Virtue Ethics Theory Research Articles

The Influence of Accounting Firms on Clients’ Immoral Behaviors in China

In this article, we introduce important others, accounting firms, in the ethical decision making system. The rational economic person assumption does not always provide the best choice for accounting firms in the influence mode selection on the clients’ immoral behaviors. It still leaves many arguments. From the perspective of virtue ethics, we take a step forward for the literature and propose the ethical obligations and active influence of accounting firms on clients’ immoral behaviors. We then empirically investigate the influence of accounting firms on the immoral informational disclosure of China’s listed companies. Our research goes beyond some of the traditional perceptions on accounting firms such as irrelevant excuse, capability discrimination, forced auditor rotation, and maximum audit tenure. From the perspective of business ethics, we use theory of virtue ethics to further explain the results. Conclusions and implications are presented at the end of this article.

Nurse Leaders as Stewards: The Beginning of Change

In understanding fully persons’ moral predicaments, a core component of forming perceptual judgments, nurses may need to shift the epistemology of their practice from instrumental reasoning, or means-ends thinking, integrating a virtue-based practical reasoning. A bearing witness that achieves understanding of clients’ moral qualities is attained through the articulation of nurses’ self-identities within matrices, such as MacIntyre’s theory of virtue ethics and standards and codes of ethics. Moreover, nurse leaders who exercise stewardship could apply the concept of communities of inquiry to structure learning conditions by which nurses may engage in experiential learning. This leadership enhanced by the nurse steward’s phronetic knowledge, or practical wisdom, which guides understanding of how the clockwork of practical reasoning may evolve within such communities, is critical to nurses’ shift in reasoning. Nonetheless, nurse leaders need empirical evidence to comprehend how stewards’ accumulated moral insights may shape their character qualities, hence selection of values upon which to act in facilitating nurses’ self-expression.

A Virtue Ethics Guide to Best Practices for Community-Based Participatory Research

Rule ethics, or principled thinking, is important in the analysis of risks and benefits of research and informed consent, but is not completely adequate for guiding ethical responses to communities as research participants and collaborators. Virtue ethics theory can be used to guide actions in relationships, which are foundational to the implementation of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Virtues are strengths of character that contribute to a life of flourishing or well-being for individuals and communities. This article provides an overview of virtue ethics theory, identifies common ethical problems in CBPR, and discusses how professional virtues can be used to guide ethical research practice. The virtues of compassion, courage, honesty, humility, justice, and practical reasoning are defined and applied to ethical practice in the development, implementation, and dissemination of CBPR. Best practices for CBPR that consider the well-being of communities are identified. The virtues of compassion and humility foster inclusiveness and integration of community perspectives in research collaboration. Courage requires researchers to step out of the research safety-net to listen to community member voices and wisdom and share power in research decisions. Honesty requires researchers to communicate realistic expectations for research outcomes, share all findings with the community, and consider community perspectives in research dissemination. Systematic involvement of the community in all steps of the research process represents the virtue of practical reasoning. From a justice perspective, CBPR aims to restore communities rather than take from them.

The Model of The Principled Advocate and The Pathological Partisan: A Virtue Ethics Construct of Opposing Archetypes of Public Relations and Advertising Practitioners

Drawing upon contemporary virtue ethics theory, The Model of The Principled Advocate and The Pathological Partisan is introduced. Profiles are developed of diametrically opposed archetypes of public relations and advertising practitioners. The Principled Advocate represents the advocacy virtues of humility, truth, transparency, respect, care, authenticity, equity, and social responsibility. The Pathological Partisan represents the opposing vices of arrogance, deceit, secrecy, manipulation, disregard, artifice, injustice, and raw self-interest. One becomes either a Principled Advocate or a Pathological Partisan by habitually enacting or embodying the virtues or vices in the context of professional practices.

The Conditions of Our Freedom: Foucault, Organization, and Ethics

The paper examines the contribution of the French philosopher Michel Foucault to the subject of ethics in organizations. The paper combines an analysis of Foucault’s work on discipline and control, with an examination of his later work on the ethical subject and technologies of the self. Our paper argues that the work of the later Foucault provides an important contribution to business ethics theory, practice and pedagogy. We discuss how it offers an alternative avenue to traditional normative ethical theory that both converges and diverges with other extant alternatives. By situating ethics as practices of the self, and by demonstrating the conditions under which freedom in organizations can be exercised, Foucault’s ethics attempt to connect an understanding and critique of power with a personal project of self. He therefore provides a theory of subjectivity that potentially informs a reshaping of contemporary virtue ethics theory, value-based management, and business ethics teaching.

