Towards a Comprehensive Taxonomy of Egalitarian Work Relations

Can the members of an organisation relate as equals despite there being a formal social hierarchy in place, as is often the case in many big corporations? In this paper, we will adopt a heuristic approach to provide insights into a better taxonomy of social relations and better normative principles for equality at work. We will be primarily concerned with the necessary conditions for guaranteeing an equal status of dignity for all at work, not with socio-economic equality (usually defined in terms of equal opportunities, equal resources or equal outcomes). Our starting point will be Lippert-Rasmussen's (2018) five-dimensional taxonomy (moral standing, epistemic standing, social standing, aesthetic standing and other empirical considerations), which we will challenge on two fronts. In our view, it misses some important aspects of relating as equals (such as the notion of power balance) and offers an interpretation that is too static (it does not provide a satisfactory overview of the interactions between the relevant dimensions nor of the factors that constitute them). By supplementing and partially reassessing Lippert-Rasmussen's literature review, we thus hope to come closer to a comprehensive taxonomy of egalitarian work relations. We will make a case for adding, amongst other things, mutual trust and commitment as well as expressions of praise as crucial factors of egalitarian relations (intra-dimensional analysis). We will also try to show how the dimensions that we put forward all feed into each other (inter-dimensional analysis). All in all, it appears that relational equality at work is a complex and dynamic ideal, which may be best described in terms of equality in diversity: accordingly, we will advocate for setting lower and upper bounds for all sub-dimensions instead of striving for strict equality. Our main contribution consists in showing why moral standing nonetheless deserves a special status and may be best described as both the grounding and horizon for relating as equals at work.