Build intellectual virtues in your business students with a cross-disciplinary approach

At a time when headlines routinely remind us of the costs of ethical lapses in the corporate world, business schools are under scrutiny. Is it enough to prepare future leaders with technical and analytical tools? Alternatively, do we also need to form well-rounded people who can think rigorously, listen with humility and exercise sound judgement in uncertainty?

We asked ourselves these questions and decided to act. The result was a faculty development experience to help instructors integrate intellectual virtues into their teaching practice. By this, we mean qualities such as curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual honesty, perseverance and equanimity – traits that underwrite strong thinking and responsible leadership.

A peer-learning experience

Throughout 2024, 20 faculty members from diverse fields – mathematics, economics, management, accounting and humanities – participated in a nine-session programme. Each session focused on a different virtue, combining short pre-readings, brief conceptual inputs, collegial debate and guided personal reflection.

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Disciplinary variety became one of the programme’s great strengths. A statistics professor discussed how to cultivate intellectual humility when interpreting data, while a business ethics instructor shared strategies to build intellectual courage when facing moral dilemmas. The exchange made something clear: virtues do not “belong” to the humanities; they can – and should – run across the entire business curriculum.

Visible results in teaching

The impact was tangible. Of our participants, 85 per cent redesigned aspects of their courses to create space for intellectual virtues. Some revised learning objectives to explicitly include goals such as “fostering open-mindedness in solving complex problems”. Others innovated in assessment – adding reflective essays, virtue self-assessments and structured peer feedback.

Classroom dynamics evolved as well. This included Socratic dialogue to develop intellectual humility; case discussions that demanded courage; collaborative projects that centred perspective taking and fairness. 

Beyond techniques, a deeper shift emerged: instructors began to see themselves as role models of intellectual virtue, recognising that how they teach communicates as much as what they teach.

Challenges and what we learned

Not everything was simple. Some virtues, such as perseverance or equanimity, for example, proved more difficult to translate into concrete activities. In strictly regulated disciplines like accounting, accreditation requirements limited the scope for instructor experimentation. One accounting professor raised a valid concern: “Will this be included in the Certified Public Accountant exam?” 

However, this challenge need not be insurmountable. Connecting virtues to professional situations – how intellectual humility prevents audit errors or how perseverance helps reconcile complex discrepancies – and integrating virtue development into existing tasks, such as peer reviews or case study analyses, can prevent professional malpractice while satisfying curricular requirements.

Testimonials from practising professors showing how open-mindedness and curiosity had influenced their careers were particularly effective in overcoming resistance. Looking ahead, professors recognised the need for discipline-specific strategies and for collaborating to formalise virtue development in their teaching.

These frictions reinforced a key lesson: integrating intellectual virtues is not the work of a single course, but of a sustained cultural shift. It demands institutional backing, time and resources for redesign, and clear communication to students about why virtues are directly relevant to their careers. In these senses, faculty members have demonstrated increased commitment and engagement, actively working to embed intellectual virtues throughout their course programmes.

Beyond the classroom: renewed purpose for faculty

One of the most gratifying outcomes was the effect on faculty themselves. Many reported that the programme restored a deeper sense of purpose in their work: teaching was no longer only about transmitting content but about forming more reflective, responsible leaders. This renewed purpose sparked enthusiasm, cross-disciplinary collaboration and even new academic friendships.

At a time when university teaching can feel threatened by administrative pressures, research demands and technological advances, cultivating intellectual virtues can also revitalise the vocation of teaching.

The road ahead

Our experience shows that cultivating intellectual virtues in business education is both possible and valuable. It does not require tearing up the curriculum: thoughtful tweaks to learning goals, assessments and classroom methods can go a long way. However, it does require institutional conviction, ongoing faculty development and patience to work through initial resistance.

For our next steps, we need to study longitudinal student outcomes, explore how to scale across different cultural and institutional contexts, and – perhaps most challenging – develop fair, rigorous ways to assess virtue growth without undermining intrinsic motivation.

In an increasingly complex and volatile corporate environment, training technically competent leaders is no longer enough. We need professionals who think with curiosity, decide with rigour, act with humility and defend their convictions with intellectual courage. Intellectual virtues are not an academic luxury – they are a prerequisite for ethical and effective leadership.

Business schools have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to embrace this challenge. If we want fairer organisations and more sustainable societies, we should begin by planting the seeds of virtue in our classrooms.

Cecilia Primogerio is education department coordinator of Faculty of Business Sciences and Camila del Carril is pedagogical adviser at the education department of the Faculty of Business Sciences, both at Universidad Austral.

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