ABSTRACT
This chapter presents conceptions of an organization that aim to challenge the main features of the modern conception, which sees the organization as a system and also presupposes an individualist stance. The virtue ethics associated with Aristotelian approaches in this regard are conservative and communitarian in their critical outlook on modernity’s giving priority to the individual. This chapter argues that virtue ethics and the Aristotelian conception of politics and metaphysics are helpful resources in the argument for corporate responsibility, in particular with regard to clarifying the internal communication and coordination of the organization. Another feature of the conservative outlook that can be associated with virtue ethics is the kind of corporate culture it envisages. The Aristotelian suspicion about the virtues of business as exchange, which Solomon calls a “prejudice”, reappears in current neo-Aristotelian thinking. Key to establishing a supportive culture in the organization for the virtues to flourish is leadership.
