In some managerial approaches there is the hidden risk of reducing people to their rational capabilities applied to decision-making; on the contrary, people cannot suppress their deep nature, which involves emotions and spirituality in all their actions. This paper starts from this point of view and explores the importance of practical wisdom to build institutions that work toward the common good. The paper explores the Rule of St. Benedict (RSB) as a crucial source of spiritual capital that can help the development of practical wisdom for management. The research highlights three strongly related characteristics of the RSB: the coenobitical nature of Benedictine communities, the vision of abbots as "prudent managers", and the role of manual labor in monastic daily life. This analysis reveals several managerial implications of the RSB; in particular, with regard to the recognition of the purpose of organizations, which exceeds the narrow limits of individual (profitable) goals.

Ethical networks are an emerging form of social alliance based on collaboration between organizations that share a common ethical commitment. Grounded in a theoretical framework of virtue-based business ethics and focusing on nonprofit alliances, this study investigates the virtuousness of ethical networks; that is, how they trigger virtuous practices in their member nonprofit organizations. Adopting a qualitative grounded theory approach, the study focuses on one of the largest Italian ethical networks of nonprofit organizations operating in the social care sector. The findings show that shared ethical values and religious beliefs are positively associated with ethical network building. Based on these findings, a circular model of virtuousness is proposed in which ethical networks foster virtuous practices among their members at four levels: (1) the strategic orientation level, (2) the institutional level, (3) the organizational level, and (4) the relational level. At each of these levels, ethical networks foster a habituation to virtues and the propagation of virtuous behaviors among their members. Theoretical, practical, and social implications of the research findings are discussed.