Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T20:14:03.227Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Explicitly incorporating virtues into actuarial education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2016

Anthony Asher
Anthony Asher*
Affiliation:
School of Risk and Actuarial Studies, University of New South Wales, 650 Business School Building, Sydney 2052, NSW, Australia
*
*Correspondence to: Asher A., UNSW, School of Risk and Actuarial Studies, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, NSW, Australia. Tel: +612 9385 7619; E-mail: a.asher@unsw.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper outlines a framework for explicitly including ethics in actuarial education. The framework includes integrity, the cardinal virtues (justice, prudence, self-control and courage), and vocation. It is based on a traditional understanding of ethics, and it is argued that it has the potential to be widely acceptable. Justification, from philosophy, is found mainly in virtue ethics, and the work of Alasdair MacIntyre. The framework is concerned with matters of character as well as behaviour and ultimate outcomes (which are the respective concerns of apparently competing deontological and teleological theories). Integrity and the cardinal virtues can be found within current professional standards or, it is argued in the case of courage, should be there. We come to appreciate and display the virtues as we are inducted into a professional community by teachers and mentors. Our view of ethics is incomplete, however, without acknowledgement of our own weaknesses and failures, and an understanding of the role of regulation. Such understanding should include insight into the way in which ideologies and institutions can pervert ethics for the benefit of vested interests. Finally, suggestions are made as to how the framework of the virtues can be included in the actuarial syllabuses.

Keywords

Actuarial educationProfessionalismVirtueEthicsResponsive regulation
Type
Papers
Information
Annals of Actuarial Science , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , September 2017 , pp. 253 - 285
Copyright
© Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, A. (2008). Can education affect pro-social behavior? Cops, economists and humanists in social dilemmas. International Journal of Social Economics, 35(4), 298–307.Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. (1275/2006). Summa Theologica Translated by Kevin Knight. Available online at the address http://www.newadvent.org/summa/ [accessed 4 December 2016].Google Scholar
Ariely, D. (2013). The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. HarperCollins, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Asher, A. (1998). Effective and ethical institutional investment. British Actuarial Journal, 4(V), 969–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asher, A. (2010). Innovation and imperatives in financial security systems. Presented to the International Congress of Actuaries, Cape Town, 10 March. Available online at the address http://www.actuaries.org/EVENTS/Congresses/Cape_Town/Papers/Pensions,%20Benefits%20and%20Social%20Security%20%28PBSS%29/152_final%20paper_Asher.pdf [accessed 4 December 2016].Google Scholar
Asher, A. (2015). Working Ethically in Finance: Clarifying Our Vocation. Business Expert Press, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Australian Taxation Office (1998). Improving tax compliance in the cash economy. Report to the Commissioner of Taxation, Cash Economy Task Force, Australian Taxation Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Ayres, I. & Braithwaite, J. (1992). Responsive Regulation, Transcending the Deregulation Debate. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Baker, D.L., Ni, A.Y. & Van Wart, M. (2012). AACSB assurance of learning: lessons learned in ethics module development. Business Education Innovation Journal, 4(1), 19–27.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117–148.Google Scholar
Baxter Magolda, M.B. (2004). Making Their Own Way: Narratives for Transforming Higher Education to Promote Self-Development. Stylus, Sterling, VA.Google Scholar
Beadle, R., Sison, A.J.G. & Fontrodona, J. (2015). Introduction‐virtue and virtuousness: when will the twain ever meet? Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(S2), S67–S77.Google Scholar
Bellis, C.S. (2000). Professions in society. British Actuarial Journal, 6(2), 317–364.Google Scholar
Bennis, W.G. & O’Toole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way. Harvard Business Review, 83(5), 96–104.Google Scholar
Berger, P.L. (1973). Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. Overlook Press, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Biggs, J.B. & Collis, K.F. (1982). Evaluating the Quality of Learning: The SOLO Taxonomy. Academic Press, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Blakemore, S.J. & Frith, U. (2005). The learning brain: lessons for education: a précis. Developmental Science, 8, 459–465.Google Scholar
Boatright, J.R. (2010). Ethics in Finance: Critical Issues in Theory and Practice. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bok, D.C. (1976). Can ethics be taught? Change, October, 26–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, J. (2002). Restorative Justice & Responsive Regulation. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, J. & Braithwaite, V. (2001). Part I. Shame, shame management and regulation. In E. Ahmed, N. Harris, J. Braithwaite & V. Braithwaite (Eds.), Shame Management Through Reintegration. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, V. (1995). Games of engagement: postures within the regulatory community. Law & Policy, 17(3), 225–255.Google Scholar
