Post on 23-Apr-2023
Integrating Virtue into the Jesuit BusinessSchool Curriculum
Michael AvariRobert Brancatelli
Introduction
Few challenges are as formidable as trying to reconcile
ethically responsible behavior with the bottom line. Is there
a relationship between ethical business practices and business
performance? Business leaders and shareholders are interested
in measurable results that lead to greater profitability,
while other interested parties within and outside the
organization are more interested in behavior expected of a
responsible citizen of society. Although there is a growing
body of research connecting ethically responsible behavior
with improved employee morale and efficiency, there are still
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few direct ways of comparing what some have called “doing
good” with “doing well.”1
In this paper, we propose that the resolution to this
apparent conflict originates not with ethics but with virtue
and, further, we identify a positive link between virtue and
business performance. Specifically, we posit that business
beliefs can directly influence performance. We then propose a
model that illustrates the relationship between personal
beliefs and business beliefs, and the relationship between
virtuous thinking and personal beliefs (or values). In
addition, we show how virtue can be integrated into a business
school curriculum for the personal growth of students and an
improvement in their ability to make sound, ethical decisions
with confidence and clarity. Both of these goals will be
achieved through a presentation of exercises we have developed
for organizational and classroom use. These are the Alignment
Matrix, the Personal Matrix, and the Polar Matrix, which are
continually renewed through an integrative process known as
the Magis Method.2
3
We believe that these exercises and method help achieve
the goals of Jesuit education, which include the formation of
“a virtuous life characterized by personal responsibility,
respect, forgiveness, compassion, a habit of reflection and
the integration of body, mind, and soul”; the ability to
address difficult moral and ethical issues individually and as
a community; and a reflection of mission at all levels of the
university.3 The exercises and method will be explored in
detail in the following sections. We turn now, however, to the
problem that they were created to address.
The Problem of Business Ethics
Too often, business ethics is perceived in a minimalist
way as a function of compliance; that is, regulatory
compliance, codes of conduct, mandatory training, adherence to
reporting guidelines, etc. As important as these are, they
make up just one part of business ethics and decision-making.
Another major part, not necessarily addressed by business
ethics, consists of personal responsibility, sensitivity to
ethical issues, and moral maturity, all of which derive from
and lead back to individual character. There must be a balance
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between the two: systemic solutions to ethical issues and
dilemmas, and personal responsibility in the face of those
dilemmas. In a business, moreover, this balance must produce
profitable results or at least not constrain good business
options. Most organizations do not attempt to effect change on
the personal level, except, perhaps, to meet the letter of the
law and then, only in some intangible way, its spirit.
For some companies, business ethics is viewed as more
than compliance. These companies are concerned with “corporate
citizenship”; as such, they may engage in green initiatives,
donations of time and treasure to charities, support of
employee activism, and other local activity. Companies such as
Coca-Cola, Kroger, and Pepsico have engaged in such thematic
and community-based projects with positive results.4 Still,
the focus and locus of change remain at the corporate level
with little concern for how and why individuals change as they
participate in these practices. One may argue that it is not
within the purview of organizations to be good “citizens” or
to change their employees, and that the purpose of business is
to maximize profit. Others may argue that social
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responsibility is a necessary condition of voluntary
participation in a free market economy that offers an
efficient infrastructure that supports profitable business
activities.
While these concerns are valid and must be considered in
the training and formation of employees and business students,
the typical business school curriculum often fails to address
the heart of these issues, which has more to do with the
purpose of the individual than the purpose of the business. We
believe that meaning and purpose constitute the driving force
in people’s lives and thus the impetus for both good business
performance and voluntary participation in the meaningful
projects outside the business realm. Furthermore, the link
between ethical behavior and business performance remains
tenuous or unclear in present approaches.
We maintain that to effect change in people—true change
that enables them to make authentic, ethically-sound decisions
—we must reach beyond what an individual does in the workplace.
Change must resonate with who the individual is, affecting his
or her identity as a human being. Being and doing must be
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integrated to achieve ethical behavior and profit
contemporaneously. Business ethics, we propose, operates in
its most effective and transformative way at the personal
level when founded in virtue. From a conceptual standpoint,
this represents movement away from a utilitarian or
consequentialist morality often found in business ethics,
where emphasis is not on being nor the person making the
decisions, but rather on doing and the decisions proper.
