Should business be interested in virtue?

“Reality seems to show, by contrast, that capitalism depends on human capital most of all, including the human capital constituted by virtuous habits…Western economists have simply taken for granted the moral capital of the West. They have accepted it as a free lunch, as if it came without cost, like air and water. In fact, Russia’s religious and moral capital was built up by one thousand years of patient development. But under seventy years of communist mockery and abuse, such cultural capital has been covered with filth and sludge. In three generations, Russia’s moral tradition has been buried so thoroughly that not more than a tiny flock of living persons has had full access to the moral knowledge possessed by their grandparents. Traditions, like oxygen-bearing lifelines, have been cut.”

“Business has a vested interest in virtue. It cannot go forward with realism, courage, wisdom, honesty, and integrity without a highly motivated and virtuous work community. It cannot endure without leaders and colleagues in whom many key virtues are internalized. In this and in many other ways, business is dependent on the moral and cultural institutions of free society: families especially, schools, and public civic life. A nation’s moral culture is even more fundamental than its physical ecology.”

Michael Novak, winner of The Templeton Prize, author of Business as a Calling

Do you and your company value virtue? Do you encourage it as a matter of policy or as a matter of the spirit of your enterprise? Do your practices and products support strong moral traditions and culture?

Consider some ancient leadership advice:

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine. By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all who judge rightly. I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield than choicest silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasuries.

Proverbs 8:12-21 New American Standard Bible

Do you make it a priority to develop your moral capital?

If nations, as Novak says, cannot prosper without moral capital, can a business?

What examples of recent business failures have been the result of a lack of moral character?