Self-interest and Altruism: Pluralism as a Basis for Leadership in Business

Jay Joseph

Business and Management Studies, 2015, vol. 1, issue 2, 106-114

Abstract: The paper outlines the case for pluralism between self-interest (egoism) and altruism in business leadership. Scientific progression demonstrating pluralism is discussed, providing a multidisciplinary view of pluralism from evolutionary biology, psychology, moral philosophy, economic theory and organisational behavior. Findings show that myopic views of self-interest and altruism were once dominant in a number of fields however shifts in contemporary theory have provided a basis for pluralism in business leadership. Pluralism is yet to find grounding in leadership ethics, which still widely views ¡°good leadership¡± through the lens of altruistic orientations. For leaders in business, the relevance of both self-interest and altruistic orientations are described. The paper seeks to address the divide between self-interest and altruism for business leaders, advocating for a realistic and pragmatic pluralistic approach to guide future research.

Keywords: self-interest; egoism; altruism; leadership; ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://redfame.com/journal/index.php/bms/article/view/921/873 (application/pdf)
http://redfame.com/journal/index.php/bms/article/view/921 (text/html)

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:rfa:bmsjnl:v:1:y:2015:i:2:p:106-114

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Business and Management Studies from Redfame publishing Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Redfame publishing ().