Carlin, N., Rozmus, C., Spike, J., Willcockson, I., Seifert, W. Jr, Chappell, C., Hsieh, P.H., Cole, T., Flaitz, C., Engebretson, J., Lunstroth, R., Amos, C. Jr & Boutwell, B. (2011). The health professional ethics rubric: practical assessment in ethics education for health professional schools. Journal of Academic Ethics, 9(4), 277–290.Google Scholar
Carr, D. (1991). Educating the Virtues. Routledge, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Carr, D. (1996). After Kohlberg: some implications of an ethics of virtue for the theory and practice of moral education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 15, 353–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, D. (2013). What are the implications of aesthetics for moral development and education? Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 112(1), 80–97.Google Scholar
Carr, D. (2015). Educating for the wisdom of virtue. Presented at 3rd Annual Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues conference at Oriel College, Oxford University, Oxford,January 2015.Google Scholar
Carr, D. & Skinner, D. (2009). The cultural roots of professional wisdom: towards a broader view of teacher expertise. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41(2), 141–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, C.C., Tsui, M.S, Chan, M.Y.C. & Hong, J.H. (2002). Applying the structure of the observed learning outcomes SOLO taxonomy on student’s learning outcomes: an empirical study. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 27, 511–527.Google Scholar
Colander, D., Goldberg, M., Haas, A., Juselius, K., Kirman, A., Lux, T. & Sloth, B. (2009). The financial crisis and the systemic failure of the economics profession. Critical Review, 21, 249–267.Google Scholar
Cousin, G. (2006). An introduction to threshold concepts. Planet Special Issue on Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, 17, 4–5.Google Scholar
Dahlsgaard, K., Peterson, C. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2005). Shared virtue: the convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. Review of General Psychology, 9(3), 203–213.Google Scholar
Dean, K.L. & Beggs, J.M. (2006). University professors and teaching ethics: conceptualizations and expectations. Journal of Management Education, 30(1), 15–44.Google Scholar
De Jong, P. & Ferris, S. (2006). Adverse selection spirals. Astin Bulletin, 36(2), 589.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. (2012). The epistemic fault line in corporate governance. Academy of Management Review, 37, 256–271.Google Scholar
Drucker, P.F. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society. Heinemann.Google Scholar
Efklides, A. (2006). Metacognition, affect, and conceptual difficulty. In J. Meyer & R. Land (Eds.), Overcoming Barriers To Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge (pp. 48–69). Taylor & Francis, Oxford.Google Scholar
Egan, E.A., Parsi, K. & Ramirez, C. (2004). Comparing ethics education in medicine and law: combining the best of both worlds. Annals Health Law, 13, 303–325.Google Scholar
Eraut, M. (2000). Non‐formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 113–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erikson, E. (1982). The Life Cycle Completed. Norton, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Etzioni, A. (1988). Moral Dimension: Toward A New Economics. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Ferris, S. (2006). Broken promises: solvency issues for defined benefit superannuation funds. Law, Probability and Risk, 5(3–4), 201–232.Google Scholar
Ferris, S. (2012). Mispriced risk in insurance and financial markets: causes and consequences. Australian Actuarial Journal, 18(2), 125–190.Google Scholar
Financial Reporting Council (2010). Actuarial quality framework. Available online at the address http://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/9710d3ba-9e02-403e-8622-3cc6b0c887bc/Actuarial-Quality-Framework-June-2010.aspx [accessed 4 December 2016].Google Scholar
Fowler, J.W. (1981). Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning. Harper and Rowe, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Frank, R.H., Gilovich, T. & Regan, D.T. (1993). Does studying economics inhibit cooperation? The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7(2), 159–171.Google Scholar
Frye, N. (1982). The Great Code: The Bible and Literature. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Garvin-Doxas, K. & Klymkowsky, M.W. (2008). Understanding randomness and its impact on student learning: lessons learned from building the Biology Concept Inventory (BCI). CBE-Life Sciences Education, 7(2), 227–233.Google Scholar
Gentile, M.C. (2010). Giving Voice to Values: How to Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
George, R.J. (1987). Teaching business ethics: is there a gap between rhetoric and reality? Journal of Business Ethics, 6, 513–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(1), 75–91.Google Scholar
Giacalone, R.A. & Promislo, M.D. (2013). Broken when entering: the stigmatization of goodness and business ethics education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(1), 86–101.Google Scholar
Gibbs, G. (2010). Dimensions of Quality. Higher Education Academy, York.Google Scholar
