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Discusses some of the differences between Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and his earlier work The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Gives an account of what Smith primarily intended by these works, i.e. to resolve the values conflict ‐ that of natural liberty versus traditional, conservative virtues. Identifies the ideas and cultures which influenced Smith in his writing; defines the thematic structure of The Wealth of Nations and describes and evaluates the arguments behind Smith’s resolution of the values conflict as detailed in his work.

Ethics is attracting increasing attention in management of both public‐ and private‐sector organisations. For managers within health‐care systems, ethical issues can be most acute, especially given the human rights issues involved in new legislation. This paper explores some of the ways in which philosophy may potentially offer guidelines to managers faced with the need to make decisions ethically. It draws on a small number of philosophical perspectives to demonstrate how they can assist in informing ethical decision making, and illustrates its arguments through one topic, suicide prevention, an area of relevance to health managers but one that is beset by some of the most profound ethical dilemmas. The ways in which philosophy may assist in decision making in this one example are, it is argued, generalisable to many other health issues where complicated decisions have to be made. The paper develops a philosophical framework consisting of the ethical considerations of “self‐love”, “humanity”, “the value of human life” and “duty to others” and demonstrates, through the use of two hypothetical case studies, how these can be applied to a decision‐making process so as to reduce inconsistencies in attitudes and practice.

Analyses self‐interest and sympathy in game‐theoretic terms. Evaluates the relative weight of self‐interest and sympathy in the theories of Hobbes, Hume and Adam Smith in an economic framework. Demonstrates through game‐theoretic tools that sympathy as an actuating motive in human nature gives rise to human interaction having other and, for organizations and societies, more beneficial characteristics than does merely self‐interested interaction. Uses the emphasis on the time factor and the importance of the future in Hume’s more than in Hobbes’ theory to show how co‐operation can emerge in large organizations. Introduces government or an organizational structure to further induce co‐operative behaviour.

This paper aims to elucidate some of the arguments against egoism in the current debate, as well as to create some new arguments, or rather objections (epistemological and ontological from the position of egoism as moral solipsism), and to explicate some arguments against egoism (descriptive, normative, and ideological) as being not so convincing. It also aims to explicate Jesus's second commandment in a fashion similar to that of Adam Smith when he tried to combine self‐love with sympathy.

This paper is based on the premise that some foundational philosophies, worldviews, or paradigms exemplify at least one type of egoism/selfish strategy. In that light the analysis of egoism and the objections are formulated.

They paper finds that present arguments in favour of egoism in business, and especially as certain “business ethics”, are not acceptable, at least on the practical and theoretical grounds on which they are presented as sound arguments.

The paper implies that there is fundamental difference between theoretical and practical egoism, and that practical egoism sometimes uses the theoretical one as its “quasi‐justification”.

The paper can be summarized in a series of general advices about an altruistic attitude and practices which in the long term show more benefits than costs for any group, and consequently for business organizations as well.

The paper presents ontological and epistemological interpretations and objections against egoism, emphasizing the somewhat neutral or at least bivalent position of Adam Smith regarding the matter in question, and introducing altruistic strategies as being compatible with the basic ideas of a free‐market system.

The significant role of universities in generating and diffusing new knowledge in the interest of society has positioned faculty as knowledge creators. The present study contributes to the domain of positive psychology by heeding the happiness call in academia. The research intends to develop and validate a scale for measuring happiness at work (HAW) for knowledge creators.

The study is systematically designed across a series of four independent studies: (1) Dimensionality and item analysis, (2) scale purification, (3) scale refinement and nomological validation and (4) generalizability. Additionally, common method bias (CMB) was checked utilizing the marker variable technique.

HAW has been established as a second-order reflective-reflective construct with six factors, namely work satisfaction, self-directedness, self-love, positive thinking, positive social relationships and work-family balance. The nomological validity and generalizability of the scale have also been established.

The study is an attempt to address an important topic of HAW among knowledge creators. By conceptualizing HAW as a combination of intraindividual and organizational factors, this study offers a comprehensive measure of HAW that was previously absent in the literature. The results of the study will assist management in making strategic decisions to ensure the HAW of knowledge creators.

Knowledge creators’ happiness is a major concern in academia and has received little attention till date. The primary contribution of this study is the conceptualization and development of a validated scale for measuring knowledge creators’ HAW. A valid and reliable scale for measuring HAW would enable researchers to gain fresh perspectives on the essence, attributes and quantification of this particularly noteworthy construct.

In this study we consider the role of business management in delivering good in society, from the perspective of the philosophical work of Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Alfred North Whitehead. We find that Whitehead's process explanations of the nature of experience and consciousness articulate meaningfully with Smith's idea of ‘self-love’ and Marx's conceptualisation of ‘rich-experience’. As a result, we argue that business practice must reconnect with society in a more appropriate understanding of a good as something beyond a mere economic entity. Using principles of process thought, we make recommendations as to how this might be achieved in daily management practice.

Employing virtual ethnography and narrative analysis, this chapter uses data drawn from the online social media site, Tumblr, to explore a group of Tumblr users who mostly identify with the complex intersectional identities of LGBTQ+ disabled people of color.

