Crafting the Virtuous Corporation Through Spiritual Discernment

This study explores spiritual discernment through the lenses of modern virtue ethics in organizational decision-making bydeveloping a process model rounded in empirical research at Buurtzorg Nederland, a Dutch home care organization. Draw-ing on MacIntyre’s virtue ethics and Moore’s concept of virtuous corporate character, we identify six principles (serving,attuning, trusting, needing, rethinking, and common sense) and six manifestations (meaningless, meaningful, mindless andmindful organizing activities, substantive rationality, and love for craftsmanship) that facilitate the development of virtuouscorporate character. Our findings demonstrate how spiritual discernment enables organizations to balance internal goods(e.g., excellence in practice) with external goods (e.g., reputation and profit). The resulting Process Model of Spiritual Dis-cernment in Organizing Activities contributes to business ethics by empirically grounding Moore’s concept of the virtuousinstitutional character and Weber’s substantive rationality, providing practical guidance for managers seeking to transcendthe means-ends dichotomy.