We would be remiss if we overlook the role of ethics in
governing legal behavior, although that is not the emphasis of
this paper. By contrast, we propose that by linking virtue to
performance, behaviors wholesome to good society would be
expected by-products. Therefore, it may be a stretch to
speculate whether the shift in emphasis we are proposing might
prevent future controversies such as the ones plaguing the
financial and high tech sectors. Yet, it is interesting and
consistent with our thesis that in 2012 Britain’s Financial
Services Agency ascribed the sustained unethical behavior at
Barclay’s Bank in the LIBOR interest rate scandal (to cite one
example) to two areas: (1) systemic, or a lack of specific
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risk management systems and controls concerning the process of
interest rate submissions, and (2) individual, with senior
management covertly influencing the rigging of interest rates
to allow traders to profit illicitly and to make the bank look
more creditworthy.5 Apparently, certain employees assuaged
their personal conscience through indefensible
rationalizations and conformity to a corporate culture that
created temptations for those who were clearly not equipped to
resist them without regard to the damage they were causing to
society and macroeconomic systems.
Virtue as Solution
The methodology we are proposing for the development of
virtue grew out of our study of an address delivered in 1962
by Thomas Watson, Jr., then chairman of IBM, to a gathering of
business leaders at Columbia University and the effect of
Watson’s thesis on IBM’s performance. A recent LinkedIn
discussion among IBM alumni concerning the principles Watson
discussed, which still form part of the IBM corporate culture,
attest to their relevancy in current management practice.
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“I firmly believe that any organization, in order to
survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs
on which it premises all its policies and actions,” Watson
told the audience.6 “Next, I believe that the most important single
factor in corporate success is faithful adherence to those beliefs. And finally,
I believe that if an organization is to meet the challenges of
a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything
about itself except those beliefs as it moves through corporate
life.”7
Since Watson’s speech, IBM has remained committed to its
beliefs, which resonate with the original beliefs established
by Thomas Watson, Sr. in 1914. Today, those are (1)
“dedication to every client’s success,” (2) “innovation that
matters—for our company and the world,” and (3) “trust and
responsibility in all relationships.”8
In our research, we explore the relation between business
beliefs, business performance, and virtue. Where do business
beliefs originate? As we ask our students, if we had Thomas
Watson in the room with us, what might he tell us about his
personal beliefs and values that (1) motivated him to present
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his thesis about business beliefs publically, and (2)
formulate them as he did? We know that he was concerned about
bringing forth “the great energies and talents” of his people,
helping them “find common cause with each other,” and
“sustain[ing] this common cause and sense of direction….”9
What are the influences of personal beliefs on an executive’s
business beliefs? How can Jesuit business schools help future
leaders develop their personal beliefs in a way that is easily
assimilated to business practice and applied non-
prescriptively; i.e., the model should not give preference to one
solution over another in an ethical dilemma but allow the
individual to develop his or her own value-based response. We
base the answers in an exploration of virtue. For this
purpose, we propose the following model:
Let BP = business performance
BB = business beliefs
PB = personal beliefs
V = a set of reference virtues or values
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The relationship between virtue and business performance
may be represented by the following diagram.
Arrows depict influence, not causation, and, as such, the
thesis we proposed in the introduction now may be stated as:
1. Business beliefs (BB) influence business
performance (BP);
2. Personal beliefs (PB) influence business
beliefs (BB);
3. A person’s sense of virtue (V) influences
personal beliefs (PB);
BP
ѴPB
BB
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4. Virtue (V) indirectly influences business
performance, hence the reversed, dashed arrow
toward BP.
A corollary proposition is: “It is possible to build a
virtuous, well performing organization.” In fact, far from
being diametrically opposed, the argument may be made that “It
is not possible to build a well-performing organization without
virtue,” if within the set of “well-performing” organizations
we exclude those of short-lived success.
As stated in the previous section, this approach focuses
on the individual rather than the group to execute something,
be that a mission statement, vision, values, goals, targets,
or other descriptive of business activity. Thus, we make the
contrast between doing at the organizational level and being
at the human level.
