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Positive Organizational Scholarship and Virtue Ethics

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Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management

Abstract

This chapter reviews the use of virtue in the positive social sciences, especially in Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS), in contrast with its use in virtue ethics. Three areas of connection and divergence are explored. First, the essential characteristics of virtue have been treated somewhat differently in each literature: positive social science narrowly defines virtue in empirical, behavioral terms, whereas virtue ethics focuses on the context and character of virtue. Second, the relationship of virtue to behavioral excellence differs between the two literatures: positive science tends to view virtue as monotonic and as a set of behaviors that can be maximized, whereas virtue ethics sees it as multidimensional and as a balance between extremes of dysfunction. Finally, there are differences of perspective as to whether virtue can exist at an organization level of analysis: virtue ethics scholars usually describe virtue as an attribute of individual character; however, POS scholars argue that organizations may also acquire at least some properties of virtue. This chapter suggests that the theoretical foundation for the exploration of virtue in and through organizations needs further development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA

    David S. Bright

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  1. David S. Bright
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Correspondence to David S. Bright .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Alejo José G. Sison

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Bright, D.S. (2015). Positive Organizational Scholarship and Virtue Ethics. In: Sison, A. (eds) Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6729-4_28-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6729-4_28-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6729-4

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