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Chapter 12 explores the moral terrain of leaders: What does it mean to be a good leader? What does it mean to lead morally (and to serve and follow morally)? Why and when do leaders fail? What are the moral foundations of leadership? What makes power morally legitimate and illegitimate?
The first reading is drawn from Niccolo Machiavelli’s essay The Prince. In this excerpt, Machiavelli argues that the people must have confidence in their leader, and so he should have as many good qualities as possible, and when he does not have them, he should at least seem to have them. But Machiavelli also insists that the leader must be sufficiently aware of the people so as to change or adapt his qualities to the needs of leadership when necessary.
The second reading comes from Joanne Ciulla, an expert on the philosophy of leadership. In it, Ciulla outlines two types of ethical pitfalls faced by leaders: 1) the challenges of having power and influence, and 2) the ethical challenges that arise in tackling specific problems leaders are responsible for facing.
Al Gini examines the definition of leadership, a relationship between leaders and followers. All leadership is interactive, and the followers are as important to the relationship as the leader. Leadership is value-laden and cannot be purely self-serving. Leaders and followers must share mutual purposes and goals.
In the next selection, Joanne Ciulla considers why values and virtues matter to business leadership. Prior to the twentieth century, American culture tended to support the belief that success in business was a sign of strong moral character. Beginning in the twentieth century, however, we have celebrated the charisma and personality of successful business leaders, rather than their moral values. We tend to forget that “good leadership” should be “good” in both senses, both effective and morally good leadership.
Dean C. Ludwig and Clinton O. Longenecker analyze the “Bathsheba syndrome”: the tendency for leaders to make ethical errors when they become too enamored of their own success. They provide a helpful list of “checks” leaders should consider to examine whether they might be falling into the kind of moral errors of pride (think of the ancient Greek concept of hubris) that will lead them into disaster.
Robert Greenleaf examines the concept of “servant leadership,” the notion that serving a group is a way of leading a group. He also explains the importance of dreams and goals to leadership. The chapter concludes with some especially helpful stories showing the moral problems leaders encounter, including one from George Orwell. Because of the strong emphasis on cases in leadership studies, the student is particularly encouraged to read these cases.
By the close of Chapter 12, you should:
- Understand several different ways of viewing leaders and good leadership
- Understand the concept of servant leadership
- Understand the moral problems peculiar to leaders
- Understand why we need leaders
- Understand the relationship or tensions between effective and moral leadership
Joanne Ciulla. The Ethics of Leadership. New York: Wadsworth, 2002.
Joanne Ciulla. Ethics: The Heart of Leadership. New York: Praeger, 2004.
Martin Clancy. “Nietzsche’s Virtues and the Virtues of the Businessperson.” In Jennifer Welchman, ed., The Practice of Virtue: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Boston: Hackett, 2006.
Howard Gardner. Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Tom Morris. If Aristotle Ran General Motors. New York: Owl Books, 1998.
James O’Toole. Leading Change. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.
Robert C. Solomon. Ethics and Excellence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Mark Timmons, ed. Conduct and Character. Belmont, MA: Wadsworth, 2003.
Websites
Read some military ethics case studies at http://www.moaa.org/main_simplelist.aspx?id=1142
Read an article on the role of values in leadership at http://integralleadershipreview.com/6176-the-role-of-values-in-leadership-how-leaders-values-shape-value-creation
Read a blogger’s argument from November 2012 that General Petraeus succumbed to Bathsheba syndrome at http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333325/petraeus-s-bathsheba-syndrome-mackubin-thomas-owens
Read a Stars and Stripes article about Bathsheba syndrome at http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/do-fired-navy-cos-suffer-from-bathsheba-syndrome-1.171525
Visit the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership at https://www.greenleaf.org/
Read an article about the importance of followership at https://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2016/01/17/why-followership-is-now-more-important-than-leadership/#68c5918b5d64
Read a guide to servant leadership from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, at http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g1481/build/g1481.pdf
Also read Greenleaf’s “Ten Principles of Servant Leadership” at http://www.butler.edu/volunteer/resources/principles-of-servant-leadership/