This model is not prescriptive, so it satisfies one of
our objectives. As long as a leader or the executive team can
arrive at a business decision after thinking through a problem
within the model parameters, or as long as a student is able
to resolve an ethical dilemma by the application of the
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model’s process, the decision can be defended. This non-
prescriptive attribute is attractive to executives and
students alike, because ethical decision-making is germinated
from within rather than imposed from the outside by either
social pressure or regulatory compliance. Decisions are thus
more germane and may be shared with all stakeholders with
confidence. In addition, virtue, not ethics, forms the
centerpiece of the model. We attempt to reach the heart of the
matter directly and demonstrate from the outset the source of
ethical behavior. When students recognize the clarity of this
approach, they are motivated to inquire more, because the
model encourages them to connect with their personal sense of
integrity.
In our undergraduate course, “Ethics in Business,” and
the graduate course, “Marketing High Technology Products and
Services,” we take students at Fordham University through a
set of exercises that allows them to discern and analyze each
segment of this model. The following exercises can be
incorporated into a business school curriculum in management,
finance, law and ethics, and entrepreneurship to develop
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virtue and help students make ethically sound decisions that
are also in the best financial interests of the company. The
exercises identify relationships between each segment of the
model in step-wise and reverse manner; i.e., rather than
starting with virtue, we begin with business performance and
work backwards to virtue, because performance is where the
organization or individual wishes to end up.
The general process of each exercise to follow is:
1. Identify attributes of the model’s segment under
analysis; e.g., attributes of business performance (BP) and
business beliefs (BB), or between personal beliefs (PB)
and business beliefs (BB);
2. Identify lines of influence between the set of
attributes;
3. Estimate the relative strength of influence;
4. Apply the Magis Method (see the separate section) to
improve the relative influence between two attributes or
to encourage virtuous attitude and behavior.
The Alignment Matrix
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In the Alignment Matrix, students evaluate the relative
influence of what a business believes about itself on the
organization’s business objectives. These can be found in such
documents as their mission statement, annual report, or Web
site. In other words, we explore the segment BB BP, the
segment that is Watson’s thesis.
Using IBM as an example, students in small groups list
IBM’s three core beliefs. In a separate column, they list
IBM’s business objectives (these need not be actual, unless
the instructor wishes to make this a research exercise as
well). The resulting chart might look like this:
Business Beliefs Business Objectives
Dedication to client success Improved client
acquisition
Innovation that matters Growth in earnings per
share of 10%
Trust and responsibility Reduced employee
turnover
The arrows indicate corresponding influence between
business beliefs and business objectives. Other objectives may
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be identified, and the lines of influence need not be one-to
one. For instance, it may be argued that both dedication to
client success and innovation contribute to earnings per
share, in which case arrows point to earnings per share from
each corresponding belief.
Next, each group estimates the strength of influence each
business belief has on the corresponding objective using a
simple rating of low, medium, high. Playing the role of CEO,
students ask: to what degree does the application of each
business belief by the organization influence or contribute to
the corresponding business objective? These ratings are a
reflection of students’ opinions about performance, although
in an actual business situation there would be specific data
to support their claims. For each belief-objective pair, a
picture of alignment emerges that could be used for strategic
planning and analysis. For example:
Business Beliefs Business Objectives
Influence
Dedication to client success Improved client
acquisition High
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Innovation that matters Growth earnings
per share of 10% Medium
Trust and responsibility Reduced employee
turnover Medium
After analyzing the Alignment Matrix above, students
assess whether the innovation in which IBM is investing yields
the kind of performance expected by its shareholders. They may
also consider whether a corporate culture of trust and
responsibility is sufficient to reduce attrition and attract
new talent. Finally, they can ask themselves how the
application of each belief might be made more effective to
raise overall performance.
Once students understand the basic relationship between
business belief and performance through the IBM example, they
choose another company and perform the same exercise in their
groups. Undergraduates may choose companies where they have
internships or from projects in other classes. Graduate
students may use their present employers or those they are
considering for future employment. Students identify core
business beliefs and the actual objectives as made available
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by the company. They research the company’s products, markets,
revenue, and growth to infer the relationship between belief
and performance more accurately. This challenges them to work
together to gather and analyze data, and to agree on the
relative influence of belief on performance. The results are
presented and discussed in the large group.
