Chapter 7: Decent Work, Meaningful Work, and Developmental Work: Three Key Ethical Concepts From Catholic Social Teaching

Work is a key element of business enterprise. There is no business without work and organizing work efficiently is a crucial aspect in managing business. However, work also entails important ethical and social dimensions, which have been considered by scholars, international organizations, and moral voices. Among these latter the Catholic Church, who has a long tradition in the social aspects of work and its ethical dimension (Gaburro … Cressotti, 1998; Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004, Chap. 6). This tradition dates back to the 19th century, when Pope Leo XIII (1891) addressed the condition of workers and other problems, known as the “Social Question,” and arising from the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution and strong liberal capitalism. Catholic social teaching (CST) has been continued by his successors in the papacy and bishops worldwide and is now a consolidated body of doctrine. The philosophical and theological understanding of work and the ethics of work was specifically considered by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter Laborem exercens (1981). Connecting with the Social Question, John Paul II stated that “human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question, if we try to see that question really from the point of view of man’s good” (John Paul II, 1981, n. 3). The connection of work with the good of the person is precisely the essence of the ethics of work, if we accept that ethics refers to what contributes to being a good human being.