The Logic of Gift and Gratuitousness in Business Relationships

Abstract

The logic of gift and gratuitousness in business activity raised by the encyclical Caritas in Veritate stresses a deeper critical evaluation of the category of relation. The logic of gift in business includes two aspects. The first is considering the logic of gift as a new conceptual lens in order to view business relationship beyond contractual logic. In this view, it is crucial to see the circulation of goods as instrumental for the development of relationships. The second aspect is to qualify the relationships established through the gift, and to think about the motivation in giftgiving, which has an ethical content. We give because we have received, and through gift-giving we develop relationships that have a high 'bonding value'. Analysing the logic of gift in business management may permit us to gain an understanding of the ambiguity of gift-giving in organizations. Looking at the relationships between organizations and employees, and organizations and customers, we can discover why the logic of gift is often misunderstood or abused in its application, and how it should be applied to be more consistent with the message of Caritas in Veritate.

Christian Ethics and Spirituality in Leading Business Organizations: Editorial Introduction

“…Others, more specifically, refer to the theory of the firm and the purpose of business (Naughton et al 1995;Abela 2001;Cortright and Naughton 2002;Lower 2008), to the nature of the firm (Naughton 2006;Melé 2012b), virtues in business (Naughton and Cornwall 2006), and how to manage business from the Christian faith from a theoretical perspective (Naughton 1992;Alford and Naughton 2001), or through case studies (Ibrahim et al 1991;Lee et al 2003;Demuijnck 2009;Naughton and Specht 2011). Some works focus on particular aspects of business ethics, such as finances (Booth 2009), environmental (Attfield 2001;Hoffman and Sandelands 2005), marketing (Abela and Murphy 2008), entrepreneurship (Cornwall and Naughton 2003;Cornwall 2006, 2009), subsidiarity in business (Melé 2005;Naughton et al 2015), gratuity in business (Faldetta 2011;McCann 2011;Grassl and Habisch 2011), ethical decision-making (Jackson 2004), and validation of a measure of Judeo-Christian religions in the workplace (Lynn et al 2009). In addition, several scholars have published collective works (Melé and Dierksmeier 2012;Melé and Schlag 2015) and special issues (Journal of Business Ethics, vol 7, n. 6, 1988;vol 12, n. 12, 1993;vol.…”

Volunteers' Behavioral Intention in Non-profit Organizations Strategy: A Structural Equation Model

“…According to this approach, people's first objective is not seeking some gain; people are not rationally calculating if they are earning something in the exchange, and if the exchanged goods are economically equivalent. What counts is if the circulation of goods is meaningful for the development of relationships (Faldetta, 2011).…”

A relational approach to responsibility in organizations: The logic of gift and Lévinasian ethics for a ‘corporeal’ responsibility

“…In the informal, economic action, as a contractual exchange or an obligation, is instrumental for the development of relationships, and not vice versa (Faldetta 2011). Relationships among the economic actors or the members of an organization can be the priority, because people are acting as human beings and not as functions or roles.…”