For example, Amazon states on their Web site that, “…
we’re constantly looking for ways to further reduce our
environmental impact.” 10 Amazon cites examples of reduced
waste and greater efficiency and supports that claim with
specific data such as, “Amazon saves more than $3 million in
transportation costs and more than 300,000 gallons of fuel
each year.” 11 The resulting alignment matrix may have a line
entry such as the following:
Business Belief Business Objective
Influence
Reduce environmental impact Transportation savings
High
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We direct the ensuing classroom discussion to an analysis
of how misalignment between business beliefs and performance
occurs. We explore the role of individual leaders (1) to
identify key beliefs and values, (2) to raise awareness of
challenges to those beliefs, (3) to bring the organization
back into alignment or evolve new expressions of those beliefs
in order to raise performance and meet new challenges. In
these discussions, students have ample opportunity to treat
issues of leadership, communication, and consensus among
stakeholders within the model’s parameters.
The Personal Matrix
Once the influence of beliefs to performance is
established, we ask students to reflect on the source of
business beliefs in their personal beliefs; that is, to
explore the segment of the model on page 6, PB BB.
“Personal” here refers to the individual as a business
leader and human being. This is important to emphasize with
students in order to respond to the disassociation of being
from doing in business ethics, which we identified above.
Absent an anchor, what we individuals claim to be and give
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intellectual assent to can drift so far from our behavior that
we start to view our rationalizations as truth. In common
parlance, we believe our own press releases. Not only is this
a spiritual dilemma, it can lead to the kinds of thinking and
policy decisions that may result in illicit behavior at the
extreme.
To better understand the PB BB connection, students
list personal beliefs or values as they might write them as an
organizational leader. They identify three to five values they
believe have guided them and have defined their character—
essentially, who they are and how they wish to conduct their
personal and professional lives. They match these to the
business beliefs from the Alignment Matrix exercise. Using
IBM’s business beliefs and some commonly cited personal values
for illustration, the exercise might look like this:
Personal Beliefs Business Beliefs
Influence
Creativity Innovation that mattersMedium
Perseverance Dedication to client successLow
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Integrity Trust and responsibility High
(As in the Alignment Matrix, there may be more values listed
and multiple lines of influence between the columns.)
By relating specific personal values or beliefs to
business beliefs, students are able to see how their character
and sense of beliefs and values as a leader and a person may
influence business performance. They come to understand how
beliefs and values are imperative for more than merely
compliance and social responsibility; that they are, in
effect, necessary elements for inspired leadership. Completion
of this exercise and the related discussions lead logically to
the final segment of the model—the source of personal beliefs
and values in virtue.
The Polar Matrix
As background to this exercise, we provide students with
a wider theoretical context, defining and explaining what we
mean by virtue through lecture, readings, and discussion. For
purposes of this paper and our work within a Jesuit
institution, we present the “theological virtues” of faith,
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hope, and love, and the “cardinal virtues” of fortitude,
justice, prudence, and temperance. Thomas Aquinas treated
these seven as a group in his Summa Theologica.12
Students may ask, why this set? May we use another set?
May I create my own set? These questions often lead to a
discussion of what virtue is, how one virtue is related to
another, whether particular virtues within a set can be
disconnected from each other (we think not), and related
issues. “Virtue” is derived from the Latin virtus, or strength,
and is best understood as a discipline or habitus reflective of
who and what we are as human beings. In other words, virtues
challenge us to become our most profound and authentic selves.
In this sense, a call to virtue is a call to personal vocation
and collective well-being. This understanding has been traced
back Plato’s Republic (300 BCE) and Confucius’ Analects, which was
written over a period of several hundred years beginning in
the fifth century BCE and includes the concept of ren or
virtuous leadership.13 Certainly, students from other cultures
and faith traditions may choose virtue sets that they are more
familiar with and have done so successfully in our classes.
