The empty company: morality and job security

Abstract

Criticizes Handy’s depiction of the portfolio career and the end of job security because he is overly dismissive of the contribution job security can and does make to the moral order of society. Develops a counter argument and evidence showing that business organizations are complex, morally significant institutions in addition to being instruments designed to fulfil an economic function. Concludes that the company should be institutionalized as a shared community of purpose which enables us to recognize its contribution as one of the important vehicles for the development of virtue and the good life. Notes that business educators and business leaders need to take employment security seriously and build this conception into their professional ideology and practice.

Citation

Warren, R.C. (1996), "The empty company: morality and job security", Personnel Review, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 41-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483489610148527