Loyalty is not an institutional virtue.
Let me try to explain.
Let me try to explain.
A virtue is an excellence; or more specifically, it is a habitual disposition towards a telos that is specified as good, hence the habit is affirmed as “excellent.” So if you have a habit that inclines you toward the good, you have a virtue.
That means “excellence” (and hence what counts as virtue) is telos-relative. This is standard virtue theory.
Organizational virtues, then, are excellencies—good habits—that are indexed to the telos of the organization. Perhaps another way of saying this is that organizational virtues are indexed to the mission of the organization (where mission = telos).
For members of, or actors within, the organization, distinctly organizational virtues will be the character traits that tend toward the realization of the mission of the organization.
(Of course there are all kinds of baseline virtues that should be character traits of organization members *qua* human; but I’m interested more specifically in what we valorize as distinct institutional virtues.)
Those mission-relevant character traits could be diverse and depend on the specific mission/telos. Aesthetic aptitude will be an organizational virtue for a design firm; wisdom and discernment will be relevant to almost any managerial task; courage relevant for the military, etc.
In fact, phronesis and other intellectual virtues that are exercised in a way that is critical of the organization may be organizational virtues precisely insofar as they are exercised to better achieve the org’s mission. Internal critique would be in service of the telos.
But loyalty is not a character trait that is specifically relevant to executing the mission of an organization (non-profits, businesses, etc.—not families). Fidelity *to the mission* of course is a virtue. But not “stand-by-your-wo/man”-ism just because you’re on the same team.
In fact, such loyalty can become anti-missional—an organizational vice—insofar as it prizes contingent relationships over specified mission. It’s why “family” language is so dangerous in organizations—it invokes the virtues of another “sphere” (as Kuyper might put it).
Ergo, loyalty is not an institutional virtue.
