Industry 4.0, which is at the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, posits the challenge of humanizing it. Drawing upon Catholic Social Teaching (CST), this article offers a set of ethical and spiritual criteria for such humanization. The starting point is a positive attitude of CST toward technology, admiring it not only for its usefulness, but also as an expression of human creativity, ingenuity, and beauty. This entails a transcendent sense leading to praise the Creator. At the same time, CST warns that technology involves the risk of fostering a techno-centered worldview and calls for a humanistic-centered worldview. Other ethical criteria regard conducting technological developments with ethical guidelines, minimizing inside effects of technological implementations, managing technology for the com-mon good, and introducing technology into the production process in respect of human dignity and favoring human flourishing.

While many studies on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) focus on efficiency, productivity and economic progress, only a few have considered its ethical aspects. This article tries to contribute to filling this vacuum by providing a comprehensive approach to ethical risks at the workplace. Drawing upon Catholic social teaching (CST)-addressed to all people of good will-it analyzes ethical aspects at the workplace posited by the FIR, and more particularly by Industry 4.0, which is at the core of this revolution. CST emphasizes the dignity of the worker and the necessity to flourish at the workplace. While robots, artificial intelligence, and interconnected technologies are only instrumental, the real subject of work is the worker. This casts specific light on the ethical issues analyzed, including effects on employment, wages and inequality, human quality treatment, relational aspects, safety and health, surveillance on employees, and meaningful work.

Christian ethics applied to economics and business has a long tradition. This dates back at least to the thirteenth century, with noteworthy developments in the four following centuries and again in the last century. Christian faith and reason intertwine to bring about principles, criteria, and guidelines for action and a set of virtues with relevance for economic activity. Christian spirituality, with 2000 years of history, has been embedded in Christianity from its beginning, but the application to modern business activity is relatively recent. This article introduces a special issue which, we hope, will make its own small contribution to the developments of both Christian ethics and spirituality in the leading business organizations. After a short historical overview and a consideration of the current situation of Christian ethics and spirituality in business, we introduce the papers selected for this issue.

This special issue includes a selection of articles presented in this Symposium. But the topic as a whole was more than facing the crisis. It also included the idea of moving toward a new humanistic synthesis for business. Three articles included in this issues deal with the "separation thesis" from different perspectives and posit alternatives. The first rejects the "separation thesis" and states that if social scientists take natural science as a model, they may err in their predictions and may offer facile ethical views. The next article focuses on academic research on business ethics, which includes two perspectives: descriptive and normative. The third article, addresses the tenuous relationship between economics and ethics. The fourth article is a conceptual article which also tries to reconcile economic and moral arguments. The following two articles advance toward a new humanistic synthesis by considering the relational aspect of business relationships. Another article suggests that the dynamics of the structure of human action enable us to link the organizational level of institutions, norms, and culture of the firm which enhance and uphold the possibilities of individual action based on personal virtues. The last article deals with Corporate Social Responsibility, focusing on its technical and political perspectives.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss a humanistic perspective on corporate community involvement (CCI), proposing the concept of humanistic corporate community involvement (HCCI). This concept is illustrated through a case study. Design/methodology/approach: The understanding of humanism applied is one drawn from Catholic social teaching. The case has been developed from the personal experience of one of the authors (Mammoser), enriched with interviews and reports, along with some public information, which helps to understand the socio-cultural context. Findings: HCCI is defined by four characteristics: recognizing and respecting human dignity and rights, fostering integral human development, acting virtuously; this means that the social actions included in CCI have the direct motive of doing good, and organizing social actions in accordance with both the Principle of Solidarity and the Principle of Subsidiarity. The specification of these characteristics can vary from one situation to another. Here we discuss a real case in which these characteristics underlie a successful project in the USA, jointly developed by the US company Walgreens and the Midtown Educational Foundation, a Chicago-based NGO. Research limitations/implications: The case study does not seek to suggest that this is the only way for CCI with a humanistic approach, but to shed light on and motivate other similar initiatives. Practical implications: Findings provide new horizons to undertake CCI and a project, which could be included within the best practices in this field. Originality/value: The paper provides a new approach to CCI based on a humanistic perspective, which enriches other approaches. In doing so, it does not consider such involvement as a means for public relations, reputation enhancement, and ultimately profits. It goes beyond a generic contribution to public good, or of a fair return to society for what a company has received from it. Integral human development of individuals and communities is its goal.

This article serves as an editorial introduction to this special issue on Pope Benedict¿s encyclical-letter, Caritas in Veritate (2009) and its engagement with the field of business ethics. According to this document, love in truth, which includes justice, is indeed presented as a basic moral foundation for economic and business ethics. The article provides an overview of some major themes in the encyclical and their relationship to the essays in this special issue. The authors in this issue are an interdisciplinary group of scholars in the fields of philosophy, theology, psychology, business, economics, and political science who address the relevance and relationship of the encyclical to business ethics in light of their disciplinary field. Their articles include, among other topics, discussions based on recent scholarship on business ethics, the economics and ethics relationship, the orientation of business to the common good, the encyclical¿s proposal of the principle of gratuitousness and the logic of gift in ordinary business, and new perspectives on economic exchange and bargains and hybrid forms of business.

The aim of this paper is to present the necessity for practical wisdom in the managerial decision making process and its role in such a process. The paper seeks to contrast the position with two conventional approaches based on maximizing and satisficing behaviors respectively. Design/methodology/approach: Following Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas it is argued that a correct decision should consider an ¿integral rationality¿ which includes not only ¿instrumental rationality¿ but also ¿practical rationality¿. The latter permits the evaluation of both means and ends from the perspective of human good. Practical wisdom helps the decision maker to determine how a decision will contribute to the human good in each particular situation. Findings: Maximizing and satisficing behaviors are based on the facts-values dichotomy, which separates business and ethics and presents a rationalistic and incomplete view of the reality. The alternative presented here sees the decision as a whole, and this is a more comprehensive understanding of the reality. Ethics is better integrated into the decision making process, since it is an intrinsic part of such a process, not an extrinsic addition. Practical implications: Every decision has an ethical dimension, which should be considered by managers for making good decisions. Practical wisdom is essential in perceiving such a dimension and in making sound moral judgments in the making of decisions. Managers do not need only skills for making correct decisions, but practical wisdom and moral virtues, too. Originality/value: The approach presented in the paper defeats the conventional but narrow views of managerial decision making based on maximizing behavior or on satisficing behavior and introduces the categories of good and evil as the main driver for managerial decision making

Catholic social teaching on the social responsibility of business is based on a person-centered ethics, with two key ethical values: justice and solidarity. Assuming that business enterprises are a mediating institution between individuals and society, the social responsibility of a business is seen as inherent to the business itself and related to all its activities and relationships, not as something added to its economic function. Contributing to the common good is the driving principle of social responsibility. As the organizational guidelines of the social responsibility of business, justice and solidarity apply to the core business activities of each firm, along with business concerns to alleviate social problems. Since each situation is unique, it is also necessary to manage these social responsibilities with practical wisdom. There are similarities and differences between Catholic teaching on the social responsibilities of business and other perspectives.

A summary of the most important issues, approaches and models in the field of spirituality in business, economics and society. The Handbook of Business and Spirituality presents a comprehensive pluralistic view covering all the major religious and spiritual traditions.