Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a global health problem—its ramifications are complex and extensive. From social routines to religious gatherings, as well as economic conditions, have all been significantly affected. The global economy has entered into a recession and local establishments, especially small and medium enterprises, have not been spared. Most of these businesses have laid-off workers and closed shops and stores. Within this chaos of business restructuring and systemic changes are complications and implications to the meaning of ethical business leadership and the value of work. This paper looks at these shifts and turns taking place in enterprises and workplaces in light of Catholic Social Thought (CST) and explores how these data and narratives from the ground could have contributed to a renewed or reshaped ethical identity of a Filipino business leader in the time of the (COVID-19) pandemic.
Highlights
Today’s situation has pitted people in a war against the COVID-19 virus which has already killed more than a million human lives in the world and counting.1 While roughly 71% of people have recovered and survived the dreaded illness, its impact on the global economy and livelihood of people is unimaginable
Junior employees embrace a more pessimistic outlook compared to their corporate bosses, as “43% of board members think the pandemic could lead to better business ethics; [and] only 21% of junior employees agree” (Makrygiannis 2020)
The crisis has reshaped the way business is performed and while digital commerce and infusion of artificial intelligence (AI) in workplaces have already been practiced even before the pandemic, COVID-19 has hastened its normalization during the tsunamis of lockdowns and community quarantines
Summary
Today’s situation has pitted people in a war against the COVID-19 virus which has already killed more than a million human lives in the world and counting. While roughly 71% of people have recovered and survived the dreaded illness, its impact on the global economy and livelihood of people is unimaginable. This paper will investigate how the business economy responds to the situationist challenge posed by this crisis and its ethical implications to the behavior and habitus of a Filipino business leader in the time of the pandemic. This paper asks: how can certain CST principles enlighten the ethos of a Filipino business leader during the time of the pandemic as nuanced too within his/her specific sociocultural embeddedness?. The pandemic’s negative economic impact on business organizations does not hinder the ethical exercise and observance of this anthropological criterion; it even reinforces such value What this Filipino sociocultural cosmology shows is the cultural readiness of any Filipino business leader to uphold this anthropological criterion even in the midst of pandemic. It is hoped that this paper can provide new insights and perspectives that can enrich existing ideations and ideologies on what it means to be an ethical Filipino business leader
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