Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:49:57.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Humanizing Business: A Modern Virtue Ethics Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Geoff Moore
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The paper begins by exploring whether a “tendency to avarice” exists in most capitalist business organisations. It concludes that it does and that this is problematic. The problem centres on the potential threat to the integrity of human character and the disablement of community.

What, then, can be done about it? Building on previous work (Moore, 2002) in which MacIntyre’s notions of practice and institution were explored (MacIntyre, 1985), the paper offers a philosophically based argument in favour of the rediscovery of craftsmanship by those who work in business organisations, and the exercise of craftsmanship in community.

The practical implications for individuals of this way of conceptualising business, and the virtues which must then come to the fore, are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 237 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blake, R., and Mouton, J.. 1985. New Management Grid: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing.Google Scholar
Bowen, D., and Lawler, E.. 1992. “The Empowerment of Service Workers; What, Why, How and When.” Sloan Management Review 33(3): 31–39.Google Scholar
Collins, J. C., and Porras, J. I.. 1998. Built to Last. Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. London: Random House Business Books.Google Scholar
Dewar, F. 1999. Live for a Change. London: Darton, Longman & Todd.Google Scholar
Dobson, J. 2001. “The Battle in Seattle: Reconciling Two World Views on Corporate Culture.” Business Ethics Quarterly 11(3): 403–11.Google Scholar
Handy, C. 2002. “What’s a Business For?” Harvard Business Review (December): 49–55.Google Scholar
Keat, R. 2000. Cultural Goods and the Limits of the Market. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Keeley, M. 2000. “A ‘Matter of Opinion, What Tends to the General Welfare”: Governing the Workplace.” Business Ethics Quarterly 10(1): 243–54.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. 1972. “The Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.” In Essays in Persuasion, ed. Moggridge, D., vol. 9 of The Collected Works of J. M. Keynes. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, S. 1998. “Don Quixote and the Problem of Idealism and Realism in Business Ethics.” Business Ethics Quarterly 8(1): 43–63.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1979. “Corporate Modernity and Moral Judgement: Are They Mutually Exclusive?” In Ethics and Problems of the Twenty-First Century, ed. Goodpaster, K. E. and Saye, K. M.. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1985. After Virtue, second edition. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1994. “A Partial Response to My Critics.” In After MacIntyre, ed. Horton, J. and Mendus, S.. Cambridge: Polity Press, 283–304.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1995. Marxism and Christianity. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1999a. “Social Structures and their Threats to Moral Agency.” Philosophy 74: 311–29.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1999b. Dependent Rational Animals. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
McCann, D. P., and Brownsberger, M. L.. 1990. “Management as a Social Practice: Rethinking Business Ethics after MacIntyre.” The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics: 223–45.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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novak, M. 1996. Business as a Calling. Work and the Examined Life. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Pollard, A., ed. 2000. The Representation of Business in English Literature. London: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Porter, J. 1994. The Recovery of Virtue. London: SPCK.Google Scholar
Sennett, R. 1998. The Corrosion of Character. The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Shaw, B. 1995. “Virtues for a Postmodern World.” Business Ethics Quarterly 5(4): 843–63.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. 1992. Ethics and Excellence. Cooperation and Integrity in Business. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. 2000. “Business with Virtue: Maybe Next Year?” Business Ethics Quarterly 10(1): 339–41.Google Scholar
Tawney, R. H. 1937. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Tonge, A., Greer, L., and Lawton, A.. 2003. “The Enron Story: You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time …” Business Ethics: A European Review 12(1): 4–22.Google Scholar
Waterman, R. H. 1994., The Frontiers of Excellence: Learning from Companies that Put People First. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.Google Scholar