Inamori
International Center for
Ethics and Excellence

I've recently become familiar with Dr. Inamori, and I have to say I'm very excited to learn more.

To the extent that Dr. Inamori believes that “people have no higher calling than to serve the greater good of humankind and society” and given that the very purpose of the Inamori Center at CWRU is to foster ethical leadership, ethical thinking and ethical behavior, it is fair, I believe, to ask what we mean by these concepts and how they may inform and present in our daily lives. In particular I am struck by the similarities between the purpose of the Center, the evolving concepts of social responsibility and organizational leadership and the early work of Robert Greenleaf with respect to "Servant Leadership". Each imply a form of leadership which is inherently based upon a philosophy which "encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment". That is, leaders are able to lead because followers are willing to follow. This shift from ethics as a personal value-system to ethics as an organizational and cultural necessity reflects what Gini understands to be the need for "moral leadership"; what Liebig describes as "social equity"; what Embley refers to as "philanthropic economics"; what MacGregor-Burns has termed "transformational leadership" and what Peter Drucker identifies as the "social sector". It is a shared experience regardless of political affiliation. A common language which binds divergent cultures in a global economy. A value-system deployed within and across ever-evolving multi-national organizations. Whether business ethics, bio-ethics, healthcare ethics, cyber ethics, ethics in the media or ethics in the workplace, the common denominator seems to be the realization that - like Esperanto or Morse Code - the need exists to establish a basic vocabulary which is understood, accepted and implemented by leaders and followers alike. More precisely, perhaps, it is manifestation of what Gill Robinson Hickman describes as "Leadership and the Social Imperative of Organizations in the 21rst Century". As a graduate of Case Western Reserve University I am proud to know that that the Inamori Center has found a home on our campus, that Dr. Gregory Eastwood is the Director and that the students, staff and faculty will directly benefit for many years to come. I look forward to the dialog. Raymond