IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v11y2001i01p11-26_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loyalty in Business: Subversive Doctrine or Real Need?

Author

Listed:
  • Mele, Domènec

Abstract

Loyalty within the firm, though praised by some, is criticized by others. An analysis of the historical and current significance of the concept of loyalty can aid in both understanding its critics and responding to them. Loyalty in the business world is generally understood in three ways: i) transactional retention, ii) sentimental attraction, and iii) willingness to commit oneself. In the third type, the commitment to adhere to a person, cause, or institution may contribute to human flourishing and therefore generate the human virtue of loyalty. The human virtue of loyalty is as far from fanaticism as it is from the betrayal of legitimate commitments freely undertaken. As with all virtues, its content must be rationally determined. Loyalty thus understood enhances the humanity of both persons and business firms and contributes to heightened cohesion and cooperation within the firm. Moreover, according to some recent research, managing a business on the basis of loyalty can enhance economic results.

Suggested Citation

  • Mele, Domènec, 2001. "Loyalty in Business: Subversive Doctrine or Real Need?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 11-26, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:11:y:2001:i:01:p:11-26_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X00001184/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juan Elegido, 2013. "Does It Make Sense to Be a Loyal Employee?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 495-511, September.
    2. Guglielmo Faldetta, 2011. "The Logic of Gift and Gratuitousness in Business Relationships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 67-77, March.
    3. Masakure, Oliver, 2016. "The effect of employee loyalty on wages," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 274-298.
    4. Hildreth, John Angus D. & Gino, Francesca & Bazerman, Max, 2016. "Blind loyalty? When group loyalty makes us see evil or engage in it," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 16-36.
    5. Nasrin Shahinpoor & Bernard Matt, 2007. "The Power of One: Dissent and Organizational Life," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 37-48, August.
    6. Jukka Varelius, 2009. "Is Whistle-blowing Compatible with Employee Loyalty?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 263-275, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:11:y:2001:i:01:p:11-26_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.