IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/mlucee/323215.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A governance perspective on moral character development

Author

Listed:
  • Hielscher, Stefan
  • Schultz, Felix Carl
  • Valentinov, Vladislav
  • Pies, Ingo

Abstract

This short contribution extends Smith et al.'s "Moral Moments Model" by adding a governance lens. We contend that compliance-based control systems (CBCSs) confine moral agency through rigid rules and narrow discretion, whereas virtue-based control systems (VBCSs) purposefully preserve uncertainty to nurture moral judgment and character. Using Structured Ethical Debriefings (SEBs) as an illustration, we show how institutionalized debriefings can rekindle moral moments by embedding reflection on ethically charged incidents even within highly regulated environments. Two propositions follow: (1) well-designed governance mechanisms can spark moral moments in either system; and (2) cultivating moral character is a critical challenge not only for individuals but also for organizations-especially for corporate citizens striving to shoulder genuine social responsibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Hielscher, Stefan & Schultz, Felix Carl & Valentinov, Vladislav & Pies, Ingo, 2025. "A governance perspective on moral character development," Discussion Papers 2025-07, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mlucee:323215
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/323215/1/1931476330.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:mlucee:323215. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wwhalde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.