ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter reviews the book’s analysis to explain how the concepts of identity, accountability, and quality in the ethics paradigm can foster virtuous organizations. Referring to an organization as being virtuous denotes its institutional integrity. Organizations can be considered to be virtuous when they nurture institutional integrity by applying the ethics paradigm. The concept of individuals being virtuous can be transferred analogously to organizations being virtuous. Virtue ethics focuses on developing the moral character of individuals in terms of practical wisdom generating laudable actions. Similarly, the ethics paradigm can enable an organization to become virtuous in this manner: by connecting the focus on moral character with the concept of identity; by connecting the focus on practical wisdom as a decision making process with the concept of accountability; and by connecting the focus on laudable actions with the concept of quality. Virtuous organizations can be a distinctive feature of governance ethics when boards apply the ethics paradigm to the pivotal topics discussed in this book: to governance structure, to community-related issues (community benefit and community health), to patient-related issues (patient care quality and patient safety), and to conflicted collaborative arrangements.