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Either way, virtues provide a solution to many of the problems
encountered in an organization such as abusive behavior,
lying, cheating, conflicts of interest, lack of integrity, and
poor execution.14
Having introduced students to the cross-cultural,
historical development of virtue, its role in religious and
spiritual traditions, its place in moral theory, and its
application to contemporary business, we introduce them to the
Polar Matrix. In this exercise, students use a polar chart to
plot their relationship to a set of virtues using a scale of 1
to 5. Here, we focus on developing personal virtue. Students
can see the relationship between virtues and personal beliefs
that eventually influence business beliefs. We spark
discussion with questions such as, “Where do personal beliefs
originate?”, “How might I improve or develop my sense of
virtue?”, and “How does one derive other popular virtues, such
as humility, patience, or magnanimity from this set?” The
polar chart illustrates a unique profile for each student and
identifies gaps between a desired state and a perceived actual
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state, as determined by the student. The diagram below shows
results from an actual female undergraduate’s ratings.
Faith
Hope
Love
JusticeTemperance
Fortitude
Prudence
012345
PerceivedDesired
This student rated herself [blue line] relatively high in
faith, fortitude, and justice (4) but low in hope (2),
temperance (1), and prudence (2). The student then plotted
where she would like to be in her next virtuous stage. She aspired to
improve in prudence from 2 to 4, and love from 3 to 4. These
points were connected to form the figure in red, representing
her desired state. The area in between the two figures
represents the gap between her actual and desired “virtue
profile.” The chart, then, renders visual expression to the
exercise and helps identify what motivates this particular
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student on a deeper level than educational or career goals. It
also identifies potential areas of self-improvement.
Students share the results of their polar charts in small
groups and discuss how they see the difference in actual
versus desired. The degree to which they share their ratings
and analysis is completely up to them. The emphasis is on how
personal virtue affects the individual’s personal beliefs,
which, as we have established with the class by now, affect
business beliefs and their role as leaders. The exercise
motivates students to conduct a self-assessment of their
personal leadership style and gives them an easily managed
tool for periodic reflection. This enables them to build trust
among their peers, since they are examining and sharing
personal virtue from the context of the workplace rather than
a more private realm. Further, by analyzing a visual image of
where they are and where they would like to be, students can
work on strategies to increase their strengths and correct
weaknesses. Afterward, the entire class evaluates the exercise
and its significance for developing virtuous leadership.
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When combined with the study of leadership styles and
moral development, the Polar Matrix can provide students with
a well-rounded self-assessment by indicating strengths and
weaknesses in character based on self-reported values. To
reinforce the connection between virtue and business
performance, students discuss how virtue affects the business
objectives of the companies they studied in the Alignment
Matrix. This opens up a world of interdisciplinary thinking by
putting various virtues in dialogue with such business
objectives as earnings per share and return on investment.
Inevitably, students develop insights into themselves as
future leaders and how their self-identified virtues might
affect the decisions they make in their professional lives,
whether based on traditional virtues or others like humility,
loyalty, trustworthiness, sacrifice, and even imagination.15
The three matrix exercises present an integrated view of
individual character and business performance. By moving from
business beliefs to personal beliefs to virtue, students can
literally see the importance of character in leadership. The
exercises can be conducted in three to four class periods if
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done as stand-alone sessions, or integrated into the existing
curriculum over the semester. It should be noted that although
these exercises attempt to quantify virtue in relation to
business objectives and performance, they are not true
measurements. Neither can they be used with any specificity to
determine a particular business strategy or solve an ethical
dilemma. Rather, they constitute a model for integrating two
basic but critical dimensions of a business: what a business
believes about itself and how it performs relative to those
beliefs. They may be applied with equal validity to business
transactions, career development, and other areas of
discernment.
The Magis Method
The Magis Method is the process by which the three matrix
exercises move beyond the individual and begin to effect
change at the organizational level. It is based on Bernard
Lonergan’s methodology for insight, since “[i]nsight lies not
only behind and within innovation and entrepreneurial
enthusiasm, but also behind and within the productive energy,
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breakthrough and achievement that executive teams can
experience.”16 Specifically, the method consists of four phases
that can be done over two class periods, usually divided
between phases 1-2 and 3-4, beginning with the results of the
three matrix exercises. That is, from the Alignment Matrix,
students review the ratings; from the Personal Matrix, the
connection between specific personal values and business
objectives; and from the Polar Matrix, the shaded area between
the two figures depicting perceived current virtue and desired
virtue. The process is repeated often and adapted to the study
of specific industries. In our Business Ethics classes with
undergraduates, we ask students to keep the same companies
they used with the matrix exercises, so that they can see the
entire process at work.
