Beyond The Bottom Line 1

In Beyond The Bottom Line: The Search for Dignity At Work, Paula M. Rayman, Director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Center and Professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, presents a compelling argument for the need to preserve and, in some cases, recreate dignity at work without threatening family and civic responsibilities. Structuring the book around "the three pillars that uphold dignity at work—livelihood, self-respect, and social responsibility", Rayman gracefully draws upon a wide ranging body of literature—from the Bible to the works of Immanuel Kant and Adam Smith to contemporary scholars including Harvard University professors Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and Joshua Margolis. While Rayman devotes the first part of the book to defining the three pillars, in the second part she presents the results of her field research involving the role of dignity in work life as it is balanced with family life, and civic responsibility in the biotech and banking industries. Finally, the third section of the book concludes with a question asked by Rayman's college-age daughter, "Can you work and have a life?" In the end, Rayman offers many illustrations of dignity being retained at work without eroding family life and social responsibility. However, she emphasizes that this will only occur if we as individuals and institutions move "beyond the constraint of bottom-line thinking."