Introduction

In this part of the book, I will frame the Civil Economy tradition within the Business Ethics' field (Sferrazzo, 2019). In particular, the introduction will be structured as follows. In the first part, I will show the research aims and objectives of this book, by talking about the necessity of a 'leadership revolution' to cope both with the arise of the new management ideology (Chiappello and Fairclough, 2002) and with the new challenges of the market. In the second part, I will tell something about the Civil Economy tradition and how it fits with the concept of agape (Baggio, 2013), capabilities (Bruni and Zamagni, 2007) and docility (Santori and Sferrazzo, 2019). In the final part, I will introduce the connection between these three dimensions and the leadership field.

1. Premise: the Civil Economy perspective

1.1. The Civil Economy approach: Genovesi's anthropological vision of the person and

1.2. The notion of agape in a civil-economic perspective

1.4. The links between the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition and Civil Economy

In the last decade, scholars have rediscovered the Italian tradition of Civil Economy and the different vision of the market it offers, one that is anchored on reciprocal assistance in market exchange relationships. So far, scholars are discussing Civil Economy especially in the fields of the history of economic though and in economics and philosophy. Nevertheless, this chapter proposes looking also at business ethics and organizational studies through the lens of Civil Economy, especially considering its connections with a) the agapic form of love, b) Sen's capability approach and c) the Thomistic virtue of docility. This chapter constitutes that premise to show, in the following chapters, the 'agapic, ' 'liberating' and 'docile' leadership styles. These

leadership styles will enable to derive the civil-economic leadership model, as stressed in the conclusions.

Keywords: Aquinas, agape, capabilities, civil happiness, business ethics, Civil Economy, docility, fraternity, friendship, mutual assistance, reciprocity

2. Towards an agapic leadership

2.1. The theological-philosophical notion of agape

2.2. The Agape-based organization

2.3. The agapic leadership

This chapter explores the dynamics of love within models of leadership in organizations. In the philosophical literature, three forms of love are discussed, i.e. eros, philia and agape; here, I focus on the latter to delineate a new model of leadership: the 'agapic' ones. To achieve this, through an empirical study, I examine which leadership attitudes are oriented towards an agapic form of love. The study consisted of 32 semi-structured interviews, conducted in vivo with both leaders and managers of a French multinational company. I discovered that leaders' agapic attitudes generate interpersonal relationships based on fraternity and gratuity moreover, they are strongly related to sharing everything, to the adoption of subsidiarity logics, and to fostering

reciprocal learning. From the findings, it emerged also a strong relation between the agapic leadership style and the Christian tradition.

Keywords: agape, agapic leadership, Christian tradition, fraternity, gratuity, leadership, love

3. Towards a liberating leadership

3.1. Sen's capability approach within business ethics

3.2. Sen's capability approach as a theory for liberated companies

3.3. The liberating leadership

The capability approach (CA) developed by Amartya Sen focuses on the enhancement of peop
About the Author: Roberta Sferrazzo earned her Ph.D. in 'Sciences of Civil Economy' at LUMSA University (Rome, Italy) and is currently Assistant Professor in Management at AUDENCIA Business School (Nantes, France). She's author of numerous publications in the field of 'human resource management' in both Italian and international journals. Her research interests include: leadership styles; rituals in organizations; new forms of work organizations both from critical management studies and business ethics perspectives.