Abstract
In the last three decades business ethics has gained an increasing popularity among academics. Moreover, in recent years, virtue-related concepts have been of considerable interest to philosophers, psychological researchers, and practitioners in the business ethics field and several approaches to character traits have been used to incorporate ethics into organizations. Virtue ethics emphasizes integrity at a personal, business, and community level and aims at developing a virtuous character of the acting subject in order to improve the trustworthy relationship to the different stakeholders. Within the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) context, integrity is connected to entrepreneurs and managers’ motivations that drive toward an intrinsic orientation. Coherently, approaches focussed on intrinsic motivation toward sustainability and CSR programs have been attracting the attention of the scientific, political, and business community, while a growing body of research argues for the need to address both internal and external drivers. Being that organizational practices include both a formal and an informal dimension, integrity can act a tool of managerial control based on the sharing of organizational values and virtues. Therefore, the virtue ethics perspective allows to conceptualize the normative aspects of virtuous competence that constitutes the good character of the entrepreneur/manager applied to the decision-making process, thus overcoming the limits of legal compliance programs and enhancing managerial control of behaviors.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alford, H., & Signori, S. (2014). Brief considerations on the effectiveness of shareholder activism: A virtue ethics approach. Impresa Progetto-Electronic Journal of Management,3, 1–10.
Aragón Amonarriz, C., & Iturrioz Landar, C. (2016). Responsible family ownership in small- and medium-sized family enterprises: An exploratory study. Business Ethics: A European Review,25(1), 75–93.
Aristotle. (2009). The Nicomachean ethics (D. Ross, Trans.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Arjaliès, D. L., & Mundy, J. (2013). The use of management control systems to manage CSR: A levers of control perspective. Management Accounting Research,24(4), 284–300.
Baldarelli, M. G., Del Baldo, M., & Ferrone, C. (2015). The relationships between CSR, good governance and accountability in the economy of communion (EoC) enterprises. In S. O. Idowu, C. S. Frederiksen, A. Y. Mermod, & M. E. J. Nielsen (Eds.), Corporate social responsibility and governance: Practice and theory (pp. 3–38). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Bardi, A., & Schwartz, S. H. (2003). Values and behavior, strength and structure of relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,10, 1207–1220.
Bass, B. M., & Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. Leadership Quarterly,10(2), 181–217.
Bastons, M. (2008). The role of virtues in the framing of decisions. Journal of Business Ethics,78, 389–400.
Becker, T. (1998). Integrity in organizations: Beyond honesty and conscientiousness. Academy of Management Review,23(1), 154–161.
Bertland, A. (2009). Virtue ethics in business and the capabilities approach. Journal of Business Ethics,84, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9686-3.
Blok, V., Gremmen, B., & Wesselink, R. (2015, Fall). Dealing with the wicked problem of sustainability: The role of individual virtuous competence. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 34(3), 297–327. https://doi.org/10.5840/bpej201621737.
Bright, D. S., Cameron, K. S., & Caza, A. (2006). The amplifying and buffering effects of virtuousness in downsized organizations. Journal of Business Ethics,64, 249–269.
Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,97, 117–134.
Bruni, L. (2009). The economy of communion: Toward a multi-dimensional economic culture. New York: New City Press.
Bruni, L., & Uelmen, A. J. (2006). Religious values and corporate decision making: The economy of communion project. Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law,11, 645–680.
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
Burns, J. M. (2004). Foreword. In J. B. Ciulla (Ed.), Ethics, the heart of leadership (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Cameron, K. S., Bright, D., & Caza, A. (2004). Exploring the relationships between organizational virtuousness and performance. American Behavioral Scientist,47(6), 766–790.
Capaldi, N. (2013). How American spiritual capital inform business and affects the common good. In S. Groschl (Ed.), Uncertainty, Diversity and the common good: Changing Norms and New Leadership Paradigms (pp. 25–40). Surrey: Gower.
Cassimon, D., Engelen, P. J.& Van Liedekerke, L. (2015). When do firms invest in corporate social responsibility? A real option framework. Journal of Business Ethics. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10551-015-2539-y.
Child, J., & Tsai, T. (2005). The dynamic between firms’ environmental strategies and institutional constraints in emerging economies: Evidence from China and Taiwan. Journal of Management Studies,42, 95–125.
Chua, J. H., Chrisman, J. J., & Sharma, P. (1999). Defining the family business by behavior. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, 23(4), 19–39.
Chun, R. (2005). Ethical character and virtue of organizations: An empirical assessment and strategic implications. Journal of Business Ethics,57, 269–284.
