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When Not Knowing is a Virtue: A Business Ethics Perspective

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  • Joanna Crossman
  • Vijayta Doshi

Abstract

How leaders and managers respond to not knowing is highly relevant given the complex, ambiguous, and chaotic business environment of the twenty-first century. Drawing on the literature from a variety of disciplines, the paper explores the dominant, unfavorable conceptualization of not knowing. The authors present some potential ethical implications of a negative view of not knowing and suggest how organizations would benefit from identifying any unhelpful aspects of the culture that may encourage unethical, undesirable, and/or hasty actions in situations of not knowing. The paper specifically illustrates how patience, courage, honesty, integrity, and humility are integral to negative capability in the contexts of not knowing. Finally, the paper calls for deeper inquiry into the role of virtue ethics in preparing managers and leaders for not knowing and urges organizations to embrace negative capability in not knowing rather than engaging in damaging delusion. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Crossman & Vijayta Doshi, 2015. "When Not Knowing is a Virtue: A Business Ethics Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 1-8, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:131:y:2015:i:1:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2267-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Christopher Baird & Thomas S. Calvard, 2019. "Epistemic Vices in Organizations: Knowledge, Truth, and Unethical Conduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 263-276, November.
    2. Santiago Mejia, 2022. "Socratic Ignorance and Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 537-553, January.
    3. Wenjin Dai & Jonathan Gosling & Annie Pye, 2020. "The Inclusiveness and Emptiness of Gong Qi: A Non-Anglophone Perspective on Ethics from a Sino-Japanese Corporation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 277-293, August.
    4. Peter J. Jankowski & Sam Murphy & Jaclyn Johnson & Steven J. Sandage & David C. Wang & James Tomlinson, 2022. "The Influence of Experiential Avoidance, Humility and Patience on the Association Between Religious/Spiritual Exploration and Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 2137-2156, June.
    5. Erwan Lamy, 2023. "Epistemic Responsibility in Business: An Integrative Framework for an Epistemic Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 1-14, February.

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