Moral Apprenticeship: Moral Formation in the Context of Practice

Abstract

Apprenticeship has ancient roots, and learning grounded in practice continues to be essential to the mastery of complex practices, including business management. All learning in practice is moral in character, because an essential part of any practice is the development of those strengths in character capacities for good judgment that enable practitioners to excel in the practice. For business managers, such matters of character and judgment include flexibility and adaptability to the team, a keen interest in seeing others excel and in assisting them on that path, attention to detail but with a sense of the bigger picture, care in assessing resources and costs but also willingness to act decisively, decision making with an eye to strategy and the long term health of the business, and a willingness to bear responsibilities of behalf of the team gracefully. Such qualities cannot be taught in the classroom, since so much of their content combines self-awareness with reading the situation and reckoning the actual possibilities. The only way to learn business management is by managing a business under the watchful eye and advice of trusted colleagues. The moral apprentice is guided most powerfully by meeting the demands of management, especially as these are reinforced by bestowal or withdrawal of honor, the maintenance of respect, and the down-casting pain of shame. This combination of responsible action and mechanisms of informal social control are as old as the human race and no less effective in modern business organizations than they were in past ages. They operate in every social situation, and their influence can be incorporated into moral apprenticeship as a natural yet thoughtful part of moral formation. Notably, by the nature of apprenticeship, the effects of moral guidance register on the business as well as on the apprentice.