Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Virtues, Managers and Business People: Finding a Place for MacIntyre in a Business Context

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Critics point to four issues as presenting barriers to the use of virtue in the context of business. They focus on the relationship between management and practice, the potential for virtuous behaviour in a competitive environment, the ability to develop a reflexive critique of management that can be acted on, and the differentiation between work and wider social roles and people's propensity to take responsibility for them. In this paper we propose a solution to criticisms levelled at the use of virtue within Business Ethics. We examine the critiques of management in the context of Virtue Ethics and the application of these to business.

In arguing for a role for business in being virtuous and promoting virtue we accept that the concept of management that is based on the type of liberalism founded on personal preference and benefit is deeply problematic and that management that is driven solely by profit is not compatible with the development of practice based virtue. However, we argue that to exclude those activities in which management is involved as a result would be wrong and dangerous. Instead we see the great advantageof a Virtue Ethic is that it conjures up an alternative vision to the dominant practice, and such an alternative vision is urgently needed in business today.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anscombe, E.: 1958, 'Modern Moral Philosophy', in R. Crisp and M. Slote: 1997, Virtue Ethics (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Aristotle: 1985, Nichomachean Ethics (Hackett, Cambridge). Translated by Terence Irwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arjoon, S.: 2000, 'Virtue Theory as a Dynamic Theory of Business', Journal of Business Ethics 28, 159-178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Athanassoulis, N.: 2000, 'A Response to Harman: Virtue Ethics and Character Traits', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100, 215-222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beadle, R.: 2001, 'MacIntyre and the Amorality of Management', Paper presented at the Second International Conference of Critical Management Studies (UMIST).

  • Beadle, R.: 2002, 'The Misappropriation of MacIntyre', Reason in Practice 2(2), 45-54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, K.: 1997, 'Management as a Practice: A Response to Alasdair MacIntyre', Journal of Business Ethics 16, 825-833.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chismar, D.: 2001, 'Vice and Virtue in Everyday (Business) Life', Journal of Business Ethics 29, 169-176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowton, C. and R. Crisp (eds.): 1998, Business Ethics: Perspectives on the Practice of Theory (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisp, R.: 1996, How Should One Live (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisp, R. and M. Slote: 1997, Virtue Ethics (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobson, J.: 1997, 'Virtue Ethics as a Foundation for Business Ethics: A MacIntyre Based Critique', Unpublished Paper Presented at the Second International Symposium on Catholic Social Thought and Management Education (University of Antwerp, Belgium).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ewin, R. E.: 1995, 'The Virtues Appropriate to Business', Business Ethics Quarterly 5(5), 833-842.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foot, P.: 1978, Virtues and Vices and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy (Blackwell, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foot, P.: 2001, Natural Goodness (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gare, A.: 1998, 'MacIntyre, Narratives, and Environmental Ethics', Environmental Ethics 20(1), 3-21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodpaster, K. E. and K. M. Syre (eds.): 1979, Ethics and the Problems of the 21st Century (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadreas, P.: 2002, 'Aristotle on the Vices and Virtue of Wealth', Journal of Business Ethics 39, 361-376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G.: 2000, 'The Nonexistence of Character Traits', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100, 223-226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G.: 2003, 'No Character or Personality', Business Ethics Quarterly 13(1), 87-94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horton, J. and S. Mendus: 1994, After MacIntyre (Polity, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hursthouse, R.: 1999, On Virtue Ethics (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilduff, M.: 1993, 'Deconstructing Organizations', Academy of Management Review 18(1), 13-31.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, R. J.: 2001, 'Virtue and Community in Business Ethics: A Critical Assessment of Solomon's Aristotelian Approach to Social Responsibility', Journal of Social Philosophy 32(4), 487-499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, S.: 2002, 'The Head, The Heart, and Business Virtues', Journal of Business Ethics 39, 347-359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koehn, D.: 1995, 'A Role for Virtue Ethics in the Analysis of Business Practice', Business Ethics Quarterly 5(3), 533-539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koehn, D.: 1998, 'Virtue Ethics, The Firm, and Moral Psychology', Business Ethics Quarterly 8(3), 497-513.

