In Pursuit of Eudaimonia: How Virtue Ethics Captures the Self-Understandings and Roles of Corporate Directors

Moral Development in Business Ethics: An Examination and Critique

“…Although his ideas are important, recent research demonstrates his theorizing is insufficient in understanding and predicting the moral judgmentaction gap (Hannah et al 2018;Sanders et al 2018). This article has provided various examples of other research that has successfully moved beyond Kohlberg's assumptions (Aquino and Reed 2002;Grant et al 2018). For this reason, we encourage ethics scholars to reconsider an overreliance on rationality in their research in behavioral business ethics.…”

“…The philosophy of virtue ethics arose from Aristotle's views of the development of virtues (Grant et al 2018). Virtue ethics theorizes that any individual can obtain real happiness by pursuing meaning, concern for the common good, and the trait of virtue itself, and that by doing so such an individual will develop virtuous qualities that further increase his or her capacity to obtain real happiness through worthwhile pursuits (Martin 2011).…”

“…Virtue ethics also posits that individuals with enough situational awareness and knowledge can correctly evaluate their own virtue, underlying motivations, and ethical options in a given situation (Martin 2011). Grant et al (2018) explain that researchers of virtue ethics explore virtue as being context specific, relative to the individual, and developing over a lifetime. Therefore, virtue ethics considers moral decision making to be both personal and contextual, and defines ethical decisions as leading to actions that impact the common good and contribute to an individual's real happiness and self-perceived virtue.…”

“…Although empirical research has found evidence of the constancy of individuals' virtue characteristics under different situations, research suggests virtues are not necessarily predictive of actual ethical behavior (Jayawickreme et al 2014). Empirical evidence of the application of the theory of virtue ethics at the individual level is lacking; a recent review of thirty highly cited virtue ethics papers found only two studies that collected primary empirical data at the individual level (Grant et al 2018). Thus, we call on ethics scholars to investigate the development and situational or universal influence of virtue states, traits, and characteristics, as well as their impact on happiness and other outcomes.…”

“…For example, some behavioral ethics researchers bracket thinking and feeling and have explored a deeper approach by examining the brain's use of subconscious mental shortcuts (Gigerenzer 2008;Sunstein 2005). In addition, virtue ethics and moral identity scholars focus on how individuals in organizations develop certain qualities that become central to their identity and motivate their moral behavior, not by focusing on cognition or affect but by focusing on the practice of behavioral habits (Blasi 1993(Blasi , 1995(Blasi , 2009Grant et al 2018;Martin 2011). Each of these groups of behavioral ethics researchers have moved the discussion of moral development forward using theorizing that rests on different-and often competing-assumptions.…”