Gijbels, D., Coertjens, L., Vanthournout, G., Struyf, E. & Van Petegem, P. (2009). Changing students’ approaches to learning: a two‐year study within a university teacher training course. Educational Studies, 35, 503–513.Google Scholar
Grossman, S.J. & Stiglitz, J.E. (1980). On the impossibility of informationally efficient markets. The American Economic Review, 70(3), 393–408.Google Scholar
Hamm, C.M. (1977). The content of moral education, or in defense of the “Bag of Virtues”. The School Review, 85(2), 218–228.Google Scholar
Harman, G. (1999). Moral philosophy meets social psychology: virtue ethics and the fundamental attribution error. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 99, 315–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartman, E.M. (2006). Can we teach character? An Aristotelian answer. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 68–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannah, S.T., Avolio, B.J. & Walumbwa, F.O. (2011). Relationships between authentic leadership, moral courage, and ethical and pro-social behaviors. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21(4), 555–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofstede, G.H. (2001). Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.Google Scholar
Howard, R.A. & Korver, C.D. (2008). Ethics for the Real World: Creating a Personal Code to Guide Decisions in Work and Life. Harvard Business Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
International Actuarial Association (2012). The principles of professionalism. Available online at the address http://www.actuaries.org/ABOUT/Documents/Principles_of_Professsionalism_EN.pdf [accessed 4 December 2016].Google Scholar
International Actuarial Association (2014). Comments on the consultative document on guidance on supervisory interaction with financial institutions on risk culture. Available online at the address http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/wp-content/uploads/c_140206n.pdf [accessed 4 December 2016].Google Scholar
Javidan, M., House, R.J., Dorfman, P.W., Hanges, P.J. & De Luque, M.S. (2006). Conceptualizing and measuring cultures and their consequences: a comparative review of GLOBE’s and Hofstede’s approaches. Journal of International Business Studies, 37(6), 897–914.Google Scholar
Jost, J.T., Banaji, M.R. & Nosek, B.A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881–919.Google Scholar
Jost, J.T. & Hunyady, O. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of system-justifying ideologies. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 260–265.Google Scholar
Keys, M.M. (2008). Humility and greatness of soul. Perspectives on Political Science, 37(4), 217–222.Google Scholar
Khurana, R. (2007). From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L. (1970). Education for justice: a modern statement of the platonic views. In N.F. Sizer & T.R. Sizer (Eds.), Moral Education: Five Lectures. (pp. 57–83) Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on Moral Development. Harper Rowe, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Land, R., Cousin, G., Meyer, J.H. & Davies, P. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge 3: implications for course design and evaluation. In C. Rust (Ed.), Improving Student Learning – Equality and Diversity (pp. 53–64). OCSLD, Oxford.Google Scholar
Levi-Faur, D. (2005). The global diffusion of regulatory capitalism. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 598(1), 12–32.Google Scholar
Luban, D. (2003). Integrity: its causes and cures. Fordham Law Review, 72, 279–310.Google Scholar
Luban, D. & Millemann, M. (1995). Good judgment: ethics teaching in dark times. Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, 9, 31–88.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (1984). Does applied ethics rest on a mistake? The Monist, 67(4), 498–513.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (1999). Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues. Open Court, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (1981/2007). After Virtue. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Mazar, N., Amir, O. & Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: a theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 4, 633–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloskey, D.N. (2006). The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrath, R.E. (2014). Scale-and item-level factor analyses of the VIA inventory of strengths. Assessment, 21(1), 4–14.Google Scholar
McGrath, R.E. (2015). Character strengths in 75 nations: an update. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(1), 41–52.Google Scholar
McNeel, S.P. (1994). College teaching and student moral development. In J.R. Rest & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Moral Development in the Professions: Psychology and Applied Ethics (pp. 27–49). Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillside, NJ.Google Scholar
Mearman, A., Shoib, G., Wakeley, T. & Webber, D.J. (2012). Does pluralism in economics education make better educated, happier students? A qualitative analysis. International Review of Economics Education, 10(2), 50–62.Google Scholar
Messing, B., Sugarman, S. & Cramer, J.J. (2006). The Forewarned Investor: Don’t Get Fooled Again by Corporate Fraud. Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ.Google Scholar
Mischel, W. (2014). The Marshmallow Test. Little, Brown, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Moore, G. (2005). Humanizing business: a modern virtue ethics approach. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15, 237–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, G. (2012). The virtue of governance, the governance of virtue. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(2), 293–318.Google Scholar
