Abstract
Although most of us understand and accept that we play different roles in different settings, the moral implications of an unquestioned role-based world are serious. The prevalence of roles at the expense of ‘real’ people in organizations jeopardizes our ability to exercise full moral agency and ascribe moral responsibility, because ‘we were only fulfilling our role obligations’. This reasoning does not sustain ethical scrutiny, however, because individuals are always present behind the role, though they may lack awareness of their ability to choose and act as fully fledged individuals. The article argues that moral responsibility requires us to move away from a role-based life game which leads us to compartmentalize and forget who we are and what we value at a significant cost. On the contrary, an understanding of the process of compartmentalization and a greater awareness of the complex yet holistic nature of the self contribute to furthering moral integrity and responsibility.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aïssel, S.: 2005, La Nouvelle Psychologie Spirituelle (Spiritual Book France, Barr).
Ashar, H. and Lane-Maher, M.: 2004, ‘Success and Spirituality in the New Business Paradigm’, Journal of Management Inquiry 13(3), 249-260.
Colman, W.: 2008, ‘On Being, Knowing and Having a Self’, Journal of Analytical Psychology 53(3), 351-366.
Crowley, V.: 1998, Principles of Jungian Spirituality, (Thorsons/HarperCollins, London).
Doron, R. and Parot, F. : 1991, Dictionnaire de Psychologie, (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris).
Drumwright, M.E. and Murphy, P.E.: 2004, ‘How Advertising Practitioners View Ethics’, Journal of Advertising 33(2), 7-24.
Elster, J. (ed.): 1986, The Multiple Self, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Ferrucci, P.: 2004, What we may be, (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, New York, NY).
Figler, R. and Hanlon, S.: 2008, ‘Management Development and the Unconscious From an Analytical Psychology Framework’, Journal of Management Development 27(6), 613-630.
Flores, A. and Johnson, D.G.: 1983, ‘Collective Responsibility and Professional Roles’, Ethics 93(3), 537-545.
Gioia, D.A.: 1992, ‘Pinto Fires and Personal Ethics: A Script Analysis of Missed Opportunities’, Journal of Business Ethics 11(5/6), 379-389.
Goffman, E.: 1959, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (Penguin, Harmondsworth).
Gotsis, G. and Kortezi, Z.: 2008, ‘Philosophical Foundations of Workplace Spirituality: A Critical Approach’, Journal of Business Ethics 78(4), 575-600.
Guillory, W. A.: 2001, The Living Organization - Spirituality in the Workplace, 2nd edition (Innovations International, Salt Lake City, UT).
Hall, C.S. and Nordby, V.J.: 1973, A Primer of Jungian Psychology, (Meridian Book/Penguin, New York, NY).
Hill, R.D.: 2000, Self Discovery: The Spiritual Psychology of C.G. Jung, (AmErica House Book Publishers, Baltimore, MD).
Hubback, J.: 1998, ‘The Dynamic Self’, Journal of Analytical Psychology 43(2), 277-285.
Jung, C. G.: 1958, The Undiscovered Self (Routledge, London).
Jung, C. G.: 1969a, Aion – The Collected Works, Part II, Vol. 9, 2nd Edition (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).
Jung, C. G.: 1969b, Psychology and Religion: East and West – The Collected Works, Vol. 11, 2nd Edition (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
Jung, C. G.: 1971, Psychological Types – The Collected Works (Routledge, London).
Kelly, B.: 1998, ‘Preserving Moral Integrity: A Follow-up Study with New Graduate Nurses’, Journal of Advanced Nursing 28(5), 1134-1145.
Krishnakumar, S. and Neck, C.P.: 2002, ‘The ‘What’, ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of Spirituality in the Workplace’, Journal of Managerial Psychology 17(3), 153-164.
La Bruyère, J.: 1688, Les Caractères, (Folio/Flammarion, Paris).
Layder, D.: 2004, Social and Personal Identity: Understanding YourSelf, (Sage, London).
Lovell, A.: 2002, ‘Moral Agency as Victim of the Vulnerability of Autonomy’, Business Ethics: A European Review 11(1), 62-76.
MacIntyre, A.: 1999, ‘Social Structures and their Threats to Moral Agency’, Philosophy 74, 311-329.
Mitchell, J.C. (2000) ‘Case and Situation Analysis’. In: Gomm R., Hammersley M., Foster P. (eds.) Case Study Method. Sage, London, pp. 165-186.
Monte, C.F.: 1997, Beneath the Mask: An Introduction to Theories of Personality, 6th edition (Harcourt Brace, Forth Worth, TX).
Moss, T. and Carr, T.: 2004, ‘Understanding Adjustment to Disfigurement: The Role of the Self-Concept’, Psychology and Health 19(6), 737-748.
Pajak, E.F. and Blase, J.J.: 1984, ‘Teachers in Bars: From Professional to Personal Self’, Sociology of Education 57(3), 164-173.
Patton, M.Q.: 2002, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd edition (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).
Pratt, M.G. and Foreman, P.O.: 2000, ‘Classifying Managerial Responses to Multiple Organizational Identities’, The Academy of Management Review 25(1), 18-42.
Rousseau, J.-J.: 1761, La Nouvelle Héloïse (Garnier Flammarion, Paris).
Rubin, H.J. and Rubin, I.S.: 2005, Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data, 2nd edition (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).
Sharp, D.: 1991, ‘Jung Lexicon – A Primer of Terms & Concepts’, http://www.cgjungpage.org. Accessed 05/07/07.
Showers, C.J. and Zeigler-Hill, V.: 2007, ‘Compartmentalization and Integration: The Evaluative Organization of Contextualized Selves’, Journal of Personality 75(6), 1181-1204.
Terestchenko, M.: 2007, Un Si Fragile Vernis d’Humanité - Banalité du Mal, Banalité du Bien, (La Découverte/Poche, Paris).
Terestchenko, M.: 2008, ‘On s’y habitue’, La Chronique 254, 15.
Vice, S.: 2003, ‘Self-Reflection and the Worthwhile Life’, Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Reading, Reading, MA.
Werhane, P.H.: 1999, Moral Imagination and Management Decision-Making, (Oxford University Press, New York, NY).
White, S. L.: 1991, The Unity of the Self, (Bradford Book/MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
Willis, J.W.: 2007, Foundations of Qualitative Research - Interpretive and Critical Approaches, (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).
Zsolnai, L.: 2004, ‘Spirituality and Management’, in L. Zsolnai (ed.), Spirituality and Ethics in Management, (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht), pp. 3-12.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rozuel, C. The Moral Threat of Compartmentalization: Self, Roles and Responsibility. J Bus Ethics 102, 685–697 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0839-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0839-4