Nurse Leaders as Stewards At the Point of Service

Nurse leaders, including clinical nurse educators, who exercise stewardship at the point of service, may facilitate practising nurses' articulation of their shared value priorities, including respect for persons' dignity and self-determination, as well as equity and fairness. A steward preserves and promotes what is intrinsically valuable in an experience. Theories of virtue ethics and discourse ethics supply contexts for clinical nurse educators to clarify how they may facilitate nurses' articulation of their shared value priorities through particularism and universalism, as well as how they may safeguard nurses' self-interpretation and discursive reasoning. Together, clinical nurse educators and nurses may contribute to management decisions that affect the point of service, and thus the health care organization.

Ethical Leadership in the Community College: Bridging Theory and Daily Practice (review)

Reviewed by: Ethical Leadership in the Community College: Bridging Theory and Daily Practice Deborah L. Floyd (bio) David M. Hellmich (Ed.). Ethical Leadership in the Community College: Bridging Theory and Daily Practice. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing, 2007. 208 pp. Cloth: $40.00. ISBN 978-1-933371-22-1. A timely discussion of ethics, leadership, and responsibility is presented in Ethical Leadership in the Community College: Bridging Theory and Daily Practice, edited by David M. Hellmich. The book provides not only sound theoretical discussions on ethics and leadership but also practical perspectives on the application of ethical leadership in a [End Page 360] variety of community college settings. The writers range from college presidents and trustees to college academic administrators as well as university and community college faculty. This diversity of perspectives provides a refreshing approach, offering readers a wide range of reflective voices on this important topic. The first six chapters form Part 1, "Foundations of Ethical Leadership." The writers have presented solid philosophical discussions of both ethics and leadership theory. Richard Brenner Sr. guides us through a discourse on virtue and leadership theory, drawing on Confucius and Aristotle as well as other major cultures, all of whom ascribe to some form of virtue ethics theory that is transformational to both individuals and groups and leads to the greater good of all. Gordy Wax continues this discussion in his chapter that draws on Plato's Republic and the ethical leader, concluding that ethical leaders are "always concerned about what is best for the organization and are always searching for the knowledge of what is best" (p. 22). He surmises, "If leaders are of this nature, then all of their actions and decisions will be in harmony with their values" (p. 22). Hellmich carries the discussion to a different level, exploring power, influence, and cultural norms for the ethical community college leader. He challenges the reader to consider who has the responsibility to act when unethical actions occur. His conclusion is that daily ethical behavior should be the cultural norm for everyone—faculty, administrators, and presidents alike. Desna Wallin explores more fully the role of the president, presenting a compelling list of principles of ethical leadership. She stresses that community college presidents, because of their positional power within the college environment and the greater community, have a responsibility to exercise power ethically. Gary Davis, who poses the question why presidents and trustees should care about ethics, furthers this theme. He presents solid examples of ethical challenges to presidents and trustees and concludes that they need a method for making decisions ethically. Part 1 ends with a discussion on professional ethical identity development and community college leadership. Writers Sharon K. Anderson, Clifford P. Harbour, and Timothy Gray Davies note that, while there is a considerable body of literature on community college leadership, there is limited commentary focusing on the ethical dimensions of leadership in this arena. To present a framework for such a discussion, they provide several models that result in an integrative strategy that can be tied to ethical identity. Moreover, they promote a process that enables leaders to develop their own strategies for strengthening personal and organizational ethics. Part 2, "Daily Practice of Ethical Leadership," moves from the theoretical to the pragmatic. What are most appealing are the rich voices of the writers in this section. It is not the commentary of the university academician or the college president, but rather the voices of the practitioners, the community college faculty member, the chief academic officer, and the associate dean that resonate with the reader. Beth Richardson-Mitchell, Linda Lucas, and Sherry Stout-Stewart present compelling arguments about the ethical dilemmas confronting the faculty member or the dean each day. They conclude that ethical behavior sets the tone for the institution and provides a model for student behavior as well. Moreover, they provide practical applications for determining what constitutes such behavior. David Hardy presents a thoughtful discussion on threats to ethical leadership. His chapter warns us that leadership built on absolutism, affinity-based decision-making, and the development of unethical followers is to be avoided. Furthermore, he provides day-to-day examples that confront faculty and administrators. It is in such...

