Organizational Ethics and Self-Realization: How Could Artists’ Self-Portraits and Philosophical Novels Release Us from Estrangement?

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to describe the aesthetics of self-realization as a way to overcome depersonalization, routinization, and linear temporality in the organizational setting. Artists’ self-portraits (Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Dali) are used as metaphors of organizational life. In doing so, they could enable organizational members to reinvent modes of thinking, speaking, and behaving in the workplace. Philosophical novels (Kafka, Proust, and Murakami) could also unveil hidden aspects of human existence that are quite relevant for the organizational life. Artists’ self-portraits and philosophical novels could then help organizational members to avoid estranged depersonalization, while designing their own project of self-realization. Reinventing the real world of organizational life implies to emphasize both moral imagination (against routinization) and openness to all kinds of temporality (against linear temporality). Describing the aesthetics of self-realization could make organizational members more aware of their capacity to endorse radical humanism without destroying the organization itself.

Citation

Dion, M. (2018), "Organizational Ethics and Self-Realization: How Could Artists’ Self-Portraits and Philosophical Novels Release Us from Estrangement?", Schwartz, M., Harris, H. and Comer, D.R. (Ed.) Visual Ethics (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 19), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 105-128. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620180000019007