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Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management pp 69–78Cite as

Practical Wisdom, Practices, and Institutions

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Part of the book series: International Handbooks in Business Ethics ((IHBE))

Abstract

This chapter offers an introductory overview of recent efforts to extend MacIntyre’s virtue ethics to business and management. Geoff Moore has called attention to a distinction drawn by MacIntyre between practices and institutions. This distinction, along with other central concepts and distinctions from MacIntyre’s virtue ethics, are explained. With these in hand, it becomes clear that, MacIntyre’s work includes not only a negative assessment of the corrosive features of advanced capitalism, but also the outlines of a positive way forward for rethinking the pursuit of excellence in contemporary business and management. Management of a certain sort can be understood as a domain-relative practice. The pursuit of excellence in such a practice involves cultivating a range of virtues, especially practical wisdom. Practical wisdom involves the ability to reason well about action, bringing together sound principles with an ability to attend to the relevant particularities of a concrete situation. In the context of a contemporary organization, those charged with institutional leadership act with practical wisdom when they protect and extend the excellences internal to the practices of the organization, deliberate well with others, make good judgements, and carry out plans that bring the group as near as possible to worthwhile goals.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Saint Louis University, 3800 Lindell Blvd., 63108, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Gregory R. Beabout

Authors
  1. Gregory R. Beabout
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Correspondence to Gregory R. Beabout .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Alejo José G. Sison

  2. Department of Philosophy, Saint Louis University , St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Gregory R. Beabout

  3. School of Economics and Business Administration, Business Department, University of Navarra, Pamploma, Spain

    Ignacio Ferrero

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© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Beabout, G.R. (2017). Practical Wisdom, Practices, and Institutions. In: Sison, A., Beabout, G., Ferrero, I. (eds) Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management. International Handbooks in Business Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6510-8_4

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