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Corporate Roles and Virtues

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Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management

Part of the book series: International Handbooks in Business Ethics ((IHBE))

Abstract

An important dimension of the moral life is lived through social institutions. We play a number of personal and occupational roles, which are socially, psychologically, and morally important. Such roles are said to create special moral demands and require the development of distinctive character traits. This chapter is concerned with the excellences of character that should be fostered in human beings playing business roles. Specifically, it is about the traits that make a good businessperson and whether or not such role virtues are the same as the virtues of a person (qua human being).

“… That was perfectly compatible with the militarist mentality of Mr. Pugliese, in virtue of that psychological mechanism that makes the antimilitarists admire marines: they are not so stupid, they have traveled, they are very much like civilians. As if this defect could be cause for praise (…) praising a soldier because he does not look like a soldier or because he is not so, is like finding merit in a submarine that has difficulty submerging.”

Ernesto Sabato – Sobre Heroes y Tumbas (p. 281)

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Correspondence to Miguel Alzola .

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Alzola, M. (2017). Corporate Roles and Virtues. In: Sison, A., Beabout, G., Ferrero, I. (eds) Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management. International Handbooks in Business Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6510-8_110

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