Moral exemplars in business and professional ethics  (Page 4/6)

Exercise two: moral exemplar profiles

• What are the positive and negative influences you can identify for your moral exemplar?
• What good deeds did your exemplar carry out?
• What obstacles did your moral exemplar face and how did he or she overcome them?
• What skills, attitudes, beliefs, and emotions helped to orient and motivate your moral exemplar.?

Exercise three

Prepare a short dramatization of a key moment in the life of your group's moral exemplar.

Textbox: two different types of moral exemplar

• Studies carried out by Chuck Huff into moral exemplars in computing suggest that moral exemplars can operate as craftspersons or reformers. (Sometimes they can combine both these modes.)
• Craftspersons (1) draw on pre-existing values in computing, (2) focus on users or customers who have needs, (3) take on the role of providers of a service/product, (4) view barriers as inert obstacles or puzzles to be solved, and (5) believe they are effective in their role.
• Reformers (1) attempt to change organizations and their values, (2) take on the role of moral crusaders, (3) view barriers as active opposition, and (4) believe in the necessity of systemic reform
• These descriptions of moral exemplars have been taken from a presentation by Huff at the STS colloquium at the University of Virginia on October 2006. Huff's presentation can be found at the link provided in the upper left hand corner of this module.

Elements of a life story interview

• Major Influences
• Peak and Nadir Experiences
• Challenges and Opportunities.
• Goals, Values, and Objectives
• Commentary: The life story interview collects the subject's life in narrative form. Those conducting to the interview along with those studying it are skilled in identifying different patterns and structures in the interview. (Identifying and classifying the patterns is called "coding".)
• Huff, Rogerson, and Barnard interviewed moral exemplars in computing in Europe and coded for the following: “social support and antagonism, the use of technical or social expertise, the description of harm to victims or need for reform, actions taken toward reform, designs undertaken for users or clients, effectiveness and ineffectiveness of action, and negative and positive emotion” (Huff and Barnard, 2009: 50).
• They identified two kinds of moral exemplars in computing: helpers (or craftspersons) and reformers.

Helpers and reformers

• Craftspersons work to preserve existing values, see themselves as providers of a service, frame problems as overcoming barriers, and seek ethical ends (Huff and Barnard, 2009: 50).
• Reformers focus on social systems, see themselves as moral crusaders, work to change values, view individuals as victims of injustice, and take system reform as their goal (Huff and Barnard, 2009: 50).

What makes a moral exemplar? primes explained

General comments on exemplars

• Moral exemplars have succeeded in integrating moral and professional attitudes and beliefs into their core identity. Going against these considerations for moral exemplars is tantamount to acting against self. Acting in accordance with them becomes second nature.
• Moral exemplars often achieve their aims with the support of "support groups." In fact, moral exemplars are often particularly adept at drawing support from surrounding individuals, groups and communities. This goes against the notion that exemplars are isolated individuals who push against the current. (Not all exemplars need fit as heroes into Ayn Rand novels.)
• Moral exemplars often do not go through periods of intensive and prolonged deliberation in order to hit upon the correct action. If we want a literary example, we need to replace the tortured deliberations of a Hamlet with the quick and intuitive insight of an Esther Summerson. (Summerson is a character in Charles Dickens' novel, Bleak House. See both William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens for more examples of villains and exemplars.) Some have situated moral exemplars within virtue ethics. They have cultivated moral habits that allow them to do good as second nature. They have also found ways to integrate moral reasoning with emotion (as motive), perception (which helps them zero in on moral relevance), and skill (which helps implement moral value). In this sense, moral expertise functions much as athletic or technical expertise; all are difficult to acquire but once acquired lead to highly skilled actions performed almost effortlessly.