CU Virtue Ethics Leadership Moral Innocence Character Discussion

In his book Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right, Badaracco (1997) stated the following:

Men and women who have power over the lives and livelihoods of others must almost inevitably get their hands dirty—not in the sense of rolling up their sleeves and working hard, but in the sense of losing their moral innocence. (p. 4)

He goes on to quote venerable management philosopher Chester Barnard with a similar sentiment: “It seems to me inevitable that the struggle to maintain cooperation among men should as surely destroy some men morally as battle destroys them physically” (p. 4).

In your post:

Explain what Badaracco means by the loss of moral innocence from the perspective of the ethical theory of virtue.

Describe a situation when you or someone you know made a decision that led to others questioning that person’s character.

What was the decision that was made?

What characteristics of virtue were called into question and why?

How might a situation like this affect the ability to lead effectively?

resoures

Baggini, J., & Fosi, P. S. (2007). The ethics toolkit: A compendium of ethical concepts and methods. Blackwell Publishing.

Ciulla, J. B. (2009). Leadership and the ethics of care. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(1), 3–4.

Crisp, R. (2010). Virtue ethics and virtue epistemology. Metaphilosophy, 41(1/2), 22–40.

Held, V. (2007). The ethics of care. In D. Copp (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of ethical theory. Oxford University Press.

Lovett, F. (2010). Reader’s guides: Rawls’s ‘A theory of justice’. Continuum International Publishing.

Response Guidelines

Respond to the posts of at least two of your peers. 

Student 1 

The loss of moral innocence (Badaracco, 1977) refers to the compromise of an individual’s ethical values in order to accomplish other personal goals without consideration for the far reaching consequence of such actions. For example, a doctor that consents to the killing of a new baby with a heart condition. In this case, the doctor is bound by the ethics of care to preserve a human life. However, he may choose to terminate the baby’s life to save the parents from the pains and anguish of nursing a baby with a deformed heart, thus considering the wellbeing of others (Ciulla, 2009). Such an act can cause the loss of moral innocence. Killing a new baby, though with a deformed heart is an unethical act because the doctor failed to extend the ethics of care to humanity (Held, 2007) by failing to save the baby’s life and seeking ways of handling the ailment.

When I worked in one of the large financial institutions, the director of a government agency asked me to divert some of the proceeds of the agency’s funds under our management to his personal account. I refused and insisted that such action is not only unlawful (fraudulent) but also unethical. When he insisted, I closed the account and transferred the entire funds to another institution where their funds were warehoused.

Such a demand calls to question the integrity of the agency’s director because he is determined to compromise the trust reposed on him for his personal gain. Virtue ethics requires us to perform our duties in an ethical manner and to do what is morally right (Anscombe, 1958). The director is clearly lacking in the virtue of honesty (Rachels & Rachels, 2023), and has betrayed the trust of his office.

The above incident shows that the agency’s director is not morally and ethically competent to lead in that organization. The director should be relieved of his duties and prevented from heading public office because he lacks the character required for such position. Thus, by making character its central concern, virtue ethics emphasizes right action (Rachels & Rachesl, 2023) and can be accepted as a complete moral theory.

student 2 

The ethical theory of virtue is based on Aristotle’s thinking that character traits are what makes someone a good person and focuses on those virtues (Rachels and Rachels, 2022). To explain the ethical theory of virtue, there are several pieces, such as what a virtue is, whether it is considered good or not, and whether it is the same for all (Rachels and Rachels, 2022). This theory has some advantages, as it motivates moral behavior; however, it can also be considered incomplete as it does not fully explain the reasoning for the choice of what is a virtue or not (Rachels and Rachels, 2022). Another question we can ask is does virtue change by culture, age, or other factor. Some suggest that age may change virtue importance to an individual, which can affect ethical compliance (Stein, 2017).

Moral innocence can be construed as the general response that right and wrong is an easy and obvious choice. That there is an absolute way to respond that is right and wrong in most situations. This is an innocent idea because in real-life situations it is rarely black and white. When you are in a position of power over others, your decisions can have increased implications. Regarding the ethical theory of virtue, we can think of the definitions of virtues. Is one virtue defined the same by one person as another? Can someone act in the name of a virtue and still make the “wrong” decision or cause harm?

I can speak of a personal situation where someone I worked with made an ethically questionable decision that caused myself, and others, to question their character. I was brought on as a new accountant and decided to do some random checks on the petty cash since it was held by the receptionist. The receptionist had been “borrowing” the petty cash to loan to her son. She was then having him pay it back before month-end official counts. The characteristics of virtue that were called into question were their virtue of honesty and trust. When someone is in possession of a risky and valuable asset, such as cash, there is a certain amount of trust and honesty expected from them (Seifert and Schmitt, 2023). Decisions that break policy or take advantage of the spirit of rules can cause personal moral and ethical decision-making to be questioned. A situation like this can affect the ability of someone to lead effectively, because their decisions may not be trusted by their subordinates or other leaders. In addition, working in accounting is a field that has a expectation of ethical integrity from both internal and external customers (Kardos et al., 2023). Without the ability to trust each other’s judgment, productivity can greatly suffer.