As readers may know, I am following the PhD program at Nyenrode Business University. Engaging in research is at times like being in "a candy store," as my PhD colleague Josephine put it. And she's right. I tell you about one of these candies in this article.

The article "Wise Up: Creating Organizational Wisdom Through an Ethic of Kaitakitanga" (Spiller, Pio, Erakovic & Henare, 2011) offers wonderful wisdom from the Māori. In the Māori view, every human being is born a 'steward'. As a steward, one assumes an integral spiritual consciousness.

I am because we are

A consciousness that corresponds to the Ubuntu: "I am because we are." This contrasts with the Western way of seeing typified by Descartes’s statement "I think therefore I exist," which emphasizes individualism. An individualism that in the Western world is also emphasized in business and expressed in Friedman's statement, "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits." In my view, we can learn a lot from the wisdom of the Māori. A wisdom that assumes that profit and economic well-being are means to a broader social, cultural, environmental, and spiritual end.

Sustainability = wisdom not cleverness

A wisdom that sees nature as a stakeholder and not an externality that you don't have to consider. From this wisdom, "sustainability" is not a "blankie" or a separate plan, but an inseparable part of the business. Thus, sustainability is part of the wisdom of the enterprise and not a cleverness.

Wisdom and values go hand-in-hand!

The publication 'Wise Up' refers to several studies by Kotter & Hesket and Collins & Porras, among others, which show that it is precisely value-driven organizations that outperform non-value-driven businesses in numerous ways. In other words, wisdom and values go hand-in-hand!

Or as the article concludes:

By discussion comes understanding

By understanding comes light

By light comes wisdom

By wisdom comes wellbeing