Leadership after virtue: MacIntyre’s critique of management reconsidered

Sinnicks, M. (2018) Leadership after virtue: MacIntyre’s critique of management reconsidered. Journal of Business Ethics, 147 (4). pp. 735-746. ISSN 1573-0697 doi: 10.1007/s10551-016-3381-6

Abstract/Summary

MacIntyre argues that management embodies emotivism, and thus is inherently amoral and manipulative. His claim that management is necessarily Weberian is, at best, outdated, and the notion that management aims to be neutral and value free is incorrect. However, new forms of management, and in particular the increased emphasis on leadership which emerged after MacIntyre’s critique was published, tend to support his central charge. Indeed, charismatic and transformational forms of leadership seem to embody emotivism to a greater degree than do more Weberian, bureaucratic forms of management, so MacIntyre’s central contention about our emotivistic culture seems to be well-founded. Having criticised the details but defended the essence of MacIntyre’s critique of management, this paper sketches a MacIntyrean approach to management and leadership by highlighting the affinities between MacIntyre’s political philosophy and Greenleaf’s concept of servant leadership.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/98461
Identification Number/DOI	10.1007/s10551-016-3381-6
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour
Publisher	Springer
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