Chapter 7. Leadership Ethics: Doing Right While Doing the Right Thing

ETHICS SERVES AS one of the great mantras of modern corporate life. Repeated like some ancient tribal chant by CEOs and consultants, the typical manager will probably hear the term ethics more often than the average seminary student will. “Acting ethically,” “being socially responsible,” and “responding to our stakeholders”—the cries fill our boardrooms, our conference rooms, and our company newsletters, but only rarely are the terms elaborated upon. Like some set of secular scriptures, the organizational mission statement will exhort its managers to act ethically; meanwhile, the CEO will pound away at his pulpit encouraging all employees to take the straight and narrow path to social responsibility (while maximizing profits, naturally). Yet when the sermon is over, the congregation members—pardon me, the managers—are left to ponder the meanings on their own. What does it mean to be ethical? What does it mean to act ethically?

The problem is only exacerbated when the term ethics is joined with that equally vague and maltreated term leadership. As it has been pointed out repeatedly in the earlier chapters, leadership, as defined by the authors, is more than a gift of divine beneficence bestowed by the gods upon the chosen ones. Rather, leadership is an attitude, a belief system, and a set of skills that can be developed like any other talent. Likewise, ethics is more than just a collection of mere homilies. Managers can develop the skills for discerning moral dilemmas, prioritizing various values, and arriving at ethical (i.e., just) conclusions based upon rational reasoning.