Gregory R. Beabout

The Dispositions of the Wise Steward and the Parts of Practical Wisdom

What virtues must the wise steward embody in order to manage in an excellent manner? Many lists of traits have been developed to identify personal qualities needed by those in managerial roles, but determining which such traits to draw from in a particular circumstance requires practical wisdom. This chapter focuses on the virtue of practical wisdom, investigating what it is, how it relates to other human traits, its constituent parts, its role in managerial activities, and its place in a good human life. The account draws from the wisdom tradition, especially as expressed in the writings of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, as well as contemporary authors who have revived concern for practical wisdom. Practical wisdom is the central virtue for the manager as wise steward.

The Setting: Institutional Social Structures, Success, and Excellence

What is the social setting of the manager as office executive? MacIntyre’s essay on moral agency and the “Case of J” provides insights about the setting of the manager. Part of the particularity of the modern manager is the (misguided) belief that one can act in a manner that is devoid of particularity, disengaged from concrete social practices and specific traditions. What character traits are needed to succeed as an office executive? Are these virtues? Raising these questions brings into focus MacIntyre’s schema of practices-institutions-goods-and-virtues. Contemporary management literature increasingly has recognized that “soft skills” are needed for managerial success. Reflecting on such traits while asking whether the so-called soft skills are virtues brings into focus the setting of the manager as office executive.

Moral Philosophy and the Manager

We need a better way to understand the role of moral philosophy in contributing to our notion of the character of the manager. A Socratic approach to moral philosophy, which stands in contrast to a more widespread view of the professional philosopher, is proposed. One who uses a Socratic approach understands the philosopher’s tasks in terms of pursuing wisdom and cultivating virtues needed to pursue excellence in one’s social roles and as a human being. Alasdair MacIntyre takes this sort of Socratic approach. The book’s purpose is to apply this approach to moral philosophy to engage, criticize, and extend MacIntyre’s work on the manager as a character.

The Dreams of Future Managers

We need a better way to conceive of the manager. Future managers often conceive of their work in very different terms than future physicians. Rather than seeing their future in terms of helping others, future managers tend to conceive of their work in terms of quantifiable success, especially financial success. Our contemporary context invites a transformation in the character of the manager. With regard to the character of the manager, our culture is in a state of confused transition. Young adults drawn to careers in business administration are given relatively little support to conceive of their career ambitions as service to others. Might the dreams of future managers involve not only making a good life for themselves, but also wisely acting as stewards to advance the common good?

Transforming the Character of the Rhetorician

The writings of Plato and Aristotle provide character-transforming arguments. Both Plato and Aristotle treat the rhetorician Gorgias as an untrustworthy character and as an archetype of those willing to use sophistical deception. When rhetoric is defined in terms of outcomes, the rhetorician will do anything to persuade. Plato and Aristotle rejected Gorgias’ outcome orientation while advancing arguments for a true art of rhetoric with internal standards of excellence. They transformed the character of the rhetorician, from sophist to statesman. Mastering the art of rhetoric involves becoming a person of practical wisdom. This sort of transformed rhetorician is embodied in Cicero’s eloquent and ethical concern for the common good and St Augustine’s eloquent oration on the deepest longings of the restless heart.

The Virtuous Manager, the Art of Character, and Business Humanities

The standard approach to business ethics has been to apply one or several moral standards, especially as drawn from utilitarianism or Kant’s duty ethics, to case studies from the context of modern business. The standard approach is contrasted with virtue ethics. With the contemporary retrieval of virtue ethics, the philosopher’s task is reconceived. Moral philosophy involves an “art of character,” the activity of making and developing character. After surveying recent literature calling for a humanistic approach to business, the developing field of medical humanities, especially the emphasis on narrative, is described and proposed as a model for developing a “business humanities” approach to advance humanism in business.

The Manager as Wise Steward: Activities, Practice, and Virtue

The manager as wise steward is proposed as a regulative ideal. The wise steward artfully manages a group of people, seeing the available means on each matter, organizing, planning, and leading in a way that moves as near as possible in each circumstance toward a worthwhile goal. Such a manager is guided by standards of excellence internal to managerial activities relative to the practices housed in one’s institution. To describe the wise steward, two ancient characters are retrieved: the steward and the person of practical wisdom. As a steward, such a manager holds something in trust, including the practices that are housed in the institution. The activities and practice of the manager are examined in order to reveal virtues needed to excel in managerial activities.

The Manager as Office Executive: Emotivism Embodied in a Character

MacIntyre’s account of the manager focuses on the office executive, that is, the bureaucrat. MacIntyre has in mind the career professional, appointed on the basis of certifiable qualifications and compensated accordingly, charged with managing a specific, limited area according to written policies and rules, and applying those in an impersonal manner within a hierarchical structure. To understand more deeply MacIntyre’s conception of this character, three of the sources that most influence his account of the bureaucratic manager are investigated: Marxism, British analytic philosophy, and the sociology of Max Weber. This character, criticized by MacIntyre, is virtually identical to the sort of executive praised by Milton Friedman in his famous article, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Profits.”

Transforming the Character of the Moral Philosopher

MacIntyre suggests that we are confronted with competing understandings of what it means to be a “philosopher.” The philosopher as technical specialist is akin to the character of the manager. MacIntyre describes this character not only to diagnose, but also to arouse. His purpose is to awaken his readers to the hollowness of this sort of philosopher, pointing to the gap between this character’s activities in the professional context as compared with the everyday life of this kind of philosopher. He thereby hopes to dispose his reader to turn away from the conception of the philosopher as technical specialist. MacIntyre draws upon the character of the “plain person” to encourage a transformed conception of the philosopher, from professional specialist to seeker of understanding.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Treating the Manager as a Stock Character

MacIntyre identifies the manager as a stock character in the social drama of the present age. What are the strengths and weaknesses of conceiving of the manager in these terms? Stock characters are distinguished from other sorts of characters, especially protagonists with more complexity that undergo a transformation. MacIntyre treats the manager as a stock character in order to sound an alarm: he wants to awaken his reader to a Faustian bargain where one trades increased pay, power, and prestige that managers typically receive in exchange for a life that is morally hollow, lacking virtue, and without purpose when considered in terms of the human quest for an integrated and meaningful life. MacIntyre’s social criticism is subjected to several objections.