Virtuosity in Business. Kevin T. Jackson

that there are alternative definitions and thus alternative attitudes.

      Beyond the intellectual goal, businesspeople must be presented with opportunities to see that they could feel otherwise than they do. Others' characters provide an invaluable resource in this respect; the display of, say, gaiety, perseverance, or equanimity by others in circumstances where such is not a habitual response reveals more convincingly than moral maxims that one could be otherwise than one is. In response to these reflections, a critic might raise the following objection. People that enter business schools have already chosen their fundamental projects. Hence, they may well “freely” choose their motives, causes, and acts in terms of the ends that promote their project. But the project is usually to succeed, which means to gain power and make money. So what do they freely do? Upon entering the business world, graduates will act as the company tells them, so they and it can succeed, gain power, and make money. A reply to this objection would point out that, even granted that a business student's fundamental project arises within the conventional horizons of the business world, such a person must always choose how to act within the business world; her free acts may or may not reinforce the values of the business status quo. What is important is that a person be conscious of his or her freedom. Indeed, in today's emerging business world, rising expectations of corporate social responsibility, fueled by a scrutinizing public, media, and government are not allowing corporations to work exclusively on profit maximizing in the service of shareholders while ignoring impacts on other constituencies and on communities.⁶⁷ Thus, with the appearance of, on the one hand, massive scandals erupting in the business world,⁶⁸ and on the other hand, an increasing number of firms expressly devoted to social responsibility,⁶⁹ graduates of business schools are in a position to choose the kind of organization they want to work in, that is, one they perceive as having a fundamentally immoral, amoral, or moral management orientation.⁷⁰

      Enhanced Intercultural Understanding Prompted by the Universality of Human Choice

      A greater willingness on the part of both business schools and corporations to identify with diverse representatives of a common humanity appears to be an important consequence of adopting a Sartrean stance toward business ethics. As Sartre writes:

      Every purpose, however individual it may be, is of universal value…. In every purpose there is universality, in this sense that every purpose is comprehensible to every man. Not that this or that purpose defines man for ever, but that it may be entertained again and again…. In this sense we may say that there is a human universality, but it is not something given; it is being perpetually made. I make this universality in choosing myself; I also make it by understanding the purpose of any other man, of whatever epoch.⁷¹

      Accordingly, business organizations should show respect for humanity in its variant manifestations. In particular, this entails an appreciation that the capacity for suffering is universal; compassion cannot be hemmed in by the boundaries of a particular nation, religion, or skin color.⁷² It is critical that this awareness is not confined to a mere dissemination of empirical facts about foreign cultures linked with the firm's operations—knowledge must be counterbalanced with a measure of emotional engagement. In efforts to foster intercultural understanding in business leaders, the importance of striking a balance between intellectual and emotional development is clear. As proponents of an “ethic of care” have shown,⁷³ the capacity to identify with the feelings and interests of others, and the ability to see what one's own and others' feelings are, is an important component of moral development.⁷⁴ Accordingly, insofar as moral development encompasses the attunement of attitudes and feelings, what one writer in the popular press has dubbed “emotional intelligence,”⁷⁵ corporate leaders should be prepared (which includes being properly trained) to deal with associates' feelings sensitively, especially when such feelings might range from guilt, shock, horror, outrage, to compassion.

      An illustration will help clarify the force of this point. Layoffs are especially traumatic when managers ignore the way in which the message is delivered to employees. The manner in which people are terminated, including the kinds of words used to communicate the firing and the specific ways the day's events transpire, are of great significance in terms of perceptions of meanness and cruelty, on one hand, or kindness and compassion, on the other. The trauma impacts not only the person fired but also the colleagues left behind. Massive layoffs mean larger workloads for the people remaining. People missing the cut experience low morale. Productivity drops. They distrust management. Brutal downsizings, such as those conducted by CEO Albert “Chainsaw” Dunlap during his tenure at Sunbeam,⁷⁶ are an affront to the dignity of a firm's employees. Indeed, perceptions of a lack of goodwill in employee terminations often cause substantial harm to an organization in terms of sullied reputations and lawsuits.⁷⁷ From an existential point of view, such basic emotive concerns are, in the final analysis, all valid responses to much that business leaders may learn about the human condition upon adopting the basic attitude of authenticity in the Sartrean sense.

      Confronting Ambiguity

      Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre's lifelong companion, emphasizes the “ethics of ambiguity” in her reflections on the moral implications of Sartrean existentialism.⁷⁸ The ability of businesspeople to tolerate uncertainty is arguably an important characteristic to consider. There already exists an extensive literature on the centrality of the capacity for efficient thinking, problem solving, and general intellectual development for effective moral reasoning.⁷⁹