FAQ About Organizational Consulting
Q1: What can
philosophical consultants do?
Q2: Is philosophical
consulting something new?
Q3: Why is
virtue important?
Q4: Is "business
ethics" an oxymoron?
Q5: Should
our Corporate Philosopher get a reserved parking space?
What do philosophical
consultants do?
Philosophical counsultants can provide
a whole range of services, depending on your needs. Here
are a few examples. They can design, build, implement
and maintain codes of ethics. They can help you achieve
and maintain ethics compliance. They can help resolve
dilemmas or conflicts of interest between private morality
and professional ethics. They can help harmonize the workplace
by enhancing its ethos. They can conduct special seminars
or workshops to address specific organizational or interpersonal
problems. They can apply techniques from counseling and/or
facilitation to achieve particular short-term goals, like
decreasing white collar crime, increasing tolerance, or
distinguishing offense from harm. In these and other ways,
they can improve the functionality of your organization.
back to questions
Is philosophical
consulting something new?
Almost. It started a mere 2,500 years
ago. Aristotle was a consultant to Alexander the Great--who
went on to conquer the world. Confucius, whose philosophy
is even more influential in Chinese culture than is Aristotle's
in the west, was a free-lance philosophical consultant.
Lao Tzu, perhaps the most brilliant Chinese philosopher,
was a senior civil servant. Bacon, Hobbes, Hume and Locke
all acted as political and/or diplomatic advisors. Queen
Catherine of Sweden hired Descartes as her personal philosopher.
In every age, philosophers have been available as consultants--though
not every age has been wise enough to enage them. If the
wisdom of a culture can be gauged by the number and quality
of philosophical consultants it employs, then our culture
has a chance to become surpassingly wise.
back to questions
Why is virtue important?
The basic premise of philosophical
consulting may be this: that virtuous organizations function
better than vicious ones. Not only is virtue better than
vice in and of itself; virtue also brings better consequences
than vice. Whether we consider the cardinal virtues of
antiquity (courage, justice, temperance, wisdom), the
Christian virtues of the middle ages (faith, hope, charity),
the Kantian virtues regarding others (autonomy, respect,
dignity), or the ethical virtues of modern professionalism
(integrity, honesty, responsibility), we see that these
qualities are as desirable in organizations as they are
in individuals. Why? Because these virtues benefit those
who practice them, as well as those who come into contact
with them. In contrast, their opposite qualities are as
undesirable in organizations as they are in individuals.
Why? Because vices are detrimental to those who practice
them, as well as to those who come into contact with them.
Understanding virtue and vice is a traditional occupation
of philosophers. Helping organizations to become more
virtuous and less vicious is a traditional occupation
of philosophical consultants.
back to questions
Is "business
ethics" an oxymoron?
Perhaps many people think so, but that doesn't make it
so. Some people reason this way: business is about maximizing
profits; ethics is about compromising profits for the
sake of principles; therefore ethics is not compatible
with business. If you reason this way too, then why don't
you rob, cheat and steal for a living? Why don't you scam
elderly people out their life savings? Why don't you sell
narcotics to children? (Maybe you do, in which case you
should stop!) Most people don't do these things for the
sake of profits, because these things are wrong! Not just
illegal, but also immoral. Such activities engender misery,
suffering and harm. Such businesses are bad--even if profitable--and
those who engage in them sooner or later pay the moral
price. They are suspected, reviled, feared, hated, pursued,
targeted, investigated, arrested, indicted, sentenced,
jailed, otracized, ruined. Even though Hollywood glorifies
organized crime, do you really think that's an enviable
life? Of course not. Then business ethics isn't an oxymoron
after all; it's just organized honesty. It's possible
to earn money and generate wealth in moral, beneficial
and constructive ways. Being ethical in your business
and in your business practice is good for you, good for
your clients, and therefore also good for business itself.
back to questions
Should our Corporate
Philosopher get a reserved parking space?
Only if your Corporate Philosopher
drives a car. But either way, your organization should
get a philosophical consultant. Put one in-house, or put
one on retainer. Try one out, and see the results for
yourself. In the heyday of American manufacturing (the
so-called "Golden Era" of capitalism), industrial
psychologists helped static manufacturers maximize the
performance of their human resources. As we approach the
heyday of globalization, corporate philosophers are helping
dynamic organizations maximize the performance of their
total resources. The philosophical consultant can conceptualize,
analyze, systematize and optimize complex and increasingly
amorphous global structures. That's worth a parking space,
and then some.
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