This chapter suggests that narratives are skillfully constructed by this group of Tumblr users in ways that counteract felt or expected experiences of exclusion, invisibility, and stigmatization within this identity-based community. The posters represented here are combating this invisibility and marginalization. They narrate themselves into existence by attaching their experiences to two well-known and recognizable social problem narratives. One is the “Pride/Community and Self-love” narrative, commonly associated with LGBTQ+ pride and LGBTQ+ communities. The other is the “Our Lives Matter/Deserving of Life” narrative, commonly associated with communities and social movements such as Black Lives Matter. Posters are artfully constructing their own community narratives by drawing from these culturally circulating and available narrative resources. When these two popular narratives are deployed in this way, they are counternarratives that are doing both resistance work and community/identity-building work. The ultimate effect is that the counternarrative they construct unites quite a diverse group of people through experiences of shared exclusion.

This chapter extends the scholarly conversation on both narratives and disability by suggesting ways in which counternarratives about individuals with complex intersectional identities can be constructed in virtual communities. In so doing, the chapter brings poorly represented perspectives into discourses on disability and narratives. The study also contributes to the literature on the importance of emotion, specifically by highlighting the deployment of love and anger to counteract experiences of shame and marginalization.

In a nutshell, the purpose of this paper is to accentuate the mask of evils of the organization by discussing different experiences, stories and cases, which is on itself a bizarre because we always talk about the morality and ethos in leading styles.

The study is conducted in India and descriptive in nature. The structural equation modelling technique is used in the paper to test the relationships among the constructs directly and indirectly by mediation effect on how it raises the organizational deviance.

The outcome of the study indicates that organizational deviance is highly influenced by narcissism, which also raises the toxic work culture and abusive supervision. The mentioned variables not only have a significant effect but also have a partial mediation effect on organizational deviance. The study significantly contributes to the literature with the findings that not only narcissism led to organizational deviance but additionally leads to high arousal through a positive relationship with toxic work culture and abusive supervision strongly leading to organizational deviance.

The study is for leaders who are more with self-love, demolishing peace and promoting the toxic work culture and deviant behaviours.

Having narcissistic traits then turns into a complicated situation for employees to decide whether to stay in the organization or leave, and if these intentions are not developing, then it led to deviance on the part of employees.

A leader becomes so much obsessed with their egomania and uses the abusive supervision to dominate the team members. This pattern has to stop, as it fabricating the wrong connotation of the tranquillity of followers or team members.

This study contributes to the outcome where leaders could understand the impact of how their excess self-love turns against the workplace peace and results in high deviance.

The purpose of this paper is to philosophically address the issue of managerial opportunism and to describe the paradox of the opportunistic executive, particularly when the CEO could be considered as a “criminal-to-be”.

It will be seen to what extent governance mechanisms really contribute to prevent managerial opportunism, particularly through compensation packages (“financial carrots”). Then, Oliver E. Williamson’s viewpoint will be analyzed on opportunism, as his theory has largely influenced the way agency theories actually define managerial opportunism. Williamson was thinking opportunism without referring to philosophical works. The gap in exploring three basic types of opportunism will be filled: the Smithian egoist, the Hobbesian egoist and the Machiavellian egoist.

The Smithian egoist tries to reach an equilibrium between self-interest and compassion, while the Hobbesian egoist is motivated by self-interest, desire of power and the attitude of prudence. The Machiavellian egoist is always searching for power and makes followers’ fear arising. The way governance mechanisms and structures should be designed and implemented could be quite different if the CEO actually behaves as a Smithian, Hobbesian or Machiavellian egoist. CEO’s propensity to commit financial crime could largely vary from one type to another: low risk (Smithian egoist), medium risk (Hobbesian egoist) or high risk (Machiavellian egoist).

Smith’s, Hobbes’ and Machiavelli’s philosophy was chosen because the agency theory sometimes refers to it, when defining the notion of opportunism. Other philosophies could also be analyzed to see to what extent they are opening the door to opportunism (for example, Spinoza).

The paper analyzes managerial opportunism from a philosophical viewpoint. Whether executives are Smithian, Hobbesian or Machiavellian egoists, their opportunism cannot give birth to similar behaviors.

This chapter makes a case for Adam Smith’s description of the market as a moral exemplar. More specifically, it argues that the behavior of the individual agents who inhabit Smith’s market is indeed morally exemplary.

The basis for this argument is that economic self-interest drives market participants to look beyond any inherent prejudice or tendency to discriminate on the basis of preconceived opinions or beliefs. Some historical context is provided that illustrates conservative opposition to this perspective from unlikely sources.

A simple moral framework is created to provide one possible representation of Smith’s interpretation of the market. In this framework self-interest is characterized as a “trump” that overcomes potential prejudices. It is further argued that this framework can be considered a moral exemplar, and that it is also important in facilitating exchange between participants.

The central argument is tested when the self-interest criterion is exposed to competition from the alternative moral value of altruism. The moral framework presented, and the principle of economic self-interest in particular, is resilient against this moral challenge.

The social implications of this argument relate directly to our normative understanding of how individuals should behave in a market context. The chapter establishes a link between this moral framework and the functioning of the market.

The chapter is original in its attempt to defend the underlying morality of Smith’s market without recourse to his other works, such as the Theory of Moral Sentiments. It also links an understanding of market egalitarianism with a broader moral framework of market activity. Furthermore, it offers a clarification of why economic self-interest, and not altruism, is the appropriate motivation for market activity.