Andrew C. Wicks
Ruffin Professor of Business Administration
Director, Olsson Center for Applied Ethics; Director, Doctoral Program
Office
FOB 286Phone
Academic Area
Areas of Expertise
Education: B.A., University of Tennessee, Knoxville; M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia
Through his teaching and research, Andrew C. Wicks encourages us to ask questions about how we live and operate in the world - as individuals, as organizations and as a society. An ethicist with a background in religious studies, he examines both the theoretical and practical implications of ethics through thought-provoking courses such as: "Responsible Leadership: Ultimate Questions and Creating Value for Stakeholders"; "Leadership, Values and Ethics"; "Servant Leadership"; and "Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics."
Wicks is the Ruffin Professor of Business Administration at Darden. His leadership roles across the school include director of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, academic director of the Institute for Business in Society, academic adviser for the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics and director of Darden's Doctoral Program. Wicks is a member of the leadership track for the Academy of Management, serving in a variety of leadership roles, including program chair of the Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division.
An expert in integrating ethics across the organization and across academic disciplines, Wicks also serves as an adjunct professor in UVA's Religious Studies Department and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He regularly teaches and gives academic talks abroad in countries such as Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand.
Known internationally for his research in business ethics and stakeholder theory, Wicks also examines topics such as trust, health care ethics, total quality management, and stakeholder theory as it relates to morality and spirituality. His recent research explores issues such as ethics in the supply chain, the ethical implications of accounting discretion and the consequences of "the dark side" of stakeholder theory. He has also been collaborating with the UVA Medical Center to better understand new approaches to patient care, with a particular focus on patient responsibility.
Co-author of five books, Wicks has published extensively in journals in business ethics, management, health care and the humanities, and served as guest editor of Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion. He has received numerous awards for both his research and teaching and is frequently quoted in mainstream media such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Financial Times, Fortune, NPR, Poets & Quants, Time Magazine and The Washington Post.
Wicks is a lifelong athlete who enjoys playing golf, running and being outdoors. He loves music, good wine, cooking, reading, and conversations with family, friends and students.
Selected Publications
Managerial Mindset and Perspective Taking: A Test of Stakeholders v. Shareholders. Paper forthcoming at Business and Professional Ethics Journal (Bobby Parmar, Wicks and Karim Ginena).
The Fork in the Road for Social Enterprises: Leveraging Moral Imagination for Long-Term Stakeholder Support. Vol. 47 (1: 2023): 91-112. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (Jill Brown, Bill Forster and Wicks).
Stakeholder Management & The Value of Human-Centered Corporate Objectives. Vol. 59 (2: 2022): 569-582. Journal of Management Studies (Bobby Parmar, Wicks, Ed Freeman).
Spheres of Influence: A Walzerian Approach to Business Ethics. Vol. 174 (1: 2021): 1-14 Journal of Business Ethics (Wicks, Patricia H. Werhane, Heather Elms, John Nolan)
Harmful Stakeholder Strategies. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 169 (3: 2021): 405-419. (Jeffrey S. Harrison and Wicks).
People and Profits: The Impact of Corporate Objectives on Employee’s Self-Determination at Work. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 154 (1: 2019): 13-34 (Bobby Parmar, Adrian Keevil, Wicks).
Stakeholder Theory, Value and Firm Performance. Business Ethics Quarterly Vol. 23 (1: 2013): 97-124 (Jeff Harrison and Wicks)
Corporate and Stakeholder Responsibility: Making Business Ethics a Two-Way Conversation. Business Ethics Quarterly Vol. 17 (3: 2007): 375-398 (Jerry Goodstein and Wicks).
Does Stakeholder Orientation Matter? An Empirical Examination of The Relationship Between Stakeholder Management Models and Firm Financial Performance. Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 42 (5: 1999): 488-506 (Shawn Berman, Wicks, Suresh Kotha and Tom Jones)
The Structure of Optimal Trust: Moral and Strategic Implications. Academy of Management Review. Vol. 24 (1: 1998): 99-116 (Wicks, Shawn Berman, and Tom Jones).
Organization Studies and The New Pragmatism. Organization Science. Vol. 9(2: 1998): 123-140 (Wicks and R. Edward Freeman).
The Role of Business in Community Health. Chapter in the Surgeon General of the United States Report on Community Health in the US (published January 2021).
Selected Books
Stakeholder Theory: The State of The Art. (Cambridge University Press, 2010). (Ed Freeman, Jeff Harrison, Wicks, Bidhan Parmar, Simone DeColle).
Managing for Stakeholders: Reputation, Survival and Success. (Yale University Press, 2007). (Ed Freeman, Jeff Harrison, Wicks).
Business Ethics: A Managerial Approach. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2010). (Wicks, Ed Freeman, Kirsten Martin, and Patricia Werhane).
The Moral Imagination of Patricia Werhane: A Festschrift. (Springer, 2018). (Edited by Ed Freeman, Sergiy Dimitrov and Wicks).
Public Trust in Business. (Cambridge University Press, 2014). (Edited by Jared Harris, Brian Moriarty, and Wicks).
Case Studies
Advancing knowledge through research that shapes business, Darden professors are recognized thought leaders in their fields. They are not only master case method teachers, they also author many of the cases used in Darden classrooms and around the world.
Andrew C. Wicks' cases are available in the Darden Business Publishing website.