Ricardo Calleja
professor
Business Ethics
IESE Business School Universidad de Navarra
Spain
Biography
Prof. Calleja holds a Ph.D. in Legal and Political Philosophy from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he graduated in Law. He has been a postdoctoral research fellow at IESE and a visiting scholar at the Busch School of Business (Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.) and the Mendoza College of Business (University of Notre Dame, Indiana). He has done three summer research stays at the NYU School of Law (New York). He has been an associate professor at the Centro Universitario Villanueva, and has taught ethics and other subjects in social philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, the Universidad de Montevideo and UNIS (Guatemala), among others. Ricardo was director of a University Hall of Residence (Colegio Mayor) linked to the Universidad Complutense and a member of the Board of the National Association of Colegios Mayores. His research is focused on the contributions of the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition to the field of business and economic ethics, and he is keenly interested in the relationship between business and the political environment. He has recently published in Philosophy of Management, the Journal of Corporate Citizenship and the Revista de Estudios Políticos.
Research Interest
Areas of Interest * Business and the common good * Political wisdom in governing organizations * Legal and socio-political environment of business * Social and ethical implications of technological change * Ethics of Public Leadership
Publications
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In response to conventional rationalistic approaches to management and corporate governance, the Aristotelian tradition is emerging as a basis for alternative theories in which practical wisdom is central. This paper, following Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, considers the specificity of "political wisdom" -directed to the common good- as being different from individual practical wisdom. We suggest that the business firm is a "political community", understood as a whole formed by free and intelligent individuals called to cooperate for common goals and to pursue a common good. This orientation toward the common good requires political wisdom. After discussing the concepts of "political wisdom" and the business firm as "political community" we propose a number of implications of political wisdom in management and corporate governance.
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It is vital for businesses to understand the flows of social trends and the need to actively engage with shapeholders--political, regulatory, media and activist actors that may not care about an organization's success, but have a significant ability to shape an organization's risks and opportunities. Pope Francis --besides the moral authority of his office--has shown an outstanding ability to navigate a challenging social context advancing his agenda, and to place himself as a shapeholder for governments, international organizations and businesses--particularly after he publication of his much praised Encyclical "Laudato Si" on the ecology and integral human development. In this paper we explore both aspects of Fancis's political record, to draw lessons for business's exercise of corporate citizenship in engaging with their social and political landscape, and to map some of the trends shaped by Francis, that business leaders will need to engage in the foreseeable future. We consider the currents that are disrupting economic and power structures using Francis's teachings in Laudato Si. We discuss the genius of Pope Francis's civic engagement in turning risks into opportunities, highlighting lessons in exercising global citizenship for businesses operating in global markets. For this purpose, we will make use of Franci's official documents and public interventions, some background literature to put his teachings in context, as well as media reactions and the incipient scholarly commentaries on his trajectory.
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The purpose of this paper is to present and interpret the "Enterprise Politics Model (EPM)" developed by prof. Antonio Valero, University of Navarra, Spain. The main features of Valero's philosophy of the firm and senior management can be summarized in four points: the firm as a community of persons; the firm as an intermediate social institution serving the common good of society; the different nature of political and technical practice, which leads senior management to exercise practical reason -not only science or technique, and at the same time a kind of political art, or wisdom; and the role and responsibility of entrepreneurs and top management. Valero emphasizes the political nature of management and, from a practical perspective suggests a global analysis based on four big areas of governance: business activity, managing structure, institutional configuration, and professional community. He makes his model applicable by developing "political procedures". Valero's EPM is a practically oriented humanistic approach to management and corporate governance which can be a realistic alternative to conventional and often criticized approaches to management and corporate governance. In fact, it has already been succesfully applied in several companies. In a context of growing discontent toward capitalism and the role of business in society, the "EPM" -discussed in this paper- shows how business might be run and organized to be socially responsible, contributing to the common good and respecting individuals rights and flourishing.
