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Human Development and the Pursuit of the Common Good: Social Psychology or Aristotelian Virtue Ethics?

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Abstract

The encyclical proclaims the centrality of human development, which includes acting with gratuitousness and solidarity in pursuing the common good. This paper considers first whether such relationships of gratuitousness and solidarity can be analysed through the prism of traditional theories of social psychology, which are highly influential in current management research, and concludes that certain aspects of those theories may offer useful tools for analysis at the practical level. This is contrasted with the analysis of such relationships through Aristotelian virtue ethics (in particular as interpreted by MacIntyre 1985, 1998, 1999), which is emerging as a strong force in the field of business ethics, and which has strong conceptual similarities with the ideas put forward by Benedict XVI. Aristotelian virtue ethics offers a better fit with the aims of the encyclical at the theoretical level but it presents a number of challenges at the practical level, which the paper suggests may be addressed through the integration in its analysis of human action of models derived from social psychology.

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Notes

  1. Studies in meaningfulness (e.g. Wrzesniewski 2003) have sought to address the consequences of the lack of referential points for truth at the institutional level.

  2. An organisational identity consists of ‘shared, relatively coherent interrelated sets of emotionally charged beliefs, values and norms that bind some people together and help them to make sense of their worlds’ (Trice and Beyer 1993, p. 33).

  3. MacIntyre calls this attitude ‘civic virtue’. This contrasts with Hartman’s (1996 p. 160) description of civic virtue as the role of a citizen in ‘a great community’ involving ‘attitude and even emotion as well as behaviour’ for the sake of the community.

  4. ‘Pope Benedict has encouraged the state leaders to create rules so that this sort of worldwide economic crisis isn’t repeated’ by Angela Merkel. Reuters. Available at http://blogs.reuters.com/financial-regulatory-forum/2009/07/07/pope-benedict-seeks-global-authority-for-economy/. Accessed 6 September 2011.

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  1. Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK

    Felix Martin

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Martin, F. Human Development and the Pursuit of the Common Good: Social Psychology or Aristotelian Virtue Ethics?. J Bus Ethics 100 (Suppl 1), 89–98 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1189-y

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