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1. Introduction
The notion of “Conscious Capitalism” appeared in the mid of 2000s. Conscious Capitalism presupposes that business is “part of a complex, interdependent and evolving system” (Mackey and Sisodia, 2014, p. 53, 106). If so, then business must deal with unsurpassable uncertainties. A complex system implies the interdependence between its constituencies (Mackey and Sisodia, 2014, p. 106, 108). It is ever-changing, since its constituencies are continuously evolving. Interdependence between all constituents of reality and continuous change in every being, thing or phenomenon mirror our incapacity to globally know complex realities. We can never globally know “what is in process”. Our knowledge of the process and change is always fragmentary. Human existence is historically rooted. Anything that changes is undefinable, since we cannot know the process of change as well as the nature and scope of changes, at every moment (Nietzsche, 1975, p. 108; 1979, p. 112). Facing uncertainties in the organizational life is being subjected to doubt and constant questioning about the meaning of organizational realities. Mackey and Sisodia did not explain how to deal with the various uncertainties of business, social, and political life. However, they asserted that all shared values “coevolve” and are “cocreated” by various stakeholders (Mackey and Sisodia, 2014, p. 168). Nonetheless, the “cocreation” of shared values in the organizational life is never described. Is it an issue of consensual decision-making processes throughout the organizational culture? Or is it an issue of ethical and shared leadership? The way shared values could be “cocreated” can unveil how various stakeholder interests would be harmonized, since the harmonization of stakeholder interests requires the influence of shared values.
The purpose of this article is to examine how much the basic tenets of Conscious Capitalism could favor organizational change and anticorruption strategies. We will describe how the basic tenets and principles of Conscious Capitalism remain vague and frail, given their orientation toward an undefined “humanistic and holistic” philosophy. We will unveil the relative propensity of Conscious Capitalism to efficiently fight corruption. Until now, the Conscious Capitalism movement is unable to develop any rationale for corporate self-justified discourse about anticorruption measures. So, we will present three kinds of rationale that Conscious Capitalism organizations could use to strengthen their prevention strategies against corruption.
2. Conscious capitalism and...