Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:21:51.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Practices, Governance, and Politics: Applying MacIntyre’s Ethics to Business

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Matthew Sinnicks
Matthew Sinnicks*
Affiliation:
University of Hertfordshire
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper argues that attempts to apply Alasdair MacIntyre’s positive moral theory to business ethics are problematic, due to the cognitive closure of MacIntyre’s concept of a practice. I begin by outlining the notion of a practice, before turning to Moore’s attempt to provide a MacIntyrean account of corporate governance. I argue that Moore’s attempt is mismatched with MacIntyre’s account of moral education. Because the notion of practices resists general application I go on to argue that a negative application, which focuses on regulation, is more plausible. Large-scale regulation, usually thought antithetical to MacIntyre’s advocacy of small-scale politics, has the potential to facilitate practice-based work and reveals that MacIntyre’s own work can be used against his pessimism about the modern order. Furthermore, the conception of regulation I defend can show us how management is more amenable to ethical understanding than MacIntyre’s work is often taken to imply.

Keywords

MacIntyrepracticesmanagementregulationvirtue-ethics
Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 229 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2014

References

REFERENCES

Aristotle, 1999. Nicomachean Ethics, Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Arnold, N.S. 2009. Imposing Values, Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374964.001.0001 Google Scholar
Athanassoulis, N. 2000. “A Response to Harman, ” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 100: 215–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0066-7372.2003.00012.x Google Scholar
Barker, J.R. 1993. “Tightening the Iron Cage: Concertive Control in Self Managing Teams, ” Administrative Science Quarterly, 38 (3): 408–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393374 Google Scholar
Beabout, G. 2012. “Management as a Domain-Relative Practice that Requires and Develops Practical Wisdom, ” Business Ethics Quarterly, 22 (2): 405–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/beq201222214 Google Scholar
Beadle, R. 2002. “The Misappropriation of MacIntyre, ” Philosophy of Management, 22: 45–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/pom2002226 Google Scholar
Beadle, R. 2008. “Why Business Cannot Be a Practice, ” Analyse und kritik, 30: 229–41.Google Scholar
Beadle, R. and Knight, K. 2012. “Virtue and Meaningful Work, ” Business Ethics Quarterly, 22 (2: 433–50.http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/beq201222219 Google Scholar
Blackledge, P. and Knight, K. eds. 2011. Virtue and Politics, Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Borden, S. 2007. Journalism as Practice, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Brewer, K.B. 1997. “Management as a Practice: A Response to Alasdair MacIntyre, ” Journal of Business Ethics, 16: 825–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1017997200200 Google Scholar
Chappell, T. 2008. “ Utopias and the Art of the Possible, ” Analyse und kritik, 30: 179–203.Google Scholar
Chen, A.Y.S., Sawyers, R.B. and Williams, P.F. 1997. “Reinforcing Ethical Decision Making Through Corporate Culture, ” Journal of Business Ethics, 16 855–65.http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1017953517947 Google Scholar
Crawford, M. 2009. The Case for Working with Your Hands, London: Viking.Google Scholar
Crisp, R. ed. 1996. How Should One Live?, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
D’Andrea, T.D. 2006. The Thought of Alasdair MacIntyre, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Dobson, J. 2008. “ Utopia Reconsidered: The Modern Firm as Institutional Ideal, ” Philosophy of Management, 7: 67–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/pom2008717 Google Scholar
Dobson, J. 2009. “ Alasdair MacIntyre's Aristotelian Business Ethics: A Critique, ” Journal of Business Ethics, 86: 43–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9792-2 Google Scholar
Doris, J. 2002. Lack of Character, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Du Gay, P. 2000. In Praise of Bureaucracy, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Dunne, J. 2003. “ Arguing for Teaching as a Practice: a Reply to Alasdair MacIntyre, ” Journal of Philosophy of Education, 37 (2): 353–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.00331 Google Scholar
Hafer, J.C. and Martin, T.N. 2006. “ Job Involvement or Affective Commitment, ” Institute of Behavioural and Applied Management, 8 (1): 2–19.Google Scholar
