Virtue at Work: Ethics for Individuals, Managers, and Organizations

by Geoff Moore

But, again as we saw in Chapter 6, practical wisdom also plays another role in that it is the key virtue which directs the organization towards the achievement of a good purpose. At the individual level, as we saw, the exercise of practical wisdom enables the individual to direct her activities towards the common good. If we transfer that understanding to the organizational level, it is practical wisdom which enables the virtuous pursuit of the organization’s good purpose, enabling the organization to think through how it is that the products or services it provides, and the way in which it develops organizational members, make a contribution to the common good, and what more and what else it might do in this regard.