MacIntyrean virtue ethics for organizations, work and employment: what more and what else?

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Background

Alasdair MacIntyre has been one of the leading moral philosophers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. His critique of modernity in general, and the Enlightenment project in particular, has been countered with his positive proposals to return to an ethic of virtue based principally on the work of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. One remarkable feature of his work has been its application to a wide range of disciplines beyond philosophy - see 'Learning from MacIntyre', ed. Ron Beadle & Geoff Moore, Pickwick Publications, 2020. Of specific relevance to this Research Topic is the application of his work to organizations in general, and business organizations in particular, with its implications for work as participation within practices, meaningful work and employment. This was summarized in Geoff Moore's book, 'Virtue at Work: Ethics for Individuals, Managers, and Organizations', OUP, 2017. However, since this was published, there has been both a considerable number of further publications in this area, and MacIntyre has himself written 'Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity', CUP, 2016, with insights into personal and organizational ethics which were not captured in Moore's book.

The goal of this Research Topic is threefold: first, to update the summary of the application of MacIntyre's work to organizations, work and employment that was included in Moore (2017) - 'Where are we now?'; second, to invite critical reflections on this body of work which have generally been lacking in the literature - 'What criticisms of the work to date does future work need to take into account?'; and third, to invite both general reflections and more specific work that develops the field - 'What more and what else?'.

The threefold goal of the Research Topic invites papers under five themes:
1. Reviews of the work that has been conducted to date on the organizational, work and employment applications of MacIntyre's work. Such reviews should also indicate future directions.
2. Critiques of the organizational, work and employment applications of MacIntyre's work. These might take either a philosophical or empirical perspective, the latter focused particularly on the empirical studies which have been conducted and the methods which have been employed.
3. General reflections on what is currently missing from the work to date, and hence indications of what more and what else could and needs to be done to develop the work further.
4. Specific developments of the work to date, including but not limited to papers that incorporate insights from MacIntyre's more recent work including 'Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity'. Other areas which might be developed are: the future of (meaningful) work, work orientation, and the transition to new forms of employment; Artificial Intelligence and technology more broadly; common goods and the common good; environmental sustainability; feminism and race; particular virtues for particular contexts; community, spirituality and place; care. Theoretical and empirical contributions are welcome. 5. As well as philosophical perspectives, articles drawing on alternative perspectives in organization studies are welcome, including engagement with other theoretical perspectives such as institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and strategy-as-practice.

Keywords: Alasdair MacInyre, Critique, Future of Work, Organizations, Virtue Ethics

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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