    Google Scholar 

  • Limbs, E. C. and T. L. Fort: 2000, 'Nigerian Business Practices and Their Interface with Virtue Ethics', Journal of Business Ethics 26, 169-179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louden, R. B.: 1984, 'On Some Vices of Virtue Ethics', American Philosophical Quarterly 21, 227-236.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 1979, 'Corporate Modernity and Moral Judgement: Are they Mutually Exclusive?', in K. E. Goodpaster and K. M. Syre (eds.), Ethics and the Problems of the 21st Century (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 1985, After Virtue (Duckworth, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 1988, Whose Justice? Which Rationaliy? (Duckworth, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 1990, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (Duckworth, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 1994, 'A Partial Response to My Critics', in J. Horton and S. Mendus (eds.), After MacIntyre (Polity, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 1999, Dependant Rational Animals (Open Court, Chicago).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A.: 2000, Personal Communication with Beadle reported in Beadle, R.: 2002, 'The Misappropriation of MacIntyre', Reason in Practice 2(2), 45-54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maitland, I.: 1997, 'Virtuous Markets: The Market as School of the Virtues', Business Ethics Quarterly 7(1), 17-31.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. and H. Simon: 1993, Organizations, 2nd edition (Blackwell, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchese, M., G. Bassham and J. Ryan: 2002, 'Work-Family Conflict: A Virtue Ethics Analysis', Journal of Business Ethics 40, 145-154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, A.: 1996, 'MacIntyre on Modernity and How it has Marginalized the Virtues', in R. Crisp (eds.), How Should One Live (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Meilaender, G. C.: 1984, The Theory and Practice of Virtue (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame Indiana).

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, G.: 2002, 'On the Implications of the Practice Institution Distinction: MacIntyre and the Application of Modern Virtue Ethics to Business', Business Ethics Quarterly 12(1), 19-32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morse, J.: 1999, 'The Missing Link Between Virtue Theory and Business Ethics', Journal of Applied Philosophy 16(1), 47-58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, P. E.: 1999, 'Character and Virtue Ethics in International Marketing: An Agenda for Managers, Researchers and Educators', Journal of Business Ethics 18, 107-124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Randels, G.: 1998, 'The Contingency of Business: Narrative, Metaphor, and Ethics', Journal of Business Ethics 17, 1299-1310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneewind, J. B.: 1990, 'The Misfortunes of Virtue', Ethics 101, 42-63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schudt, K.: 2000, 'Taming the Corporate Monster: an Aristotelian Approach to Corporate Virtue', Business Ethics Quarterly 10(3), 711-723.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, R. C.: 1992, Ethics and Excellence: Cooperation and Integrity in Business (New Oxford University Press, York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, R. C.: 2000, 'Business with Virtue: Maybe Next Year', Business Ethics Quarterly 10(1), 339-331.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, R. C.: 2003, 'Victims of Circumstances', Business Ethics Quarterly 13(1), 43-62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, B.: 1997, 'Sources of Virtue: The Market and the Community', Business Ethics Quarterly 7(1), 33-50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slote, M.: 1996, From Morality to Virtue (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Slote, M.: 2001, Morals from Motives (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sreenivasan, G.: 2002, 'Errors about Errors: Virtue Theory and Trait Attribution', Mind 110(441), 47-68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sundman, P.: 2000, 'The Good Manager-A Moral Manager?', Journal of Business Ethics 27, 247-254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swanton, C.: 2003, Virtue Ethics: A Pluralistic View (Clarendon Press, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, R.: 1996, 'The Empty Company: Morality and Job Security', Personnel Review 25(6), 41-53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whetstone, J. T.: 1998, 'Teaching Ethics to Managers', in C. Cowton and R. Crisp (eds.), Business Ethics: Perspectives on the Practice of Theory (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Whetstone, J. T.: 2001, 'How Virtue Fits Within Business Ethics', Journal of Business Ethics 33, 101-114.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Business School, University of Gloucestershire, The Park Campus, PO Box 220, Cheltenham, GL50 2QF, U.K

    David Dawson

  2. Redeemer University College, 777 Garner Road East, Ancaster, Ontario, L9K 1J4, Canada

    Craig Bartholomew

Authors
  1. David Dawson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Craig Bartholomew
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dawson, D., Bartholomew, C. Virtues, Managers and Business People: Finding a Place for MacIntyre in a Business Context. Journal of Business Ethics 48, 127–138 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000004618.10980.36

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000004618.10980.36

Search

Navigation