THE CHARACTER OF VIRTUE: ANSWERING THE SITUATIONIST CHALLENGE TO VIRTUE ETHICS

AbstractNeo‐Aristotelian virtue ethics makes essential reference to the notion of a stable, robust character‐trait. It also claims to be constrained by at least a minimal degree of psychological realism. Recent developments in empirical psychology have drawn into question the evidence for the existence of such robust traits, arguing that it rests on what has been called a ‘fundamental attribution error’. Virtue ethics has thus seemingly been made vulnerable to criticisms that it is essentially dependent on an erroneous, folk‐psychological, notion of character and, so, must either abandon their characteristic notion of virtue or forego any pretensions to psychological realism.I develop a two‐pronged response to this objection. First, I argue that there is reason to question much of the empirical evidence and that such evidence as does exist can easily be accommodated by virtue ethics. Next, I argue that even if we allow that neo‐Aristotelian virtue ethical theories does sometimes presuppose a stronger conception of character‐traits than is warranted by the evidence, this does not significantly undermine the virtue ethicist's project.

The shape of a global ethic

A global ethic needs to be cosmopolitan in a sense which is explained; this excludes certain kinds of communitarian ethic. Contracttheories, Kantianism, basic-rights theories, Ross-type deontology and theories of virtue ethics are reviewed and found to encounter severe problems. Consequentialist theories, however, are found capable of coping with Williams’ objections, and practice-consequentialist theories capable of coping with right-making practices and with Lenman's unpredictability objection. Variants that exclude from consideration unintended consequences, the results of omissions, or impacts on possible people, or which prioritize average over total outcomes, fail to improve on the Total View, which is argued to overcome objections based on population numbers and on good procedures, but which needs to be biocentric in scope. Theories of this kind are capable of coping with global problems, while also favouring alliances between global citizens of diverse normative outlooks.

Is Aquinas an Act-Ethicist or an Agent-Ethicist?

The Thomist 70 (2006): 237-65 IS AQUINAS AN ACT-ETHICIST OR AN AGENT-ETHICIST? DAVID A. HORNER Bio/a University La Mirada, California ONE OF THE STANDARD WAYS of construing a (or the) basic distinction between virtue theories and nonvirtue theories in ethics is as a distinction between agent-ethics and act-ethics.1 Twelve years before Elizabeth Anscombe's landmark 1958 article on "Modern Moral Philosophy,"2 which is widely credited with sparking the late-twentieth-century revival of virtue ethics, John Laird analyzed the broader role of character in ethics in an article in Mind entitled "Act-Ethics and AgentEthics . "3 There Laird described the contrast between the two conceptions of ethics as follows: "By the morality of the act I mean the morality of specific willed actions. By the morality of the agent I mean a morality whose central conception is a man's moral character."4 I take the act-agent contrast, as understood by Laird and others who make this distinction, as distinguishing the primary object of 1 See, e.g., Lawrence C. Becker, "The Neglect of Virtue," Ethics 85 (1974-75): 110-22; Robert B. Louden, "Some Vices of Virtue Ethics," in Virtue Ethics, ed. Roger Crisp and Michael Slote, Oxford Readings in Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 20116 ; J. B. Schneewind, "The Misfortunes of Virtue," in Crisp and Slote, eds., Virtue Ethics, 178-200. 2 G. E. M. Anscombe, "Modern Moral Philosophy," in Crisp and Slote, eds., Virtue Ethics, 26-44. Anscombe's article originally appeared in Philosophy 33 (1958): 26-42. 3 John Laird, "Act-Ethics and Agent-Ethics," Mind 55 (1946): 113-32. 4 Ibid., 113. 237 238 DAVID A. HORNER moral evaluation in the two approaches.5 The focus of act-ethics is on the identification and moral evaluation of particular acttokens (e.g., Larry's telling a falsehood to Tom), which I will understand, following Laird, as specific willed-i.e., intentionalacts , as well as of the types of acts (e.g., lying) they instance.6 The focus of agent-ethics is broader: it involves the identification and moral evaluation of an agent's character, which comprises not only the agent's actions, but also her attitudes, emotions, desires, and sustained patterns of motivation. These are the concerns of an ethics of virtue.7 The distinction between act-ethics and agent-ethics, so described, expresses much of what the differences between virtue and nonvirtue ethical theories amount to.8 Moreover, it illu5 "The mark of a virtue theory of morality is that the primary object of evaluation is persons or inner traits of persons rather than acts" (Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996], 15). "So for virtue ethics, the primary object of moral evaluation is not the act or its consequences, but rather the agent" (Louden, "Some Vices of Virtue Ethics," 204). According to Louden, this distinguishes "the respective conceptual starting-points of agent- and act-centered ethics" (ibid.). 6 Moral particularists like Jonathan Dancy are, on my view, act-ethicists, but they restrict moral evaluation to particular acts only, and deny that there are general moral features or types of acts. See Jonathan Dancy, Moral Reasons (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993). However the focus of act-ethicists typically extends to considerations of types of acts and to the rules or principles under which they fall. 7 A virtue is "a disposition to act, desire, and feel that involves the exercise of judgment and leads to a recognizable human excellence, an instance of flourishing" (Lee H. Yearley, "Recent Work on Virtue," Religious Studies Review 16 [1990], 2). Virtues are "[c]omplexes involving inner states, representations, feelings, as well as dispositions to act, express feelings, and the exercise of these" Oulius M. Moravcsik, "The Role of Virtue in Alternatives to Kantian and Utilitarian Ethics,'' Philosophia 20 [1990]: 35). "Virtues are not just dispositions to actions. They are determinations of our emotions, passions, desires, and concerns. They are patterns of saliency, attention, perception, and judgment" (Robert C. Roberts, "Virtues and Rules," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 51 [1991]: 329). 8 It does not...

