An article written by School of Business faculty member Dr. Richard Robinson of the Department of Business Administration has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Ethics, widely recognized as one of the premier academic publications in the subject area of business ethics.
In “Friendships of Virtue, Pursuit of a Moral Community, and the Ends of Business,” Dr. Robinson argues that business firms can and sometimes do provide an incubator enabling the Aristotelian category of relations generated for utility purposes to develop into relations of virtue. The latter category expresses a dynamic where friends benefit from each other’s morality - while admiring the morality of another, one’s own is strengthened.
Robinson noted that this contradicts other business literature that is pessimistic about virtuous relations in business. He further argued that it is essential for the Kantian ideal social-aim of pursuing a moral community, even in business, and that an atmosphere that encourages the development of relations of virtue is actually feasible and is optimal for the pursuit of moral business communities.
The article, scheduled to be published in a future issue of the peer-reviewed journal, is currently available online at http://link.springer.com/journal/10551 by searching “Friendships of Virtue.”
