THE MORAL DILEMMAS OF MODERN SOCIETY

[En el año 2004, el Prof. Jeffrey Pfeffer de la School of Business (Stanford University) fue el primer ponente en la Cátedra Rafael Escolá de Ética Profesional, en la Escuela de Ingenieros TECNUN (Universidad de Navarra) con la lección titulada "How Economic Language and Assumptions Undermine Ethics: Rediscovering Human Values" (cfr. # 102). En este año 2005, uno de los ponentes de la segunda lección conmemorativa ha sido Charles Handy, autor de algunos de los artículos y libros más influyentes de las últimas décadas en el mundo de la empresa. Después de trabajar diez años para la Shell International, Handy estuvo un tiempo en la Sloan School of Management del MIT para preparar, en 1967, los fundamentos de la London Business School. Desde los años 80 se dedica en exclusiva, como freelancer, a la consultoria de empresas y a escribir no sólo sobre el mundo del trabajo sino sobre la sociedad en general. Algunos de los títulos más conocidos son los siguientes: "The Age of Paradox", "Age of Unreason", "Beyond Certainty: The Changing Worlds of Organizations", "The Elephant and the Flea", "Gods of Management: The Changing Work of Organizations", "The Hungry Spirit: Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World", "Inside Organizations: 21 Ideas for Managers", "21 Ideas for Managers: Practical Wisdom for Managing Your Company and Yourself", "The New Alchemists", "Understanding Organizations", "Waiting for the Mountain to Move: Reflections on Work and Life". El otro ponente de este año ha sido Rafael Termes (cfr. # 192). Ambos textos están publicados en Tecnun Journal num. 2 (Junio 2005). Las fotografías son de Elisabeth Handy.]

#191 ::Varios Categoria-Varios: Etica y Antropologia

por Charles Handy
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I feel it a great pleasure and privilege to be here in this lovely city with such lovely weather; a shame we are inside!

I have to tell you that my mother would be very pleased that I am here if she were alive. When I went to University to study Greek and Latin and Philosophy she was a little disappointed, because her father was an engineer. He had actually been responsible for building the lighthouses around the West Coast of Ireland. So if you sail to Europe from America the first light you see would be from a lighthouse built by my grandfather. I think she thought that studying Philosophy was not as high a distinction as building a lighthouse. So she would be pleased to see me if she were alive today, standing in front of engineers and talking about moral things. When I started thinking about this talk, I decided that really the more accurate description would be the moral dilemmas of a modern society, which actually underlie what we mean by success. And so I have identified ten dilemmas, which I am going to share with you this morning.

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