“A Sane Island in an Ocean of Madness”: A Case of Alternative Organisational Ethics Through Post-Growth Values

Ben Robra (), Alex Pazaitis and Arnaud Levy
Additional contact information
Ben Robra: University of Queensland
Alex Pazaitis: P2P Lab
Arnaud Levy: Université Bordeaux Montaigne

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 200, issue 2, No 1, 233-253

Abstract: Abstract Unprecedented runaway climate change and ecological degradation is argued to be caused by the dominant capitalist mode of production’s reliance on endless economic growth and capital accumulation. Businesses and organisations are expected to act in an ecologically and socially ethical way to help avert the crisis. Yet, there has arguably been little progress in this direction. The conventional ethical frameworks are generally subsumed under capitalism’s reliance on growth that effectively delegate business ethics to a peripheral and, often, contradictory pursuit, insufficient to influence ecologically and socially sustainable business conduct. We therefore explore an alternative approach by operationalising business ethics through organisational values from a post-growth perspective. By analysing the case of a social cooperative, we highlight how post-growth organisational values emerge through the organisation’s history, the members’ experience, and active contrasting to the dominant capitalist value systems. We contribute to business ethics scholarship by highlighting the potential of post-growth organisational ethics and values in creating contrasts to the dominant capitalist values. Our research further contributes to sustainability scholarship, particularly post-growth perspectives, by highlighting that organising through post-growth values in contrast to the dominant economic system is not only possible, but essential to achieve sustainability. Ultimately, our research illustrates the need for political engagement in upholding organisational ethics, in the face of the ecological crisis.

Keywords: Post-growth; Organisational values; Autopoiesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-024-05921-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:200:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-024-05921-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05921-7

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().