Complementary Alternative Benefits to Promote Peace

• Published in: Journal of business ethics 2009-03, Vol.89 (Suppl 4), p.539-557
• Main Authors: Bishara, Norman D., Schipani, Cindy A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Business and Management; business and society; Business Ethics; Business structures; Communities; Community; complementary alternative benefits; Cost savings; Education; employee benefits; Employees; Employment; Ethics; Fringe benefits; International organizations; Job stress; Labor; Management; Occupational safety; Occupational stress; Peace; Peace building; Peace Through Commerce; Philosophy; Quality of Life Research; Society; Trends; Violence; Work environment; Work place; Workforce; workplace stress; Workplace violence; Workplaces
• ISSN: 0167-4544; 1573-0697
• DOI: 10.1007/s10551-010-0406-4

Recent research has focused on business as a mediating institution that can influence society while engaging in the traditional profit-making and value generation functions. This work includes Professors Fort's and Schipani's arguments about how business may be able to play a role in promoting more peaceful societies, and other research addressing how businesses might serve a role in reducing violence in society and the workplace. Although there is a significant body of scholarship on the role of business in reducing violence in society, there is little research on concrete steps for businesses to take to achieve this goal. This article attempts to begin to fill that void. As identified by Fort and Schipani, business may promote more peaceful societies by encouraging a sense of community. We argue that one way to reach that goal is for business to provide what we denote as complementary alternative benefits (CABs), to its workforce. In this article, we advocate for businesses to offer CABs which focus on sustaining the health, reducing the stress, and improving the camaraderie of its workforce. We argue that business can use these benefits to promote a healthy, less-stressed, and collegial workforce that is less prone to resolve conflicts by violence. Further, we examine the role business plays in promoting more peaceful societies and how employer-initiated stress reduction programs are consistent with both business ethics and peace-building principles. Finally, using case studies we demonstrate how CABs may also reduce costs related to absenteeism and turnover, and thus improve the bottom line.