Human Flourishing in Business: Rethinking Corporate Governance
Biddie Clive, Globethics Communications Intern and Colgate University student, May 2026.
As conversations around human flourishing, ethical governance, and business for good gain momentum, organisations are increasingly questioning what prosperity truly means in today’s global economy.
HP’s 2025 Work Relationship Index reveals that 21% of employees are fulfilled by their work, and an even more alarming 13% identify a “people centricity” in their workplace, both statistics decreasing by 8% and 11%, respectively, since 2024.
With 45% of workers feeling like their companies prioritise profit over people, dialogue and solutions for restoring humanity to the centre of business are crucial for ensuring long-term social and financial prosperity.
The Global Flourishing Study, conducted by scholars at Harvard and Baylor Universities, corroborates this concern with a striking paradox: several countries with strong GDP and financial security report weaker levels of meaning and purpose. While this relationship is not necessarily causal, the data raises an urgent question for business and policy leaders: how can we pursue economic development while advancing human flourishing and preserving meaning, purpose, and wellbeing?
What Is Human Flourishing in Business?
Human flourishing in business refers to the ability of organisations to support not only financial performance, but also the wellbeing of their employees and the conditions under which they can live good lives—ethically, sustainably, and globally.
While the Global Flourishing Study identifies financial security as one of six domains of human flourishing, it suggests that economic success is a contributor to rather than a determinant of flourishing. Modern business systems are therefore unbalanced: while highly effective at generating material success, they frequently push aside other domains of flourishing—i.e. character, social relationships, mental health, purpose—in institutional decision‑making, failing to support not only their employees but also global social wellbeing.
Ethics and Governance: Re-Centring Humanity in Business Leadership
Back in 2019, Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, stated that "major employers are investing in their workers and communities because they know it is the only way to be successful over the long term." At the same time, Business Roundtable, an American lobbyist association which he also chairs, released a revised Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. Signed by 181 CEOs, it committed companies to serving not only shareholders, but also customers, employees, suppliers, and communities.
Whether or not this has been reflected in practice, almost seven years later, re‑centring humanity within governance offers a way forward. In a global economy oriented toward profit, principles such as humility, reciprocity, gratitude, and intention—drawn from longstanding moral traditions but not confined to religion—offer practical guidance for building institutions that generate trust, cooperation, and social cohesion.
Beyond ESG: Human Flourishing and the Future of Ethical Business
The erosion of institutional trust across sectors signals that Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) compliance frameworks alone are not enough. To restore legitimacy, business leaders must look beyond short‑term profit and operational efficiency toward long‑term value and relational responsibility. This requires governance that is not only mindful of environmental and social risk, but that also considers:
- how decisions shape organisational culture
- how leadership influences character and behaviour
- how businesses contribute to social and human flourishing
The growing focus on human flourishing in business signals a shift in how prosperity is understood. Rather than abandoning economic progress, this approach seeks to redefine responsible progress—aligning innovation, governance, and growth with human wellbeing. These questions are increasingly shaping global dialogue across business, technology, and public policy.
Global Ethics Forum 2026: Advancing the Conversation
At the Global Ethics Forum 2026, where the central theme of human flourishing will underpin conversations on ethics and governance in business, technology, and public policy, our sessions will not ask businesses to abandon their progress; instead, they will redefine what responsible progress looks like. Economic systems must serve human flourishing, not just their own survival.
More information and registration for GEF26 coming soon!