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Structure of this Website Lecture 9 : Nice guys lose, don’t they? Ethical dilemmas The learning objective is for readers to reflect on the way in which ethics is connected to organisational practices, and to deepen awareness of their own maps of ethics in leadership practice. Morality versus effectiveness of performance is the fundamental ethical dilemma. Dealing with dilemmas, leaders often seek pragmatic justification of actions (including tokenism, and ethical rhetoric). Reflections indicate how we need care when we talk of ‘good’ leadership. The ethical nature of leadership is absent from many leadership maps, but core to the thinking of Burns, Greenleaf and others who see in leadership an ethical imperative which helps transform people as well as systems. Narrow self-interest, they propose, can be transcended and more social and altruistic values sustained. However, grand theory has to be connected to specific leadership situations. In practice the leader will need to address dilemmas of ethics (there are ethical ‘split loyalties’ between contractual agreements and emerging factors which challenge obligations to the organisation or even the law). Above all, each leader will need to use all the skills of critical thinking and reflection in developing a personal map of ethical leadership. Box 9.1 sets an exercise on the ethical dilemmas of leadership. |  |
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