The ‘Morality’ of Occupational Health

Both ethics and law are based on value systems. George Lakoff has contributed to our understanding of the value systems that influence attitudes toward public issues in his book, Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberals Don't (University of Chicago Press, 1996). He argues that two antagonistic but co-existing moral systems influence attitudes toward public issues. Both are derived from metaphors of family life and child development and the “morality” of allowing certain actions. One moral system stresses individual responsibility and risk-taking, the other empathy and mutual assistance. The tension between these value systems explains much in political debate; issues generally tend to fall on one side or the other. Occupational health and related issues, almost uniquely, have the unfortunate characteristic of falling short in both. Our best efforts may be judged “immoral” by the strictest interpretations of both systems, even when they are successful. The practical implication is that we must not accept this pattern of thinking. The work relationship is not like a family. It is important to separate issues in occupational health from this pattern of thinking in both professional and public discourse.