Collier, J., & Esteban, R. (2000). Systemic leadership: Ethical and effective. The Leadership and Organizational Development Journal,21(4), 207–215.
Collier, J., & Esteban, R. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and employee commitment. Business Ethics. A European Review, 16(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2006.00466.x.
Constantinescu, M., & Kaptein, M. (2015a). CSR standards and corporate ethical virtues: A normative inquiry into the way corporations integrate stakeholder expectations. In S. O. Idowu, C. Frederiksen, A. Mermod, & M. Nielsen (Eds.), Corporate social responsibility and governance: CSR, sustainability, ethics & governance (pp. 159–180). Cham: Springer.
Constantinescu, M., & Kaptein, M. (2015b). Mutually enhancing responsibility: A theoretical exploration of the interaction mechanisms between individual and corporate moral responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics,129, 325–339.
Constantinescu, M., & Kaptein, M. (2020). Virtue ethics and CSR: The two sides of sustainable organizational performance. In W. Wermayer, S. Looser, & M. Del Baldo (Eds.), Intrinsic CSR and Competition: Doing well amongst European SMEs (pp. 119–132). London: Palgrave.
Del Baldo, M. (2010). Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Italian SMEs: 1121 Toward a “territorial” model based on small “champions of CSR”. International Journal of 1122 Sustainable Society, 2(3), 215–247.
Del Baldo, M. (2012). Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Italian Smes: The experience of some “spirited businesses”. Journal of Management and Governance,16(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-009-9127-4.
Del Baldo, M. (2013). CSR-oriented SMEs: A question of entrepreneurial virtues in action? Reflections in theory and practice. In J. O. Okpara and S. O. Idowu (Eds.), Corporate social responsibility: Challenges, opportunities and strategies for 21st century leaders (pp. 145–170). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.
Del Baldo, M. (2014). Corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurial values and transcendental virtues in Italian SMEs. International Journal of Business and Social Science,5(6), 25–51.
Devinney, T. M., Williams, C. A., & Schwalbach, J. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance: Comparative perspectives. Corporate Governance: An International Review,21(5), 413–419.
Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A., & Sen, S. (2013). The roles of leadership styles in corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics,114, 155–169.
Dutta, S., & Banerjee, S. (2011). Ethical practices towards employees in small enterprises: A quantitative index. International Journal of Business Management & Economic Research,2(3), 205–221.
Ferrero, I., & Sison, A. J. G. (2014). A quantitative analysis of authors, schools and themes in virtue ethics articles in business ethics and management journals (1980–2011). Business Ethics: A European Review,23, 375–400.
Flores, S. L., & Green, M. T. (2013). The importance of small business leader virtues: Small business institute. National Conference Proceedings,37(1), 252–261.
Flynn, G. (2008). The virtuous manager: A vision for leadership in business. Journal of Business Ethics,78, 359–372.
Gallo, M., & Cappuyns, K. (2004). Characteristics of successful family businesses. WP-542, IESE Business School, University of Navarra.
Gorgievski, M. J., Ascalon, M. E., & Ute, S. (2011). Small business owners’ success criteria, a values approach to personal differences. Journal of Small Business Management,49(2), 207–232.
Groves, K. S., & LaRocca, M. A. (2011). An empirical study of leader ethical values, transformational and transactional leadership, and follower attitudes toward corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics,103, 511–528.
Gui, B., & Sugden, R. (2005). Economics and social interactions: Accounting for interpersonal relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hartman, E. M. (1998). The role of character in business ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly,8(3), 547–559.
Hartman, E. M. (2006). Can we teach character? An Aristotelian answer. Academy of Management Learning & Education,5(1), 68–81.
Hemingway, C. A., & Maclagan, P. W. (2004). Managers’ personal values as drivers of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics,50(1), 33–44.
Heugens, P., Kaptein, M., & Van Oosterhout, J. (2008). Contracts to communities: A processual model of organizational virtue. Journal of Management Studies,45, 100–121.
Hoivik von Weltzien, H. (2014). The heart of leadership is ethics. Impresa Progetto-Electronic Journal of Management,11, 1–9.
Hoivik von Weltzien, H., & Melé, D. (2009). Can a SME become a global corporate citizen? Evidence from a case study. Journal of Business Ethics,88, 551–562.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Small business champions for corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics,6(3), 241–256.
Johnson, C. E. (2009). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Jones, J. (2014). Leadership lessons from Levinas: Revisiting responsible leadership. Leadership and the Humanities,2, 44–63.
