The Journal of Jesuit Business Education, vol 5, no. 1 (summer 2014): 71-87.

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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

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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.