Cultivating moral-relational judgement in business education - The merits and practicalities of Aristotle’s phronesis

Aug 31, 2026

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This paper examines what it means to teach “business ethics” and argues for phronesis as a values-based disposition that unites practical and affective dimensions of practical knowledge. Drawing on Aristotelian origins, it highlights phronesis’s links to emotion and moral imagination, then proposes a phronesis-based approach to postgraduate management education. The paper contends this moves beyond business ethics as a stand-alone subject, offering a framework to cultivate graduates’ moral-relational judgement and profession-like praxis. It also aims to address public trust deficits faced by university-based management qualifications after the Global Financial Crisis.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatDOCX

Pages33

Reading Time12 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Crisis in management teaching and practice

Limited focus in business ethics education

Public trust deficit and moral-relational judgement

Business ethics as a stand-alone or bounded practice

Critiques of existing ethics education approaches

Cultivating moral-relational judgement in business education: The merits and practicalities of Aristotle’s phronesis Cultivating moral-relational judgement in business education: The merits and practicalities of Aristotle’s phronesis Abstract In this paper we reflect on the question “what do we mean by teaching ‘business ethics’ at all?” In response we suggest that phronesis - a values-based disposition integrating practical and affective dimensions of practical knowledge - warrants consideration in addressing the topic of ethics but more broadly in legitimising university-based management education in the face of widespread public trust deficit in business and management education. In this paper we consider the Aristotelian origins of phronesis, including its distinctive connection to emotion and moral imagination, and apply a phronesis-based approach to postgraduate management education, providing illustrations of its practical usage. In doing so, we argue this goes beyond thinking of ‘business ethics’ as a stand-alone subject in business education, and instead provides management educators a framework within which to cultivate graduate capabilities in moral-relational judgement and a profession-like praxis. Doing so would help - post Global Financial Crisis - to ameliorate justifiable loss of public trust and confidence in university-based management qualifications. Keywords: phronesis, praxis, ethics, moral-relational judgement, morality, emotion, management education, management qualifications.Introduction Almost fifteen years ago, there was a sense of crisis in regards to management teaching (especially MBA programs) and practice in contributing to corporate scandals and crisis: Some firms’ financial statements have been found to be deliberately misleading. Some accounting and financial services firms have been aiding and abetting this duplicitous process. The credibility of some Wall Street stock analysts has been called into question. Several corporate executives have found devious ways to hide debt, inflate profits, and enrich themselves at their companies’ and shareholders’ expense...they have had immediate negative effects on retirees and their pension plans and on employees whose jobs have been lost. They have wide ranging negative impacts on stock prices, on confidence in corporations, and on national economies...it may take scandals that are this large in scope for organizations’ impacts on society to be widely recognised. (Bartunek, 2002: 422). Today, that crisis seems to pale in comparison to the recent global financial recession, where the dominance of economic expertise is still being questioned and alternative theories of markets and relationships to societies are being sought (Starkey and Tiratsoo, 2007; Khurana, 2007; Munir, 2011). Yet, despite the comparatively enormous scale of this more recent crisis, the discussions around teaching business ethics remains arguably rather limited in focus. This is surprising when the value, contribution and standing of management education more broadly is being debated (Giacalone and Wargo, 2010; Locke and Spender, 2011; Rangan, 2015; ). Those critiques are along now familiar neo-liberal/libertarian themes, and are generally consistent with critiques before and accentuated after the 2007/8 Global Financial Crisis (GFC): dominant forms of organizational and process-based thinking that is philosophically reductionist, ideologically economistic, predominantly focused on the short-term (typically quarterly in the US) with shareholder primacy the measure of “success” in executive and management salary and bonus incentives – with widespread concerns for undermining public wellbeing as a result (for example, Freeman, 1991; Frederick, 1993; Pfeffer and Fong, 2004; Locke and Spender, 2011; Clegg, Jarvis, and Pitsis, 2013; Huhn, 2014; Spender, 2014). Some argue that as a result of this dominant management ideology the legitimacy of and trust in big business is at an all

FAQs

Why does the paper question the meaning of teaching “business ethics”?

It challenges what “business ethics” covers in education and argues that conventional approaches do not adequately address the broader legitimacy and trust issues surrounding management education.

What role does phronesis play in the proposed approach?

Phronesis is presented as a values-based disposition that integrates practical knowledge with affective dimensions, supported by Aristotelian links to emotion and moral imagination.

How does the paper argue teaching should move beyond a stand-alone business ethics subject?

It proposes a framework for cultivating graduates’ moral-relational judgement and a profession-like praxis, rather than treating ethics as a bounded or quasi-scientific subject mainly driven by psychology and economics.

Aug 31, 2026

Upload by Jake