The Virtue of Virtue Ethics in Understanding Professionalism

The Virtue of Virtue Ethics in Understanding Professionalism and Behavioral Ethics Kevin O’Brien Business Ethics & Legal Studies

Bill Daniels Legacy “I truly wish I could return to Denver 350 years from now to make certain these new facilities have withstood the test of time, to see what technologies have changed, and to see how the bricks have withstood the elements over the centuries. But my guess is that it will be the curriculum, with its emphasis on values that will be viewed as our greatest achievement. ”

“Unethical conduct is just about a ‘Few Bad Apples’ or can good people do bad things ? ” • “Most mental health professionals define a psychopath as a predator who takes advantage of others using charm, deceit, violence and other methods to get what they want. Identify a psychopath by using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist and trusting your own intuition. ”

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People-Stephen Covey We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle/Shaq

Phil Jackson—Laker’s Coach

Professor Ciocchetti: Inspire Integrity

What is the Good Life? Goods Internal External IIntellectual Learning “Telos” Happiness (Eudaimonia) Virtue/Excellence (Arete) Purpose/End Moral Choosing mean, avoiding extremes HABIT

Alignment With Core Competencies Organizations have a responsibility to try to find an approach to basic social problems which fits their competence and which, indeed, makes the social problem into an opportunity for the organization. --Peter Drucker, 1992 Aristotle’s Eudaimonia—”full flourishing” if one practiced virtues/excellence for the public good

Is a Business Manager a Professional? • Peter Druker calls them “meta professionals” – Supervising. . . • • • Accountants Lawyers Doctors Engineers Scientists

Section 7. 3 of the Code of Professional Conduct • Integrity and Objectivity. – A certificate holder shall not in the performance of professional services knowingly misrepresent facts, nor subordinate his judgment to others.

Conflicting Loyalties • Duty to employer to obey instructions • Duty to Professional Code of Ethics

Metaprofessional & the Professional

Virtue as the Excellence of a Thing • “Just as the virtue of the knife is to cut, or the virtue of the boat is to sail, the virtue of yourself is becoming who you essentially are. ”

Aristotle • Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i. e. , the mean relative to us, determined by a rational principle. . . Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect; … virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate. Greek Stamp

Stuck in a Vice? • Aristotle’s Prescription: • “We must drag ourselves away to the contrary extreme; for we shall get into the intermediate state by drawing well away from error, as people do in straightening sticks that are bent. ”

Doctrine of Means Examples Vice (Excess) Courage Vice (Deficiency) Cowardice Confidence Timidity Arrogance Honesty Dishonesty Belittle Virtue Foolhardiness

Brandeis’ Characteristics of a Profession • Training is intellectual in character, involving knowledge and learning, as distinguished from mere skill. • An occupation pursued largely for others and not merely for one’s self. • An occupation in which the amount of financial return is not the accepted measure of success. Internal Goods?

What Kind of Person Do We Want a Professional to Be: Virtue in Conveying Professional Advice • Vice of Excess – Paternalism • Virtuous Mean – Limited Paternalism • Vice of Deficiency – Caveat Emptor

CPA Duty of Confidentiality in Colorado • cannot disclose or use for their own benefit any confidential information pertaining to a client or the employer of the CPA, which information is obtained in the course of employment or performing professional services.

Can a Breach of Ethics cause Insider Trading? • Psychiatrist breached duty of confidentiality by trading on information his client gave (married to top banker); bought stock of company that was planning to hire him at Bank America

Jeff Skilling at Enron • A ‘tough culture’ • Rank and Yank • Fast rewards for ‘ideas’ and booking profits. • Leading with charisma?

Intentional Harm: Enron’s energy traders tortious? • The price manipulation of CA energy prices was legal at the time. • The Energy Act of 2005 made all these practices a felony

Mc. Donalds Strip Search Hoax from USA Today SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. - A jury awarded $6. 1 million-$5 million in punitive damages and about $1. 1 million in compensatory damages. The jury of eight women and four men also awarded $1. 1 million, including $1 million in punitive damages, to former Mc. Donald's assistant manager Donna Summers. Mc. Donalds was 50% at fault; owes all punitive and ½ of compensatory

Robin Williams as Detective Milgram