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Explore the importance of organizational soul and core values in shaping ethical frameworks and success. Learn from Enron's downfall and Merck's ethical focus on human life preservation. Discover how leaders can uphold values of excellence, caring, justice, and faith to combat the crisis of meaning and moral authority in today's organizations.
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Chapter 19 Reframing Ethics and Spirit
Reframing Ethics and Spirit • Soul and Spirit in Organizations • The Factory: Excellence and Authorship • The Family: Caring and Love • The Jungle: Justice and Power • The Temple: Faith and Significance
Soul and Spirit in Organizations • Organizational soul: bedrock sense of identity, clarity about core ideology and values • Core ideology emphasizing “more than profits” key to highly successful firms (Collins and Porras, 1994) • Enron • Rapid shift from pipelines to deal-making produced enormous growth -- for a while • In the process, Enron lost a sense of core identity and values (“lots of smart people, but no wise people”) • Merck • Core purpose: not profit but “preserve and improve human life” • Developed and gave away river blindness drug
Conclusion • Organizational ethics ultimately need to be rooted in soul • Modern organizations suffer a crisis of meaning and moral authority • Leaders need to hold and model values like excellence, caring, justice, faith