Putting Love First

Abstract

Elena P. Antonacopoulou uses the concept of love in a slightly different way and explores a radical form of reorganization. She is examining how Putting Love First as a governing principle enables new ways of relating, working, and uniting in serving the common good as essential to the future of work. To address ways of embedding love in managing and organizing, she introduces new “love languages” extending previous references to the five love languages that have also been translated into the five languages of appreciation in the workplace. The main thesis of previous references to love language in human affairs is the proposition that each person has the tendency to favor some over other gestures or expressions of love (gifting, appreciation, acts of service, touch, and quality time) that may be limited to a primary and secondary language which may be developed if they seek to understand and respond to the other’s needs and preferences. She distils why embedding love in the mainstream workplace discourse will take more than just learning the language of love. This is explicated by extending the current love languages – or language of appreciation – in introducing two other languages – Free Love and Higher Love. In the second section, each of these new love languages is elaborated on the basis of two guiding principles: altruism and dignity. The third section elaborates the axiology of Putting Love First in explicating the implications for repurposing managing and organizing to serve the common good.