著者

高浦 康有

出版者

日本経営倫理学会

雑誌

日本経営倫理学会誌 (ISSN:13436627)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.16, pp.183-189, 2009

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In recent years some big companies like Toyota, Toshiba and McDonald's have faced with worker-related lawsuits such as death from overwork (karoshi) and unpaid overtime work. So far, Japanese companies have not taken sufficient social responsibilities for workers rights, compared to other stakeholders such as consumers and communities, as workers have been given less hierarchical status. In this paper, on the base of the concept of the "right to seek moral approval," the relationship between workers and companies will be reviewed where goodwill and loyalty to their organization are kept, while they want to raise some objection to their organization from a sense of justice. In this paper seeking the approval of their moral identity means to make the organization admit their own existence, including a moral dimension at the premise of overwhelming inequalities of power. And unlike the conventional labor movement, this approach has a personal political orientation in the sense that it is laid on the base of the individual and eventually it may be developed with the possibility to challenge the existing system and order. It is also important to understand that this act for moral approval will be exercised as rights in a legal struggle.