Kaptein, M. (1998). Ethics management: Auditing and developing the ethical content of organizations. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Kaptein, M. (2008). Developing and testing a measure for the ethical culture of organizations: The corporate ethical virtues model. Journal of Organizational Behavior,29, 923–947.
Kaptein, M. (2011). Understanding unethical behavior by unravelling ethical culture. Human Relations,64, 843–869.
Kaptein, M. (2017). When organizations are too good: Applying Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean to the corporate ethical virtues model. Business Ethics: A European Review,26, 300–311.
Kaptein, M., & Wempe, J. (2002). The balanced company: A theory of corporate integrity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ketola, T. (2008). A holistic corporate responsibility model: Integrating values, discourses and actions. Journal of Business Ethics,80, 419–435.
Koehn, D. (1995). A role for virtue ethics in the analysis of business practice. Business Ethics Quarterly,5(3), 533–539.
Koehn, D. (1998). Virtue ethics, the firm, and moral psychology. Business Ethics Quarterly,8(3), 497–513.
Looser, S., & Wehrmeyer, W. (2015). Doing well or doing good? Extrinsic and intrinsic CSR in Switzerland. UWF, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00550-015-0360-9. Published online August 14, 2015, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
Lowe, K. B., Kroeck, K. G., & Sivasubramaniam, N. (1996). Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the MLD literature. Leadership Quarterly,7, 385–425.
Magni, M., & Pennarola, F. (2015). Responsible leadership—Creare benessere, sviluppo e performance a lungo termine. Milano: Egea.
Malloch, T. R. (2009). Spiritual enterprises: Doing virtuous business. New York: Encounter Books.
Martin, R. L. (2002). The virtue matrix: Calculating the return on corporate responsibility. Harvard Business Review, March, 3–11.
Melé, D.(2009a). Integrating personalism into virtue-based business ethics: The personalist and the common good principle. Journal of Business Ethics, 88, 227–244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0108-y.
Melé, D. (2009b). Business ethics in action, seeking human excellence in organizations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Molteni, M. (2009). Aziende a movente ideale. In L. Bruni & S. Zamagni (Eds.), Dizionario di Economia Civile (pp. 65–75). Roma: Città Nuova.
Moore, G. (2005). Corporate character: Modern virtue ethics and the virtuous corporation. Business Ethics Quarterly,15(4), 659–685.
Moore, G. (2008). Re-imagining the morality of management: A modern virtue ethics approach. Business Ethics Quarterly,18, 483–511.
Morales-Sánchez, R., & Cabello-Medina, C. (2015, August), Integrating character in management: Virtues, character strengths, and competencies. Business Ethics: A European Review Special Issue: Virtues and Virtuousness: Will the Twain Ever Meet?, 24(2), 156–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12104.
Morse, J. (1999). The missing link between virtue theory and business ethics. Journal of Applied Philosophy,16, 47–58.
Muller, A., & Kolk, A. (2010). Extrinsic and intrinsic drivers of corporate social performance: Evidence from foreign and domestic firms in Mexico. Journal of Management Studies,47, 1–26.
Murillo, D., & Lozano, J. (2006). SMEs and CSR: An approach to CSR in their own words’. Journal of Business Ethics,67, 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9181-7.
OECD. (2001). Corporate social responsibility. Paris: Partners for Progress.
Olsen, O. K. (2010). Are good leaders moral leaders? The relationship between effective military operational leadership and morals (PhD dissertation for the philosophiae doctor degree), University of Bergen.
Paine, L. S. (1994, March–April). Managing for organizational integrity. Harvard Business Review, 72, 106–117.
Painter-Morland, M. (2006). Triple bottom-line reporting as social grammar: Integrating corporate social responsibility and corporate codes of conduct. Business Ethics: A European Review,15(4), 352–364.
Peredo, A. M., & Chrisman, J. (2006). Towards a theory of community-based enterprise. Academy of Management Review,31(2), 309–328.
Pieper, J. (1966). The four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Quinn, J. J. (1997). Personal ethics and business ethics: The ethics attitudes of owner/managers of small business. Journal of Business Ethics,16(2), 119–127.
Rahschulte, T. (2010a). Virtues for leading change. The Journal of Virtues and Leadership,1(1), 15–24.
Rahschulte, T. (2010b). Virtues for leading change. Faculty Publications—School of Business. Paper 62. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/gfsb/62; open access by the School of Business at Digital Commons @ George Fox University, pp. 1–11.
Riggio, R. E., Zhu, W., Reina, C., & Maroosis, J. A. (2010). Virtue-based measurement of ethical leadership: The leadership virtues questionnaire. Consulting Psychology Journal,62(4), 235–250.
