IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/buseth/v30y2021i4p772-783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethics at the workplace in the fourth industrial revolution: A Catholic social teaching perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Domènec Melé

Abstract

While many studies on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) focus on efficiency, productivity and economic progress, only a few have considered its ethical aspects. This article tries to contribute to filling this vacuum by providing a comprehensive approach to ethical risks at the workplace. Drawing upon Catholic social teaching (CST)—addressed to all people of good will—it analyzes ethical aspects at the workplace posited by the FIR, and more particularly by Industry 4.0, which is at the core of this revolution. CST emphasizes the dignity of the worker and the necessity to flourish at the workplace. While robots, artificial intelligence, and interconnected technologies are only instrumental, the real subject of work is the worker. This casts specific light on the ethical issues analyzed, including effects on employment, wages and inequality, human quality treatment, relational aspects, safety and health, surveillance on employees, and meaningful work.

Suggested Citation

  • Domènec Melé, 2021. "Ethics at the workplace in the fourth industrial revolution: A Catholic social teaching perspective," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 772-783, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:30:y:2021:i:4:p:772-783
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12368
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12368
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/beer.12368?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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:wly:buseth:v:30:y:2021:i:4:p:772-783. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26946424 .

    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.