The cultural similarities of work as dignity: bringing sense of community in business organizations

Purpose – The pursuit of the culture of work as dignity is rarely a focus of scholarly writings. One dominant, widely shared and accepted cultural value of work ethic is the belief that it is work that accords dignity to a human being. While seemingly neglected in traditional management research, the concepts of dignity and well-being have experienced renewed attention from the humanities and social sciences. The ability to utilize this sense of dignity becomes a critical role of human resources in advancing self-worth and self-respect. The relationships between worker and management are considered within the culture of work as dignity. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper. A theoretical foundation of work as dignity is developed. It is uses Hofstede’s analysis of work-related cultural values in different countries. Work is identified as dignity that is equated to a universal property like the doctrine of modern democracy that is enjoyed by other societies. Findings – If work accords dignity to humans, the ability to establish a sense of employee self-worth and self-respect and to enjoy the respect of others becomes critical objectives of management. This notion results in moving high-performance workplaces to high quality workplaces resulting in managerial conduct that is fair, equitable, reasonable and just. This paper is a call to rethink management theory from a humanistic perspective and highlights the role and protection of human dignity as a cornerstone in management theory. The concept of dignity elevates human responsibilities to the degree that they support the promotion of well-being. Research limitations/implications – This is a conceptual paper. A rigorous empirical study needs to be conducted to substantiate the theoretical foundation. Practical implications – Guidance is offered to managerial responsibility in promoting work as dignity, support for work as dignity, maintaining the dominant culture of work as dignity and identifying high-performance versus high-quality workplace. Social implications – Dignity is a virtue. Cultural differences play a less meaningful role and individuals become more alike than unalike. Together with the dictates of modernizing technology, there is a measure of uniformity to how everyone approaches the world. Originality/value – This study adds value in a somewhat different vein by presenting dignity as a central purpose of human life. This paper is a call to rethink management theory from a