Closing Remarks: Practical Wisdom as a Global Research Project in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The contributions in this volume in multiple ways represent an innovative approach towards a more integrated concept of business education. ‘Practical Wisdom’—basically reflected by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (2004)—served as the crucial point of reference of Western medieval and early modern moral educational philosophy. For centuries not only in the West but in cultural traditions all over the World, the personal character of leaders has been formed in the context of spiritual and religious traditions (Bay et al. 2010; Dyck 2012; Tracey 2012; Tracey et al. 2014; Weaver and Agle 2002; Zinbarg 2001). Thus, spiritual traditions served as cultural capital for handing over basic normative orientations throughout history. The goal of chasing Practical Wisdom connected knowledge acquisition with personal fulfillment (Naughton et al. 2010; Lenssen et al. 2012). Only with the advent of Enlightenment philosophy had Practical Wisdom lost its role as an integrating educational concept and was gradually replaced by Human reason (Bachmann et al. 2014). During this process, Practical Wisdom saw itself reduced to a term describing merely technical skills. Ultimately towards the modern age, spiritual contents are gradually suppressed from Leadership education (King 2008; Roca 2008).