1st Edition
Ethical Public Leadership Foundation, Exploration, and Discovery
Dozens of books are published each year on leadership, but as pundits, scholars, philosophers, and public intellectuals note, what is written is too often shallow and facile, oriented toward quick fixes for performance enhancement or internal organizational and personnel development. Drawing from a diverse range of literature, including history, philosophy, public administration, leadership, religion, and spirituality, this book fills an important gap, exploring what it means to be an ethical and moral leader. It takes a deep dive into the many challenges of leadership, examining the continuing contrast between bureaucracy and democracy, the unique ethical and moral characteristics of nonprofit and faith-based organizations, and the globalization of organizations and institutions.
Throughout the book, author Stephen M. King develops a more holistic and interdisciplinary understanding of ethical and moral leadership, required for more thoughtful theoretical and empirical research. He points students of leadership to the time-honored values of ethics and morality, reestablishes the ethical balance between bureaucracy and democracy, and helps reorient the values' purpose of public, nonprofit, and global institutions, providing hope of a better future for leadership. Ethical Public Leadership is required reading for students of public administration and nonprofit management, as well as for practicing public servants and nonprofit sector employees at all levels.
PART 1: Challenges and Foundation of Leadership 1 Introduction: Leadership 2 The Challenges of Leadership 3 The Ethical and Moral Foundations of Leadership PART 2: Exploration of Ethical and Moral Leadership in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4 The Nexus of Bureaucracy and Democracy: Ethical and Moral Leadership in the Administrative State 5 Nonprofit and Faith-based Organizations and Ethical and Moral Leadership PART 3: Globalization and Looking to the Future 6 Globalization and Ethical and Moral Leadership 7 Conclusion: Looking to the Future
Biography
Stephen M. King is Professor of Government at Regent University, USA. He is co-author (with Bradley S. Chilton, Viviane E. Foyou, and J. Scott McDonald) of The Public Administration Profession (Routledge, 2019).
“That ethical and moral leadership is important cannot be emphasized enough, especially in a time that intersubjective truths and facts are drowned out by lies, conspiracy theories, and misinformation. In his new book, Ethical Public Leadership, Stephen King offers a conceptual framework that is constructed around the triad of virtue, rule-based, and consequentialist ethics. He deftly explores the secular and spiritual sources of ethics and morality for public, nonprofit, and faith-based actors.”
Jos C. N. Raadschelders, Professor, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Ohio State University, USA, and Affiliated Professor, University of Leiden, the Netherlands
“Stephen King’s analysis regarding the state of leadership today is sorely needed. Good leadership is ethical and moral, yet too much of the focus today is leadership literature that is all too anecdotal, unsystematic, and offers a psychological quick fix. Dr. King’s book lays out a systematic, comprehensive, and dynamic approach, presenting good leadership as embedded within ethics and morals. It should be considered a primer for aiding public and non-profit leaders to think about how and why to integrate morals and ethics throughout their efforts.”
Bradley Chilton, Professor, Department of Political Science & Public Administration, University of Texas at El Paso, USA
“In Ethical Public Leadership, Stephen King finds the balance between the scholarly and the practical. Noting we are in a leadership crisis; Dr. King takes us on a journey of understanding the moral implications—and why we truly need leaders who are willing to be transformed to change the world. Reading this book will encourage you, confirming that ethical and moral leaders are the true heroes we have been looking for all along.”
Kathleen Patterson, Professor of Leadership Studies, School of Business & Leadership, Regent University, USA