(1) Review. In this initial phase, students review
the three matrix exercises to arrive at a deeper
understanding of the meaning of the results. For
instance, they might be challenged to think
through the relationship between the virtue of
love and a business objective like improved
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product quality. There might not appear to be any
immediate connection, but once they understand
love as a responsibility for other, they see how
it could influence a decision to increase an R&D
budget or issue a recall of a defective product.
This also reinforces the interrelatedness of the
virtues, with love shown to have a justice
dimension.
(2) Reflect. In this second phase, students consider
the systemic issues that Review raises. What is
the significance of the data for the organization,
and what are the underlying reasons for any gap
between the desired and actual states? What effect
does this gap have on the organization? Has the
corporate culture changed and, if so, how and why?
Through role play, students think imaginatively and
critically on their personal contribution to
organizational alignment/misalignment. This should
be evident through the Personal and Polar Matrix
exercises.
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(3) Revise. This phase focuses on the realignment of
business objectives with beliefs, closing the gap
identified in Review and Reflect. This requires a
creative effort on the part of students to
reimagine what new or revised objectives would
look like and how they would fit not just into the
mission of the organization but its culture. Revise
is the breakthrough phase that consists of
personal commitment to change. Interestingly, in
working through the organization’s culture and
belief system, the student’s personal mission and
identity become clearer. We have seen the creation
of new insights on the part of students in this
phase, usually as the result of stepping back and
taking a look at the larger organizational picture
and then, secondly, their role (perceived or
otherwise) in it.
(4) Recreate. This stage corresponds to execution,
when through their roles students commit to the
revised or realigned set of business objectives
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that match the organization’s beliefs more
directly. The earlier revision turns into a
concrete commitment here. Questions are asked such
as: What will I do as a result of re-visioning or
revising? What will I commit to now that I have a
firmer grasp of who I am and what the organization
stands for? Where are the roadblocks, what needs
to be considered, and who needs to be included in
the discussion? What needs to be changed today, in
the next month, the next year? What is my role as
a leader, and how will I apply my newfound sense
of virtue to that role?
At this point, several observations need to be made. The
first is that through these exercises and phases, students
often make choices that pit one value or set of values against
another. But value does not always mean choosing something of
perceived greater worth over something of lesser worth.
Ethical decision-making is not solely about determining which
value or virtue to choose but making virtue itself the principle
by which one chooses. It is the way in which one chooses
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rather than the thing chosen that matters, as stated earlier
concerning virtue ethics. As Walter Conn has stated, “it is
not first of all choosing new values (content), but choosing
value as one’s criterion of choice.”17
Secondly, the key to the success of the Magis Method is
its group setting. As in organizational misalignment, the
correction of personal misalignment is not done in a vacuum.
Others’ help is needed to identify new ways of being,
particularly in a business context where decisions are often
made through group process and consultation. The student
conducts a reflective analysis of personal virtue while
reviewing the organizational belief system. The transformation
that results is founded on a new sense of freedom, the freedom
to embrace the reality of self, which then extends to freedom
of thought and behavior. This freedom is founded on self-
respect, which empowers the student “to accept responsibility
for one’s own life, to refuse to hide behind roles and
facades, to refuse to let other persons’ expectations rule
one’s life, to recognize that one’s judgments and choices
determine the very person that one is, and that therefore the
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character habits that one despises are those that one has
chosen to form.”18
Finally, by the time students have reflected on these
issues individually and in their small group throughout the
matrix exercises, they are well prepared for the larger
classroom process in the Magis Method. We are also aware as
instructors that some of the reflection and discussion touches
on sensitive topics, and so personal virtue is considered in
the context of leadership roles and the Magis Method in terms
of the organization. The fact that the Magis Method is
conducted after the three matrix exercises helps students see
that personal virtues and beliefs are tied directly to
corporate culture and performance. By then, they will also
have developed a level of trust to share their personal
analysis of strengths and weaknesses. In our experience, this
is less of a problem for the millennial generation, accustomed
as it is to group activity and social media. We have found
this to be true even of those cultural groups that are
traditionally introverted and less willing to share openly.
