Roberta Sferrazzo

In this editorial, we examine how alternative forms of work organization (AFWOs) are both driving and being shaped by the ethical foundations underpinning them. Recently, scholars of organization and management studies have highlighted AFWOs as a response to broader societal challenges—digitalization, sustainability, and workplace democratization—and as an arena of intense experimentation in spatiotemporal flexibility and participatory management. Despite their growing adoption, AFWOs remain underexamined from a business ethics perspective, leaving open crucial questions about fairness, autonomy, empowerment, and the subjective experiences of workers—particularly in hybrid settings. Against this backdrop, in this special issue, we aim to clarify how and why business ethics matters in the context of AFWOs. The contributing authors pursue this aim by mobilizing diverse ethical frameworks to investigate the following key questions: How can AFWOs be grounded in a robust business ethics logic? What philosophical foundations can guide new organizational experiments? How might ethical inquiry illuminate the aspirations, tensions, and practical consequences of work environments characterized by flexibility, shared responsibility, and digital mediation? Collectively, the contributing authors advance a richer understanding of AFWOs by integrating theoretical reflection with empirical insights and foregrounding the ethical stakes of reimagining how work is organized today.

A growing enthusiasm to reconsider the normative foundations of the stakeholder theory is spreading in related literature. Current research mainly focuses on religious, spiritual, and philosophical underpinnings to reexamine these foundations. We believe these conceptual elaborations must be complemented and extended with an in-depth investigation of the relationality-based anthropological assumptions of the stakeholder theory. To do this, our work draws from the civil economy approach to encourage scholars and practitioners to change their perspectives on each person's stake by shifting from an individualistic approach to a relationality-based view. Through our theoretical work, we shed light on one of the most important pillars of the civil economy tradition—the principle of gratuità—to contribute to current research on the normative foundations of the stakeholder theory. We asserted that the common good can be achieved insofar as the principle of gratuità finds its place in every type of human relationship, including those in the business sphere.

Business ethics research on generalized reciprocity, which focuses on the cascade of gifts induced by unconditional giving, often emphasizes the quality of the resulting interpersonal relationships, overlooking the possible development of interfirm cooperation. Our study addresses this gap by answering the following research question: How can generalized reciprocity encourage the emergence and development of interfirm cooperation? Drawing on an analysis of 94 semi-structured interviews with members and partners of a small common good-oriented firm, we revealed the triggers and principles behind generalized reciprocity in the small business context and demonstrated how they facilitate interfirm cooperation. Furthermore, we showed that generalized reciprocity is a possible driving force behind interfirm cooperation through a three-stage process: the collective experience of generalized reciprocity, the collective awareness of the values of generalized reciprocity, and the collective belief in the benefits of generalized reciprocity.

Today there is growing need to overcome the traditional ethics of intentions and to develop an ethics of responsibility that judges the morality of a behavior considering its impact not only on the humanity living today but also on the consequence bearers of the future, including all living beings and the earth. For this to occur, an integration of business ethics and spirituality in the workplace is increasingly necessary.Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is intended to maximize positive societal externalities and welfare, has done a good job in reducing harm, but it has only recently begun to shift toward a more holistic model that guides toward sustainability. Companies that can cultivate this connection locally and identify work as a human factor are able to integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) into corporate models.Starting from these premises the aim of this chapter is to provide an understanding of the different Christian and Lutheran approaches to the notion of social responsibility and introduce Civil Economy principles, and practical applications, to shed new light on CSR strategies seen through a civil economics approach deeply linked to a Christian relational vision.To understand this idea, we analyzed the roots of the Protestant Anglo-Saxon capitalism and compared them with the Latin one. We then presented the Civil Economy tradition to shed light on CSR strategies from a Civil Economy perspective. We finally provided empirical examples and highlighted practical implications for management and organization studies.We believe our contribution to the literature to be twofold. On the one hand, we extend the knowledge on spirituality and business ethics literature related to CSR. On the other hand, we contribute to the Civil Economy debate by introducing a specific lens through which CSR practices can be viewed.

Solidarity is a principle oriented toward the common good that ensures that each person can have the necessary goods and services for a dignified life. As such, it is very often approached in a theoretical manner. In this empirical study, we explored the development of a culture of solidarity within an organizational context. In particular, we qualitatively investigated how a culture of solidarity can concretely spread within and beyond organizations by conducting 68 semi-structured interviews with members of three common good-oriented organizations located in the Philippines, Korea, and Paraguay. We found that a culture of solidarity develops through a three-step process that includes constructing the solidarity mission, sharing solidarity, and disseminating solidarity, which together form a virtuous circle. We further found that solidarity is not supported by constrained, instrumentalized, or sacrificial actions, but can instead be a free, authentic, and fulfilling way for members of an organization to flourish while serving the mission of their company.

In the last decade, scholars have rediscovered the Italian tradition of Civil Economy and the different vision of the market it offers, one that is anchored on reciprocal assistance in market exchange relationships. So far, scholars are discussing Civil Economy especially in the fields of the history of economic though and in economics and philosophy. Nevertheless, this article proposes looking also at business ethics and organizational studies through the lens of Civil Economy, especially considering the notion of virtue provided by civil economists. In particular, it sets forth an organizational model that derives from Civil Economy, i.e. the agape-based organization.

Current corporate systems risk generating inequality among workers, insofar as they concentrate only on economic results by favoring, through the incentive and award system, only what can be seen, produced, and measured. As such, these systems are unable to recognize workers’ agapic behaviors – similar to the ones considered in organizational citizenship behavior literature – that cannot be quantified, i.e. workers’ generosity, humanity, kindness, compassion, help for others and mercy. Although these types of behaviors may appear unproductive or irrational, they create symbols of belonging to the company and social cohesion. This article claims that beyond focusing on reward systems, companies should recognize agapic behaviors to increase workers’ intrinsic motivation. These behavioral attitudes allow fraternal relationships -as conceived in the Civil Economy tradition- to arise within organizations; moreover, they contribute to advancing new managerial practical implications in the humanistic management field.

The capability approach developed by Amartya Sen focuses on the enhancement of people’s capabilities, i.e. their real freedom to choose a life course they have reason to value. Applying the CA to the organizational context, the focus of human resource management is transformed, shifting away from the needs of the organization to the freedoms of the individual. This shift happens also inside the so-called ‘liberated companies,’ firms with an organizational form that allows employees the complete freedom, along with the responsibility, to take any actions they decide are best. In this paper we show the contribution of the capability approach for management and for organizational ethics by focusing on this innovative model of ‘liberated companies.’