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

Dawson, David ORCID: 0000-0002-4994-6169 and Bartholomew, Craig (2003) Virtues, Managers and Business People: Finding a Place for MacIntyre in a Business Context. Journal of Business Ethics, 48 (2). pp. 127-138. doi:10.1023/B:BUSI.0000004618.10980.36

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Related URLs:	Publisher
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business > HF5387 Business Ethics
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Research Priority Areas:	Applied Business & Technology
Depositing User:	David Dawson
Date Deposited:	13 May 2014 10:15
Last Modified:	07 Aug 2023 15:53
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/534

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