Murphy, K. & Harris, N. (2007). Shaming, shame and recidivism a test of reintegrative shaming theory in the white-collar crime context. British Journal of Criminology, 47(6), 900–917.Google Scholar
Navarro, P. (2008). The MBA core curricula of top-ranked US business schools: a study in failure? Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7(1), 108–123.Google Scholar
Ones, D.S. & Viswesvaran, C. (2001). Integrity tests and other criterion-focused occupational personality scales (COPS) used in personnel selection. International Journal of selection and assessment, 9(1 & 2), 31–39.Google Scholar
Palmer, P.J. (2007). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Pellegrino, E.D. (2002). Professionalism, profession and the virtues of the good physician. Mt Sinai Journal of Medicine, 69(6), 378–384.Google ScholarPubMed
Perry, W.G. (1981). Cognitive and ethical growth: the making of meaning. In A.W. Chickering (Eds.), The Modern American College (pp. 76–116). Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Peterson, C. & Seligman, M.E. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Phillips, J.L. (1969). The Origins of Intellect – Piaget’s Theory. Freeman, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Plummer, K. (2005). Chapter 12: Improving ethical judgment through deep learning. In T. Campbell & K. Houghton (Eds.), Ethics and Auditing (pp. 239–264). ANU Press, Canberra.Google Scholar
Polanyi, M. (1962). Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Rand, A. (1988). The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism From A to Z. Penguin, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Rasche, A., Gilbert, D.U. & Schedel, I. (2013). Cross-disciplinary ethics education in MBA programs: rhetoric or reality? Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12, 71–85.Google Scholar
Redington, F.M. (1986). A Ramble Through the Actuarial Countryside: the Collected Papers, Essays and Speeches of Frank Mitchell Redington MA. Edited by G. Chamberlin, Institute of Actuaries Students’ Society, London.Google Scholar
Robertson, M. (2009). Providing ethics learning opportunities throughout the legal curriculum. Legal Ethics, 12, 59–76.Google Scholar
Roca, E. (2008). Introducing practical wisdom in business schools. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 607–620.Google Scholar
Rotberg, R.I. (Ed.) (2010). When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Sandel, M.J. (2010). Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Sandel, M.J. (2012). What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Shu, L.L., Gino, F. & Bazerman, M.H. (2011). Dishonest deed, clear conscience: when cheating leads to moral disengagement and motivated forgetting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(3), 330–349.Google Scholar
Solomon, R.C. (2003). Victims of circumstances? A defense of virtue ethics in business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(1), 43–62.Google Scholar
Stansbury, J. & Barry, B. (2007). Ethics programs and the paradox of control. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17(2), 239–261.Google Scholar
Staudinger, U.M. & Glück, J. (2011). Psychological wisdom research: commonalities and differences in a growing field. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 215–241.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R.J. (1985). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 607–627.Google Scholar
Stott, P. (2006). External peer Review: a value-added approach. Australian Actuarial Journal, 12(3), 281–366.Google Scholar
Taleb, N.N. (2005). Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets. Random House, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Tangney, J.P., Stuewig, J. & Mashek, D.J. (2007). Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 345–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomson, R.J. (2004). Is actuarial science really a science? South African Actuarial Journal, 6, 97–103.Google Scholar
Tokuhama-Espinosa, T.N. (2008). The scientifically substantiated art of teaching: a study in the development of standards in the new academic field of neuro-education mind, brain, and education science. PhD thesis, Harvard. Available online at the address http://search.proquest.com//docview/250881375 [accessed 17-Dec-2015].Google Scholar
Treviño, L.K., Weaver, G.R. & Reynolds, S.J. (2006). Behavioral ethics in organizations: a review. Journal of Management, 32(6), 951–990.Google Scholar
Tung, R.L. & Verbeke, A. (2010). Beyond Hofstede and GLOBE: improving the quality of cross-cultural research. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(8), 1259–1274.Google Scholar
Wade, R. (2010). Bridging Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism with Virtue Ethics. In K. Engebretson, M. de Souza, G. Durka & L. Gearon (Eds.), International Handbook of Inter-Religious Education (pp. 313–324). Springer, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1919/2009). Science as a vocation. In H.H. Gerth & C.W. Mills (Eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (pp. 129–158). Routledge, Abingdon, Oxfordshire.Google Scholar
Wyma, K.D. (2015). The case for investment advising as a virtue-based practice. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), 231–249.Google Scholar
Yu, J. (2013). The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle: Mirrors of Virtue. Routledge, New York, NY.Google Scholar