IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v8y1998i01p43-63_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Don Quixote and the Problem of Idealism and Realism in Business Ethics

Author

Listed:
  • Klein, Sherwin

Abstract

I discuss the characters Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and their relationship in order to understand better the place of idealistic theory and realistic practice in business ethics. The realism of Sancho Panza is required to made the idealism of Don Quixote effective. Indeed, the interaction and development of these characters can serve as a model for both the effective communication between and blending of the idealistic moral theoretician and the practical businessperson. Specifically, I argue that a quixotified Sancho Panza, as a combination of theoretical idealism and practical realism, is necessary for managerial statesmanship. I first consider the position that this concept is unrealistic. In the final section, however, I show that a number of leadership and business theorists believe that managerial statesmanship requires a quixotified Sancho Panza. I also consider the question, what helps to make a quixotic vision for business ethical, and what is its content?

Suggested Citation

  • Klein, Sherwin, 1998. "Don Quixote and the Problem of Idealism and Realism in Business Ethics," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 43-63, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:8:y:1998:i:01:p:43-63_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X00003699/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Dobson, 2010. "Aesthetic Style as a Postructural Business Ethic," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 393-400, May.
    2. Steven Taylor & Donna Ladkin & Matt Statler, 2015. "Caring Orientations: The Normative Foundations of the Craft of Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 575-584, May.
    3. John Dobson, 2007. "Aesthetics as a Foundation for Business Activity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 41-46, April.

    More about this item

    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:cup:buetqu:v:8:y:1998:i:01:p:43-63_00. 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    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.