With any student who is reluctant to share in the self-
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analysis and open dialogue, we provide other forms of
expression through Blackboard, Fordham’s course management
system, such as Wiki posts, blogging, and journaling.
Conclusion
We propose a unified model showing the relationship of
business beliefs to business performance, of personal beliefs
to business beliefs, and of virtue to personal beliefs, and
through this cycle, the influence of virtue on business
performance. We introduce three exercises that may be
conducted in the undergraduate or graduate classroom, or in
corporate training, to develop a deeper understanding of the
respective relationships and their effect on actual business
results. We propose the Magis Method as a tool to analyze,
enhance, and renew this understanding. The proposed model and
exercises satisfy important design objectives:
1. They emphasize virtue, not ethics, at the model’s
core;
2. They help business executives and students develop
their sense of being and doing;
3. They are performance, not compliance, inspired;
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4. They are iterative and conducive to continuous
improvement by application of the Magis Method;
5. They are neutral and non-prescriptive: a business
can defend any decision derived from this process
because of the foundation in virtue;
6. Ethical decisions have a frame of reference in the
model and are not placed in opposition to business
performance, but are supportive of it.
There are several major benefits to the approach we are
proposing. First, whether integrated into an existing
curriculum or added as a separate syllabus topic, the matrix
exercises and Magis Method allow students to see how business
performance is related to personal beliefs and virtue, thus
grounding their study of economics, finance, management, and
marketing in a deeper and more socially responsible reality.
They also improve in the areas of teamwork, research,
communication, and managing competing demands, which are
skills that prospective employers value highly. Second,
through their participation in the Polar Matrix exercise,
students have the opportunity to grow in self-knowledge and
35
personal mastery, both of which are essential for healthy
psychological and spiritual growth and leadership. This growth
has helped students at Fordham University identify and address
the ethical dimensions of leadership beyond the customary
financial and legal ones. Third, the Magis Method forces
students to face the rather uncomfortable reality that
morality and moral decision-making do not exist apart from
their application as if in some neo-Platonic sphere. They are
meaningless if not applied and lived, which exposes the
fallacy of the belief that an organization cannot be both
virtuous and successful, or that these are in opposition to
one another.
Lastly, it should be noted that in working through the
phases of the Magis Method, one becomes aware of the prophetic
dimension of virtue and its role in reversing the post-modern
problem of compartmentalization and immediacy. When
organizational structures force employees to focus only on the
immediate, short-term effect of their actions, then not only
do organizations suffer but entire industries and society as a
whole can be damaged.
36
Individuals may not have the fortitude to change patterns
of behavior when those patterns are deeply embedded in the
culture and reinforced in incentive structures that reward
corruption or, more commonly, that fail to reward behavior in
accordance with well-conceived business beliefs. Yet, we
believe the surest way to counter this systemic trend is
through individual and corporate development of the habits of
virtue. It is our hope that the implications of this proposed
approach for Jesuit business education are new positioning and
market discriminators for our business schools. What we have
proposed is at least one definitive answer to the question of
how to reconcile ethically responsible behavior with the
bottom line in a distinctly Jesuit way.
Michael Avari teaches marketing at Fordham University and isthe founder of GraceOne Advisors. Robert Brancatelli, Ph.D.teaches business ethics at Fordham University and is thefounder of Fordham Road Collaborative.
37
1 See Marjorie Kelly, “Holy Grail Found: Absolute, Definitive Proof
that Responsible Companies Perform Better Financially,” Business Ethics, Winter
(2004); Sean Valentine, Lynn Godkin, Gary M. Fleischman, and Rolan Kidwell,
“Corporate Ethical Values, Group Creativity, Job Satisfaction and Turnover
Intention: The Impact of Work Context on Work Response,” Journal of Business
Ethics (2011) 98: 353-572; “How Ethics Influence Future Profitability—
Walmart’s Way,” May 20, 2009, Insiderretailing; O.C. Ferrell, Isabelle Maignan,
and Terry W. Loe, “The Relationship between Corporate Citizenship and
Competitive Advantage,” in Rights, Relationships, and Responsibilities, ed. O.C.
