Abstract
<jats:p>This chapter examines human dignity as a complex foundation for organizational life. Drawing on philosophical, ethical, political, and existential traditions, it presents dignity as a multidimensional concept encompassing intrinsic worth, moral agency, relational recognition, political belonging, and the conditions necessary for human flourishing. The chapter traces dignity's development from Greek and Roman thought through Confucian ethics, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Nietzsche, and twentieth-century thinkers such as Arendt, Derrida, Habermas, Husserl, Jaspers, Heidegger, and Yalom. Across these traditions, dignity emerges as both inherent and enacted, universal and contextual, given and cultivated. The chapter applies these insights to organizations, showing how workplaces may protect or undermine dignity through leadership, hierarchy, recognition, performance systems, technology, and institutional design. It argues that dignity should guide leadership and organizational culture in ways that foster trust, meaning, responsibility, and sustainable human flourishing.</jats:p>