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Freedom & Responsibility: Leading for Well-Being

The idea of freedom has been pivotal for the development of modern capitalism. The socially and economically emancipated individual, the open market and the modern corporation, based upon voluntary work contracts and cooperation, have all become synonymous with the concept of a free and open society. Yet, while in classical freedom philosophies, the notions of individual and institutional liberty are closely connected to their respective moral and social responsibilities, within the realm of economics the relationship between freedom and responsibility has been examined far less. This may have to do with the fact that certain strands of freedom theory (namely the ones espoused by the Mont Pelerin Society and the Chicago School of Economics) have long since dominated the discourse within business and economics departments, emphasizing much more the importance of choice than of its ethical orientation and constraints.

Yet, in the last years, corporate scandals have led to increased questioning of the corporate license to operate. In step with an ever more acutely felt lack of social and environmental sustainability, the very freedom of corporations to do business the way they see fit, is coming under scrutiny. Not incidentally, the United Nations and the OECD, for instance, have recently called for new economic policies directed to higher levels of human wellbeing rather than sheer material wealth. These demands find their correlate in the work on part of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) to realize crucial sustainability goals worldwide. Geared to a qualitative optimization of options for all rather than at the quantitative maximization of choice for some, through such efforts the dimension of responsibility implicit in the idea of freedom is increasingly being explicated. The Humanistic Management Network has decided to center its annual conference on the theme "Freedom & Responsibility / Leading for Well-Being" so as to examine which conceptions of freedom prove most apt to bring about a life-conducive economy at service to all humans.

An academic Paper Development Workshop will precede the Conference and will take place on 12 October 2016 at the Global Ethic Institute. The Workshop addresses those who submitted papers and whose papers have been selected.