Lack of Character? Situationism Critiqued

Of late philosophers have begun to write about the implications of research in social and personality psychology for the study of ethics. The spirit of this movement is that ethics should be founded on a realistic conception of human nature and that social and personality psychology have important things to say about these matters. Examples of philosophers involved in this movement are, inter alia, and most prominently, Doris, Flanagan, Harman, and Vranas. On the psychologists’ side, Ross and Nisbett are the most prominent examples of those attempting to insure that the findings of psychology find their way into our conception of human nature. We want to sign up for this movement too. But we are afraid that these philosophers and psychologists have drawn wrong conclusions from psychological results. We believe the lesson to be learned is substantially narrower than the movement seems to believe.

Giving as a Mechanism of Consent: International Aid Organizations and the Ethical Hegemony of Capitalism

What is the connection between international aid organizations (IAOs) and the transnationalization of capitalism? This article diverges from neo-Gramscian accounts of international organizations by focusing on the distinctive material and relational aspects of the practice in which IAOs engage: the solicitation and extension of gifts. This perspective opens the inquiry to insights from theories of gift exchange and virtue ethics, which allow further specification of IAOs as a means of what Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer call moral regulation, or the disciplining and conforming of recipients to the new transnational capitalist order. More specifically, this article argues that the extension and acceptance of the gifts of multilateral and non-governmental IAOs is a mechanism of consent to the capitalist order. That amounts to what neo-Gramscians call ethical hegemony because it allows donors to ethically judge recipients and compels recipients to accept responsibility for their own plight.

The Language of Managerial Excellence: Virtues as Understood and Applied

Who a manager is, as a person of moral character, has been only of tangential interest in social science definitions of management, which have focused on functions, roles, behaviors, and environmental influences. But how do managers themselves speak of managerial excellence? This paper answers this for a particular corporation, based on a three-phased research process that deliberately imposes no descriptive or normative categories, but allows the answer to emerge, listening to what managers themselves say when discussing excellent managers and their behaviors. This approach finds that: (1) virtue ethics and virtue language is fluently used by practicing managers, (2) virtue language is important to understanding managerial excellence, and (3) whereas the set of virtues defining the excellent manager can be expected to be dependent on the societal, industry, and organizational context, such a set of manager virtues can be identified and prioritized within a particular organizational milieu. The implication is that, once an organization's management better understands the meaning of the excellent manager in terms of the virtue language already used by its own employees, it is better equipped to implement a practical ethic of virtues, one helpful toward recognizing and developing excellent managers. Ethics researchers are challenged to increase their understanding of extant virtue language as the basis for a renewed development of virtue ethics theory and applications.

Apparel Manufacturer and Retailer Efforts to Reduce Child Labor: An Ethics of Virtue Perspective on Codes of Conduct

Child labor is currently an important worldwide issue. One industrial sector where children reportedly work is the apparel industry; however, recent reports suggest that the number of children assembling apparel is declining. Apparel manufacturers and retailers have been praised by international organizations for their contributions to reducing child labor. Implementing codes of conduct is the strategy chosen by many large apparel manufacturers and retailers to establish workplace standards, including minimum age of employment. This paper examines apparel manufacturer and retailer codes of conduct regarding child labor. The codes of conduct of 37 of the largest U.S. apparel manufacturers and retailers were content analyzed using the theory of virtue ethics as a framework. The codes of conduct were divided into those focusing on Legal aspects and those indicative of an Ethical perspective. Four Most Ethical business codes were identified. The ethical evaluation serves as the basis for recommendations made to assist the apparel industry in dealing with the issue of child labor in a global economy. Additionally, an industry-wide code of conduct addressing child labor is proposed.

