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When Not Knowing is a Virtue: A Business Ethics Perspective

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Joanna Crossman

  2. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India

    Vijayta Doshi

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  1. Joanna Crossman
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  2. Vijayta Doshi
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Correspondence to Joanna Crossman.

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Crossman, J., Doshi, V. When Not Knowing is a Virtue: A Business Ethics Perspective. J Bus Ethics 131, 1–8 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2267-8

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