuals and community, between individual autonomy and norms of community. These confront individuals and organizations in challenges of economic man versus social man, profit versus sustainability, responsibility versus efficiency, truth versus organizational obligation, personal integrity versus commitment to business standards and tensions between organizational commitments and individual beliefs.