Character Development in Career Education: A Virtue Ethics Approach

INTRODUCTION Career education is currently experiencing unprecedented growth among virtually all North American schooling jurisdictions. These programs, primarily designed to prepare students for their vocational lives, typically categorize character development objectives under the amorphous heading of employability skills. There is an obvious moral distinction, however, between fostering skills in students and advocating the adoption of specific personal qualities, behaviors, attitudes and values. When character development objectives are taught through the formal curriculum, concerns should arise over what and whose values are being communicated. The existing skills strategy in character development may also prove pedagogically ineffective since students are not encouraged to grapple with the practical implications of different occupational behaviors. John Dewey warned that in teaching character development, “The required beliefs cannot be hammered in; the needed attitudes cannot be plastered on.” I respond to these worries by arguing that Alasdair MacIntyre’s theory of virtue ethics offers a more appropriate model for character development in career education than the skills approach in two critical ways: (1) virtue ethics respects student agency in value formation and reduces the potential for moral indoctrination; and (2) by entertaining the actual implications or likely consequences of different occupational behaviors, the possibility that students will internalize desirable character traits as enduring workplace values significantly increases.

Is it wrong to play violent video games

Many people have a strong intuition that there is something morally objectionable about playing violent video games, particularly with increases in the number of people who are playing them and the games' alleged contribution to some highly publicized crimes. In this paper, I use the framework of utilitarian, deontological, and virtue ethical theories to analyze the possibility that there might be some philosophical foundation for these intuitions. I raise the broader question of whether or not participating in authentic simulations of immoral acts in general is wrong. I argue that neither the utilitarian, nor the Kantian has substantial objections to violent game playing, although they offer some important insights into playing games in general and what it is morally to be a ``good sport.'' The Aristotelian, however, has a plausible and intuitive way to protest participation in authentic simulations of violent acts in terms of character: engaging in simulated immoral acts erodes one's character and makes it more difficult for one to live a fulfilled eudaimonic life.

Nigerian Business Practices and Their Interface with Virtue Ethics

This paper concerns the interface of a business ethics theory (virtue ethics) with an example from Nigeria where a communitarian notion of ethics appears to hold. We will argue that while communitarian virtue ethics theory assists in describing the ethical context of Nigerian business, Nigerian business also demonstrates why a certain kind of communitarianism is required in order to foster notions of individual autonomy. This kind of communitarianism, referred to as a mediating institutions approach, can also be a normative structure demonstrating how communities can treat other communities

Vi gjorde det vi kunne; han var jo så »fin« —Hvordan håndterer sykepleiere og leger etiske beslut-ninger i nyfødtmedisinsk avdeling?

The aim of this study was to generate knowledge about the ethical decision-making-processes nurses and physicians are faced with on a neonatal unit. What ethical assessments are underlying decisions on whether to start, continue or stop medical treatment of very sick premature babies. A descriptive study design with field observations and in depth interviews was chosen. Strauss' & Glaser's qualitative, comparative method, Grounded Theory, was used to analyze the field observations and interviews. The theoretical framework was normative ethics; deontological ethics, utilitarianism, Aristotelian virtue-ethics theory and an ethics of proximity. The findings were discussed at the individual and the organizational levels. Furthermore, the findings seem to indicate that ethical decisions are somewhat ambivalent. Experience does not make these decisions easier. In situations of indecisiveness, decisions are based upon the sign-of-life of the babies. The findings seem to indicate that nurses and physicians use elements from all the different ethical positions. A tentative theoretical framework was discussed where the core variable seems to be ambivalence.

Virtue and Criminal Negligence

This article addresses the contention of some prominent criminal law scholars – notably Jerome Hall and Glanville Williams – that negligence is an improper basis for the imposition of criminal punishment. An Aristotelian, virtue-ethics theory of punishment treats the inculcation of sound practical judgment as a function of punishment. The assessment of reasonable conduct implicit in negligence as a criterion of criminal fault fits comfortably within such a theory.

Women, Ethics, and MBAs

We argue that the declining female enrollment in graduate business schools is a manifestation of gender bias in business education. The extant conceptual foundation of business education is one which views business activity in terms of a game with fixed and wholly material objectives. This concept betrays an underlying value system that reflects a male orientation. Business education is not merely amoral, therefore, but is gender biased. We suggest that business educators adopt a broadened behavioral rubric. Virtue-ethics theory provides such a rubric.