Editorial Introduction: Putting Virtues Into Practice. A Challenge for Business and Organizations

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in virtueethics and its application to business (Hartman 2006, 2008;Koehn 1995, 1998; Solomon 1992, 1993, 2003; Whestone2001). ‘‘Virtue ethics’’—as opposed to utilitarian andconsequentialist ethics, on the one hand, and deontologicalethics, on the other—puts special emphasis on the devel-opment of moral character. This makes virtue ethics anexcellent platform from which to analyze various aspectsof human action, professional work, and business activity.Some authors have focused on the individual level,showing how virtue ethics can provide insight into howmanagers behave and make decisions (Arjoon 2010; Bas-tons 2008; Bertland 2009; Jennings 1991; Parkan 2008;Provis 2010; Whetstone 2003). In fact, through their work,human beings not only produce goods and services butalso, and more importantly, develop a series of abilities andcompetences that shape their personalities. Human beingsnot only transform their environment through their workbut they also transform themselves.Most people undertake their professional activity in abusiness context. Goods and services offered by businessesare produced through the joint effort of people workingtogether. Businesses create environments that can eitherfavor or hinder the personal development of workers. Forthose reasons, other authors have chosen to write on virtueson the organizational level (Drake and Schlachter 2008;Dyck and Wong 2010; Moore 2005a, b; Sandin 2009).Third, through their products and services, businessesmake an impact on society. People in business should askthemselves how their work and their products or servicescontribute to building better societies and better citizens.Some products are clearly dangerous to people and socie-ties; other products are controversial at the least; but mostof them have a positive impact, although in variousdegrees. Hence, virtues may also be considered relevant fortheir bearing on communities and societies as a whole(Gonza´lez 2003; Graafland 2010; Wells and Graafland2012).In summary, virtue ethics provides managers and busi-ness leaders with an opportunity to ask themselves whatkind of people they become through their actions and howtheir decisions impact the lives of others. It gives them achance to consider what kind of business environments andcultures they should build, how business goals, policies andprocedures foster positive or negative learning in theiremployees and what kind of societies they contribute todeveloping through their operations and the products andservices they offer.Virtue ethics is not only a theoretical approach thatmakes for interesting comparison with other ethical theo-ries (Arjoon 2008; Chan 2008; Everett et al. 2006; Heugens