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Sustainability, democracy and three challenges to global judgment integrity capacity
Joseph A Petrick
Institute for Business Integrity, Wright State University, Dayton OH, United States of America
Abstract
Threats to natural and human sustainability abound, 'de-naturing' our planet and dehumanizing global stakeholders, in part due to managerial overemphasis on economic results that shifts sustainability risks onto the public and future generations, the relative weakness of current forms of democratic capitalism to adequately address global sustainability threats, and the lack of a robust theory of human nature that synthesizes scientific findings and restrains dehumanizing policies (Brown 2001; Dunphy, Griffiths & Benn 2003; Rondinelli & Cheema 2003; Clark 2003). The author interprets these diverse causal factors as aspects of the erosion of global judgment integrity capacity, which must be reclaimed and redeveloped to constructively 're-nature' and 're-humanize' large segments of our planet (Petrick & Quinn 2001).
The author makes three recommendations at three levels: (1) at the conceptual foundation level, the development of global human nature complexity skills is necessary to reverse the widespread, facile absorption of ideologies that dehumanize people and provide the rationale for 'de-naturing' the planet; (2) at the macro-politico-economic level, the development of global democratic-capitalist complexity skills is necessary to avoid the imposition, military or otherwise, of one type of democratic capitalism onto the world when a sophisticated balance of all four types can best foster human and natural sustainability; and (3) at the microeconomic level, the development of global managerial moral complexity skills in balancing the competing organizational values at work and at home is the only way to implement sustainability on a daily basis.
Keywords
dehumanizing, de-naturing, sustainability, complexity skills, democratic capitalism, organizational values
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