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In Search of Virtue: The Role of Virtues, Values and Character Strengths in Ethical Decision Making

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Abstract

We present a comprehensive model that integrates virtues, values, character strengths and ethical decision making (EDM). We describe how a largely consequentialist ethical framework has dominated most EDM scholarship to date. We suggest that reintroducing a virtue ethical perspective to existing EDM theories can help to illustrate deficiencies in existing decision-making models, and suggest that character strengths and motivational values can serve as natural bridges that link a virtue framework to EDM in organizations. In conjunction with the more fully formulated extant research on situational determinants, we present and discuss our model that introduces a virtue based orientation to EDM.

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Notes

  1. While the terms ethical and moral are often used interchangeably (e.g., Jones 1991), we understand ethics to be a system of beliefs that allows individuals to make decisions about difficult issues in order to determine what is right and wrong, while morality, more broadly construed, may encompass and support a particular ethical system, but may also include personal, cultural and societal norms and standards by which people judge the rightness or wrongness of behaviour (Hosmer 2008, p. 99). For example, at one point in time, slavery was considered morally acceptable behaviour. However, analyzing slavery through ethical frameworks such as consequentialism, deontology or virtue ethics, allows for a more methodological assessment of the rightness/wrongness of this behaviour. As well, something could be immoral individually yet moral organizationally as would be the case with alcohol where it may be immoral for some individuals to consume alcohol given religious beliefs, but still moral for organizations to serve alcohol at company events given company norms.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Trudeau Foundation and the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership at Richard Ivey School of Business, the insightful contributions of the practitioners in the “Leadership on Trial” study, as well as the insights provided by Jeffrey Gandz, Corey Mulvihill, Dusya Vera, editor Joan Fontrodona and the anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University, London, ON, Canada

    Mary Crossan & Gerard Seijts

  2. IMD, Chemin de Bellerive 23, P.O. Box 915, 1001, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Daina Mazutis

  3. Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University, London, Canada

    Gerard Seijts

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  1. Mary Crossan
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  2. Daina Mazutis
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Correspondence to Mary Crossan.

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Crossan, M., Mazutis, D. & Seijts, G. In Search of Virtue: The Role of Virtues, Values and Character Strengths in Ethical Decision Making. J Bus Ethics 113, 567–581 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1680-8

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