Abstract
In this essay, I explore the prospects for a virtue ethic approach to business. First, I delineate two fundamental criteria that I believe must be met for any such approach to be viable: viz., the virtues must be exercised for the sake of the good of one's life as a unitary whole (contra role-morality approaches) and for the common good of the communities of which one is a part as well as the individual good of their members (contra egoist approaches). Second, I argue that these two criteria can be met only if we are able to reconceive and transform the nature of work within contemporary business organizations. In particular, what is needed, I argue, is a retrieval of something like the older ideal of work as a "vocation", or "calling", whereby work can be viewed as a specific aspect of a more general calling to pursue, through the practice of the virtues, "the good life" both for ourselves and for others. Lastly, I consider some important challenges to this "vocational virtue ethic" approach to work within contemporary business organizations and offer a few suggestions for how they might be met.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 283-296 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Business Ethics |
Volume | 116 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Business and International Management
- Business, Management and Accounting(all)
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics
- Law