Ferrell, Lou Pelton, and Sheb L. True (Kennesaw, GA: Kennesaw State
University Press, 2003); Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, The Progress
Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Boston, MA:
Harvard Business Review Press, 2011) for the “inner work lives” of
employees through empowering and nourishing them in the workplace; Anke
Arnaud, “Conceptualizing and Measuring Ethical Work Climate,” Business & Society
49 (2010): 345-58.
2 The matrix exercises and Magis Method were created by Fordham Road
Collaborative, which holds sole rights.
3 See “Some Characteristics of Jesuit Universities,” Association of
Jesuit Colleges and Universities and the Jesuit Conference USA, summer
2011.
4 O.C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, Linda Ferrell, Business Ethics: Ethical
Decision Making and Cases, 9th ed. (Mason, OH: South Western/Cengage Learning,
2011, 2013), 118. See also The Ethisphere Institute at www.ethisphere.com.
5 London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is the interest rate charged
between banks when they lend each other money. LIBOR sets the global
benchmark for rates on mortgages, student loans, car loans, and other
financial instruments. Barclay’s was found complicit in rate fixing for
profit. See “LIBOR: Frequently Asked Questions”, Congressional Research
Service (June 16, 2012), accessed February 19, 2014,
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42608.pdf . For Barclay’s, see “Final
Notice to Barclay’s Bank”, Financial Services Authority (June 27, 2012), 3,
and 14, accessed February 19, 2014,
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/pubs/final/barclays-jun12.pdf .
6 See “IBM and Its Beliefs: IBMers are Defined by What They Value,”
accessed February 19, 2014,
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/bizbeliefs/.
7 Ibid. Italics added.
8 Ibid.
9 Thomas Watson, Jr., A Business and its Beliefs, The Ideas that Helped Build IBM. (New
York, McGraw Hill Book Company, 1963), 4.
10 See Amazon.com: Amazon's Innovations for Our Planet , accessed February 7,
2014, http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gw_m_b_corpres?ie=UTF8&node=13786321
11 Ibid.
12 See ST I-II.Q55, Art 1, which addresses the nature of virtue.
13 Richard R. Kilburg, Virtuous Leaders: Strategy, Character, and Influence in the 21st
Century (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2012), 47, 114-
15. See also Raymond Dawson, introduction to Confucius: The Analects, Oxford
World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), xiii.
14 O.C. Ferrell at al., Business Ethics, 116.
15 See, for instance, the West Point model of character development,
which offers an interesting balance between “competence and character.” Its
list of virtues includes integrity, empathy, collaboration, and reflection
(see Eric Kail, “Leadership character: A six-part series by West Point’s
Eric Kail,” Washington Post, June 10, 2011, accessed September 24, 2013,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-insights/post/leadership-
character-a-six-part-series-by-west-points-col-eric-kail/2011/04/04/
AGSg1DPH_blog.html . See also Romano Guardini, Learning the Virtues That Lead You to
God (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 1987). Guardini identifies
truthfulness, acceptance, patience, justice, reverence, loyalty,
asceticism, and gratitude among others.
16 John Little, “A Powerful Intellectual Foundation for a Jesuit
Business Education that Makes a Difference,” Journal of Jesuit Business Education,
vol. 3 no. 1 (Summer 2012), 131. According to Lonergan, insight is reached
as the result of inquiry that leads one to examine an experience,
understand it, judge whether one’s understanding is right or wrong, and
reach a decision for action. See also, Robert A. Miller, “Lifesizing
Entrepreneurship: Lonergan, Bias and The Role of Business in Society,” in
Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 58 (2005): 219-25.
17 Walter E. Conn, Christian Conversion: A Developmental Interpretation of Autonomy
and Surrender, (New York: Paulist Press, 1986; reprint, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf
and Stock Publishers, 2006), 209.
18 Ibid.