When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
— Joseph Campbell
The Quality of Virtue
Your test results suggest that you are one of those people for whom the ethical concerns are front and center. You carry with you a deep sense of responsibility to see that the right thing happens. You may be focused on ecology, equality, diversity, or sustainability. You may be passionate about the rights and needs of plants, animals, people or the planet itself. The sensitivity to the moral dimension of our actions is a very special quality and one that definitely must find a place at work.
The Quality of Moral Responsibility that I find at this juncture is what we might call the transpersonal or even the trans-species. That is, we suddenly become aware of the subjective existence of not just other persons, but of animals, plants, places, the planet. Underpinning this new awareness is a dimension of aesthetic and ethical sensitivity which was not there before. However, once our minds have been opened to this new reality we can never “un-see” its value.
Does your work help or hinder you in living out the value of Moral Responsibility?
Moral Responsibility in the Workplace
Many corporations have new departments dedicated to diversity, equality and inclusion; they have sustainability initiatives with goals for reducing the carbon footprint or other forms of pollution; they have human resource departments putting together programs on sexual harassment training and non-violent communications.
The new push for companies to engage in CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility - means projects that the company pays for projects undertaken by company volunteers. Teams of workers may build houses in Habitat for Humanity, plant community gardens, engage in neighborhood cleanup, or redecorate a homeless shelter. All of these demonstrate a company’s commitment to the Quality of Moral Responsibility.
When the Quality of Moral Responsibility is missing . . .
One of the chief drivers of cynicism - the second symptom of clinical burnout - is a perceived lack of moral responsibility at work. Cynicism is a self-protective attitude that we take when our beliefs in the truth and honesty of our employers has been shaken by scandal and the fallout of corporate greed.
Outrage is the other possible reaction to hypocrisy on the part of the company we thought had our best interests at heart. When employees decide to hit the picket lines it represents a real loss of faith in a company’s ability to be trusted. A consistent streak of betrayals and scandals will erode any vested interest workers had in their company and drive the Great Resignation even harder.
But a company the clings to its principles through thick and thin, even if it means that shareholders profits take a hit, is much more likely to find its employees exhibiting altruism and loyalty. In the long run, this is by far the wisest course of action. Moral responsibility is a quality with a very long shelf life!
Why Name these Qualities as Colors?
There are many developmental theories that look at human needs, motivations and fulfillment and arrive at a schema with seven stages or levels. The fact that there is so much overlap in these theories suggests is that there is something there which all these observant human beings have noticed. For this deep assessment I offer my own synthesis of these developmental theories, using seven simple colored blocks to designate the seven key challenges to human beings - those needs or yearnings that require our mastery in order to thrive and live into our full humanity.
In adopting the metaphor of the seven colors, I am following in the footsteps of author Christopher Hill who felt that the rainbow colors - as defined by Isaac Newton: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet - aided in an intuitive understanding of the 7-level Chakra system. It has become so adopted by the West that I use it for convenience - and for aesthetic purposes.
There are other metaphors which may feel more natural to you than the color spectrum, and I encourage you to find your own analogy. What I am describing as Qualities are purely abstract and can be associated with any color, texture, sound, flavor, and image.