Hager, P. 2011. “ Refurbishing MacIntyre’s Account of Practice, ” Journal of Philosophy of Education, 45 (3): 545–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00810.x Google Scholar
Harman, G. 1999. “ Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology: Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error, ” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 99: 315–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9264.00062 Google Scholar
Horton, J. and Mendus, S. eds. 1994. After MacIntyre, Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Janus, I. and 1972. Victims of Groupthink, Boston: Houghton.Google Scholar
Knight, K. 2007. Aristotelian Philosophy, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Knight, K. 2008. “ Practices: The Aristotelian Concept, ”Analyse und kritik, 30: 317–29.Google Scholar
Lutz, C.S. 2012. Reading Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1979a. “ Corporate Modernity and Moral Judgment: Are They Mutually Exclusive?, ” in Ethics and Problems of the 21st Century, ed. Sayre, Kenneth M. and Goodpaster, Kenneth E. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1979b. “ Social Science Methodology as the Ideology of Bureaucratic Authority, ” in Through the Looking Glass: Epistemology and the Conduct of Inquiry, ed. Falco, Maria J. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1980 “ Regulation: ASubstitute for Morality, ” in Hastings Center Report, 10 (1): 31–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3560503 Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1982 “ Why Are the Problems of Business Ethics Insoluble, ” in Moral Responsibility and the Professions, ed. Baumrin, B. and Friedman, B. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press. 350–59.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1994 “ A Partial Response to my Critics, ” in Horton and Mendus 1994: 283–304.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1999. Dependent Rational Animals, Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 2006. Selected Essays, vol.2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 2007. After Virtue, 3rd ed. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 2008 “ How Aristotelian Can Become Revolutionary: Ethics, Resistance, Utopia, ” in Philosophy of Management, 7: 3–7 http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/pom2008712 Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 2010 “ Two Kinds of Political Reasoning, ” lecture presented at London Met-ropolitan University.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 2011 “ Where We Were, Where We Are, Where We Need To Be, ” in Blackledge and Knight 2011:307–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/pom2008712 Google Scholar
Mintzberg, H. 2009 Managing. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.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. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3857646 Google Scholar
Moore, G. 2005a. “ Corporate Character: Modern Virtue Ethics and the Virtuous Corporation, ” Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (4): 237–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/beq200515212 Google Scholar
Moore, G. 2005b. “ Humanizing Business: A Modern Virtue Ethics Approach, ” Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (2): 659–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/beq200515446 Google Scholar
Moore, G. 2012 “ The Virtue of Governance, the Governance of Virtue, ” Business Ethics Quarterly 22 (2): 293–318 http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/beq201222221 Google Scholar
Muirhead, R. 2004 Just Work. London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, M.C. ed. 2003a. Alasdair MacIntyre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511609961 Google Scholar
Murphy, M.C. ed. 2003b. “MacIntyre’s Political Philosophy, ” in Murphy 2003a.Google Scholar
Newton, L. 1992 “ Virtue and Role: Reflections on the Social Nature of Morality.” Business Ethics Quarterly 2 (3): 35765.Google Scholar
Sellman, D. 2000 “ Alasdair MacIntyre and the Professional Practice of Nursing,” Nursing Philosophy 1 (1): 26 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1466-769x.2000.00002.x Google Scholar
Sennett, R. 1998 The Corrosion of Character.New York: Norton Google Scholar
Warren, R. 1996 “ The Empty Company: Morality and Job Security,” Personnel Review 25 (6): 41 53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483489610148527.x Google Scholar
Whetstone, T. 2003 “ The Language of Managerial Excellence: Virtues as Understood and Applied,” Journal of Business Ethics 44: 34357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1023640401539 Google Scholar