Organizational Implications of Pope Francis’ Integral Ecology

Abstract

We explore Pope Francis's “integral ecology” in the encyclical Laudato Si (Francis, 2015) as it provides us with an agenda for a planetary virtue ethic that should inspire the field of Organizational Development to reconsider the moral implications of our work. We begin by offering the framework of virtue ethics as a way of understanding Laudato Si (LS). We then summarize the argument in LS as it focuses on four ecological issues—climate change, pollution, water, and the plight of the poor as we tease out the document's implicit virtue ethic. Finally, we propose how OD practitioners can become more aware of the lens through which they approach their task, thereby coming to regard organizational change initiatives and moral-identity development as a single, undifferentiated, act.