Abstract
MacIntyre provides a substantial account of virtue ethics and his work has played a significant role in its emergence as a serious concern for business ethicists. His approach is that good judgement stems from good character and that virtue ethics is about ‘the good life’, the search for what the good life entails and the ‘self’ as an independent (that is, outside of one’s role) practical reasoner.
He is concerned about the constraints that social structures and capitalist organisations impose on virtue agency though these social orders provide the settings for social relations, they can prevent agents from understanding themselves (and operating) as virtuous agents. The argument is that these constraints ultimately inhibit human flourishing.
Flourishing (Eudaimonia) is about living a virtuous life. MacIntyre’s belief is that organisations that excessively pursue money at the expense of the ideals of the profession cause the gradual erosion of virtues. Such organisations regularly undermine individuals and inhibit the practice of virtues. Nevertheless, some individuals withstand these forces, engage in practical reasoning, show moral courage, act virtuously, and do so constantly, therefore, they flourish and move towards attaining a unity of their life’s narrative quest and that of the common good.
These individuals are the focus of the empirical study. This argues that practitioners, managers and leaders that engage in independent practical reasoning and show moral courage constantly will develop virtuous character. It highlights the role of integrity and fortitude as comfort virtues for courageous actions and for sustaining the individual’s life quests and those of the community one belongs to.
The paper then proposes the Adaptive Leadership model is suitable for a MacIntyrean Virtuous Leadership and makes the argument for how Adaptive Leadership Model can provide a framework with which practitioners, managers and leaders can practice and develop virtues consistent with MacIntyre’s account of virtuous leadership for building a virtuous organisation despite the social structures within modern capitalist organisations that threaten virtue agency.
Keywords: MacIntyre, virtue, character, practice, manager, leadership, practical wisdom, moral courage, constancy, fortitude and integrity