The "Permanent Things" and the Role of the Moral Imagination in Organizational Life

Revisiting the Foundations of Public and Nonprofit Leadership

Bibliographic Data

ID12450493
AuthorsMax Stephenson (0000-0003-1711-8438, Virginia Tech, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume29
Issue2
Pages260-277
Publication date2007-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAdministrative Theory & Praxis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1084-1806 • E-ISSN: 1949-0461
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10841806.2007.11029580
OpenAlexW269144601
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited3

This article briefly explores the thought of the seminal thinkers Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk and Charles Taylor to argue that conceptions of public and nonprofit leadership ought properly to be (re)founded and rethought on the basis of a profound regard for the principle of alterity as this is realized in the exercise of the moral imagination in the pursuit of human dignity; one of T. S. Eliot's "permanent things." The article contends that whether or not one accepts the idea of moral absolutes, this set of capacities is critical to the effective functioning of many nonprofit organizations and may constitute a basis on which these may legitimate and distinguish themselves from for-profit and public entities. Using Taylor's work, the paper provides a means by which to justify this stance that does not assume the existence of moral absolutes

Alterity · Dignity · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Public life · Public reason · Sociology · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Philosophy · Public Policy and Administration Research · Religion, Society, and Development

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