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Dignity and Membership: A Route to the Heart of How Dignity Is Done in Everyday Interaction

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Dignity and the Organization

Part of the book series: Humanism in Business Series ((HUBUS))

Abstract

What is dignity? Without doubt, it is a problematic term surrounded by ambiguity and contradiction, one addressed in a wide variety of ways by different contributors within this collection. From the perspective of those interested in the conduct of empirical research, dignity presents a particular problem not dissimilar to qualities such as leadership or enterprise: it appears simple enough to identify until one tries to grasp it, when it then becomes an object of questionable validity. Unlike leadership or enterprise, dignity is something rarely discussed or represented outside situations of extreme discomfort or dehumanization. As such, although dignity has strong heuristic power in moral narrative, its existence as a tangible part of everyday interactions in organisations is not clearly defined.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hodson’s (2004) workplace ethnography project expanded this approach to include co-worker relations and organizational participation or citizenship as key factors, but still does not define dignity precisely.

  2. 2.

    These four conceptions of dignity are listed as; “relational, unconditional, subjective and Kantian. Relational dignity differs from the latter three forms in that it applies only to specific people. The other forms of dignity apply to human beings in general, though with restrictions. Unconditional dignity inherently applies to human beings as long as it is not violated or lost. Subjective dignity applies to human beings in general, though in different forms since people are free to make of their dignity what they want it to be. Finally, Kantian dignity only excludes beings from dignity insofar as they lack the capacity for autonomous action” (2009: 157–158).

  3. 3.

    The opposition between dignity and honour was a concern highly specific to the moral and legal debates following the second World War and influential in the early development of human rights discourse and legislation (see Whitman 2003; McCrudden 2008; Riley 2010; Rosen 2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Keele University, Staffordshire, UK

    Laura Mitchell

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  1. Laura Mitchell
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

    Monika Kostera

  2. Fordham University, New York, USA

    Michael Pirson

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Mitchell, L. (2017). Dignity and Membership: A Route to the Heart of How Dignity Is Done in Everyday Interaction. In: Kostera, M., Pirson, M. (eds) Dignity and the Organization. Humanism in Business Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55562-5_3

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