6: Altruism in the Workplace

The word ‘altruism’ was first coined by the French philosopher Auguste Comte as altruisme, which he used to describe the opposite of egoism. He formulated altruisme from the Italian word altrui, which in turn came from Latin alteri, meaning ‘other people’, ‘others’, or ‘someone else’. Put bluntly, altruism is the moral practice of concern for the happiness of other people and as such appears as a virtue in many cultures. It is also central to a number of world religions. Among the many interesting aspects of altruism, the notion of what constitutes ‘others’ can vary among different societies (and religions) and that is where one of the first challenges for society comes: how can we strengthen altruism so that we can be altruistic to people who are not like us? It seems that this is one of the fundamentals that we need to tackle. For this reason, it is necessary for us to think of ways in which we can deliberately set out to meet people who are not like us and hear their stories.