April 08, 2008
What is Ethical Leadership?
“Leadership… is an essentially moral act.”
- A. Bartlett Giamatti
I suppose the first question to ask is, What is ethics? My dictionary says ethics is “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation… a set of moral principles… or system of moral values.” However, although sometimes we equate morals and ethics, I like the distinction that Bernard Lo makes in his book, Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (3rd ed, 2005):
“Moral choices ultimately rest on values or beliefs that cannot be proved but are simply accepted. …ethics connotes deliberation and explicit arguments to justify particular actions. …ethics focuses on the reasons why an action is considered right or wrong. It asks people to justify their positions and beliefs by rational arguments that can persuade others.”
I believe that Lo’s concept of ethics calls us to think about our actions and justify them in the context of our own moral and ethical principles. We should be able to explain, at least to ourselves, and we would hope to others, why we make certain choices. I also believe that understanding ethics has a pragmatic payoff. It provides a framework for approaching difficult problems. We learn what questions to ask and we integrate our religious, moral, and cultural perspectives to arrive at a workable solution.
Then, what is ethical leadership?
At the Inamori Center, we attempted to address that question when we developed the criteria for the annual Inamori Ethics Prize, which “will be awarded to an individual who has demonstrated exemplary ethical leadership and whose actions and influence have greatly improved the condition of humankind.” We said that the prize recipient will be a person who is sensitive to his or her own human fallibility, holds a deeply rooted reverence for excellence, has been an exemplary leader, and has improved the world by his or her actions and influence. That advances the definition a little.
In my view, ethical leadership results when a person (1) has examined and understands the ethical and moral principles for his or her life, (2) behaves, leads, and makes decisions in accordance with those principles and (3) can explain and justify his or her actions.
I think it is difficult to define ethical leadership with precision. Perhaps, rather than trying to define it, we can understand ethical leadership more by its expression. Take, for example, Alexander Cutler, CEO of the Eaton Company, a corporation that employs 70,000 people around the globe. Cutler says, “Nothing is more important to Eaton’s overall success as an enterprise than our ethical values. Our shared regard for the highest standards of honesty and integrity is our biggest strength.” Or consider Dr. Francis Collins, who will receive the Inamori Ethics Prize September 4 (see Inamori Center website), a physician-geneticist known for his landmark discoveries of several genes associated with specific diseases and his principled leadership of the Human Genome Project, as well as for his consistent emphasis on the importance of ethical and legal issues in genetics. These individuals allow us to see ethical leadership in action.
Posted by: Gregory Eastwood April 8, 2008 02:48 PM | Category: Inamori Center , ethics , leadership
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Posted by: gle5 (Gregory Eastwood) April 8, 2008 02:48 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback
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