ABSTRACT

Colleagues are not only an integral part of many people’s lives; empirical research suggests that having a good relationship with one’s colleagues is the single most important factor for being happy at work. However, so far, no one has provided a comprehensive account of what it means to be a colleague. To address this lacuna, we have conducted both an empirical as well as theoretical investigation into the content and structure of the concept ‘colleague.’ Based on the empirical evidence that we present in this paper, we argue that ‘colleague’ is a dual character concept that has both a descriptive and a normative basis for categorization. Its descriptive dimension is characterized by three features, according to which two people are colleagues if they work for the same institution and know each other, or if they work for the same institution and work in the same field. An independent normative dimension is revealed, which shows that, as colleagues, we are expected to fulfill substantial normative expectations. Understanding the expectations that are encoded in the very structure of this concept is crucial to lay the groundwork for an ethics of collegiality.

摘要

同事不仅是许多人生活中不可或缺的一部分，实证研究表明，与同事保持良好关系是使工作愉快的最重要因素。但是，到目前为止，还没有人全面介绍成为同事意味着什么。为了解决这一空白，我们对“同事”概念的内容和结构进行了经验和理论研究。基于本文提供的经验证据，我们认为“同事”是一个双重字符概念，具有分类的描述性和规范性基础。它的描述性维度具有以下三个特征：如果两个人在同一机构工作并且彼此了解，则两个人就是同事。或者他们是否在同一机构工作并且在同一领域工作。揭示了一个独立的规范维度，这表明作为同事，我们有望实现实质性的规范期望。理解此概念的基本结构中所包含的期望对于奠定大学道德规范的基础至关重要。