Roca, E. (2008). Introducing practical wisdom in business schools. Journal of Business Ethics,82(3), 607–620.
Ruisi, M. (2010). Measure entrepreneurial virtues: Towards a new perspective for the indicators of corporate success. Paper presented at the 23rd Eben annual conference which values for which organisations? Trento, September 9–11.
Schüz, M. (2012). Sustainable corporate responsibility—The foundation of successful business in the New Millennium. Central European Business Review. Prague: VSE, No. 2, 7–15.
SchĂĽz, M. (2017). Foundations of ethical corporate responsibility. Winterthur: ZHAW School of Management and Law.
Schwalbach, J. (2020). Honourable merchants as a role model for responsible leadership: History and perspectives. In W. Wermayer, S. Looser, & M. Del Baldo (Eds.), Intrinsic CSR and Competition: Doing well amongst European SMEs (pp. 17–33). London: Palgrave.
Schwartz, S. H. (2005). Basic human values: Their content and structure across cultures. In A. Tamayo & J. Porto (Hrsg.) (Eds.), Valores e Trabalho (Values and Work) (pp. 21–55). Brasilia: Editoa Vozes.
Schwartz, S. H. (2009). Basic values: How they motivate and inhibit prosocial behavior, In M. Mikulincer & P. Shaver (Eds.), Herzliya symposium on personality and social psychology (Vol. 1). Washington, DC, American Psychological Association Press.
Schwartz, S. H., & Bardi, A. (2001). Value hierarchies across cultures: Taking a similarities perspective. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,32, 268–290.
Shanahan, K. J., & Hyman, M. R. (2003). The development of a virtue ethics scale. Journal of Business Ethics, 42(2), 197–208. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021914218659.
Sison, A. J. G., Beabout, G. R., & Ferrero, I. (Eds.). (2017). Handbook of virtue ethics in business and management. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Sison, A. J. G., & Ferrero, I. (2015). How different is neo-Aristotelian virtue from positive organizational virtuousness? Business Ethics: A European Review,24, 78–98.
Solomon, R. C. (1992). Corporate roles, personal virtues: An Aristotelian approach to business ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2, 317–339.
Solomon, R. C. (1993). Ethics and excellence: Cooperation and integrity in business. New York: Oxford University Press.
Solomon, R. C. (1999). A better way to think about business—How personal integrity leads to corporate success. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Solomon, R. C. (2004). Aristotle, ethics and business organizations. Organization Studies,25(6), 1021–1043.
Sorci, C. (Ed.). (2007). Lo sviluppo integrale delle aziende. Milano: Giuffré.
Spence, L. J., & Schmidpeter, R. (2003). SMEs, social capital and the common good. Journal of Business Ethics,45(1–2), 93–108.
Storper, M. (2005). Society, community, and economic development. Comparative International Development,39(4), 30–57.
Story, J., & Neves, P. (2015). When corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases performance: Exploring the role of intrinsic and extrinsic CSR attribution. Business Ethics: A European Review,24, 111–124.
Treviño, L. K., & Brown, M. (2004). Managing to be ethical: Debunking five business ethics myth. Academy of Management Executive,18, 69–81.
Velasquez, M. (1992). International business, morality and the common good. Business Ethics Quarterly,2(1), 27–40.
Visser, W. (2011). The nature of CSR leadership: Definitions, characteristics and paradoxes. CSR International Paper Series,4, 1–10.
Vyakarnam, S., Bailey, A., Myers, A., & Burnett, D. (1997). Towards an understanding of ethical behaviour in small firms. Journal of Business Ethics,16(15), 1625–1636.
Walton, C. (2004). Character and integrity in organizations: The civilization of the workplace. Business and Professional Ethics Journal,20, 105–128.
Weaver, G., Treviño, L., & Cochran, P. (1999a). Corporate ethics programs as control systems, influences of executive commitment and environmental factors. Academy of Management Journal,42, 41–57.
Weaver, G., Treviño, L., & Cochran, P. (1999b). Integrated and decoupled corporate social performance, management commitments, external pressures and corporate ethics practices. Academy of Management Journal,42, 539–552.
Zadek, S. (2006). Responsible competitiveness: Reshaping global markets through responsible business practices. Corporate Governance,6(4), 334–348.
Zamagni, S. (2007). L’economia del bene comune. Roma: Città Nuova.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Del Baldo, M. (2020). Overview: Virtue Ethics and Managerial Control. In: Wehrmeyer, W., Looser, S., Del Baldo, M. (eds) Intrinsic CSR and Competition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21037-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21037-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-21036-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-21037-3
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)