Research author Dr. Tarja Ketola argues that working in large companies which employ psychopathic practices which breach people's basic values quickly becomes a huge mental burden for managers and employees. But she sees a solution in the form of using ethical principles employed by individuals in their personal lives.
"According to the natural law (lex naturae) all people all over the world share the same sense of morality, irrespective of their religion and background," says Dr. Ketola.
"Why then, should people keep their personal values separate from their work values? If key individuals or the majority of personnel within psychopathic companies realise that the same ethical principles they use in their personal life also apply in business life, the 'spell' will be broken and they will overcome organisational resistance to genuine corporate responsibility."
These results suggest that 'psychopathic' companies can move towards ideal responsibility by developing their economic, social and ecological responsibilities in harmony on the basis of virtue ethical values.
Dr. Ketola notes, "if these companies can stop schizophrenically separating their staff's personal values from their professional values, allowing people in organisations to integrate them into a natural harmonic unity, the corporate responsibility '100-year sleep' could be over."
Notes to Editors
1. Ketola, T: From CR-Psychopaths to Responsible Corporations: Waking Up the Inner Sleeping Beauty of Companies, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 2006. DOI: 10.1002/csr.113. Volume 13, issue 2, 2006
2. 1Table 1: Are corporations psychopaths? Personality characteristics of psychopaths Examples of organisational behaviour
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