Can Administrative Virtue Be Taught?: Educating the Virtuous Administrator

Educating the virtuous administrator requires a robust conception of what a virtue is. By discussing the most influential definitions of virtue, this article attempts to detect the problems that have to be addressed by any serious approach to the practical implementation of virtue ethics in administration. A virtue is a disposition not only to act but to think, and even to perceive certain situations as embodying reasons for action. It is argued that the modes of practical thinking involved in virtue need to be specified, and that the institutions which provide the context of administrative action need to foster not only virtue, but the several modes of reflection essentially bound up with it.