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Humanizing Business: A Modern Virtue Ethics Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Geoff Moore
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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.

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

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