Leadership and Ethical Decision Making

Billy Wood
Leadership and Ethical Decision Making
Spring 2011
Discussion Question 2

What is it about power and success that creates ethical challenges for leaders? What reasons might leaders use to justify their behavior if they break rules that apply more generally to others?
In a letter written to academic scholar Mandell Creighton in 1877, famous historian Lord Acton wrote “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority” (Clausen, Winter2000). Ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote ““The measure of a man is what he does with power.” The question arises now as it did then, “What is it about power and success that creates ethical challenges for leaders”?
Our textbook suggests ethical issues for leaders revolve around: moral standards, power, moral mistakes, moral consistency, and ethics effectiveness (Howell, 2006). Failure of a leader to center on these sources can lead to: abuse of power, abuse of authority, and corruption. Personal, or internal, factors that can contribute to ethical challenges for a leader include: vanity, greed, arrogance, and the leader’s personal belief system. External factors such the cultural climate and politics can also affect ethics.
Some leaders attempt to justify their poor ethical decisions based on the uniqueness of their position or the situation. Sometimes this justification occurs through cover ups and lies. Adolf Hitler believed that it was his responsibility, in his position as Germany’s leader, to eradicate the Jews. Once Hitler’s concentration camps were liberated his officers attempted to cover up the evidence of their unethical atrocities. Occasionally leaders attempt to justify their actions by making decisions that may be unethical but effective. John F. Kennedy lied to the American public when he excluded certain details of his resolution to the Cuban missile Crisis (a secret compromise was made with the U.S.S.R. in regards to removing missiles from Turkey). His actions probably saved the world from a nuclear war.
Why does power and success create ethical dilemmas for leaders? The answer lies in the values and morals of the individual in the position, the followers, and the culture of the business. Leaders and cultures that do not focus on ethics will set a climate of abuse, unethical practice, and corruptness. Justifications of poor ethical decisions are, more often than not, based on the leader’s perception of their position and/or the situation that the leader is presented with at a given time.
William M. Wood Jr.
Works Cited
Clausen, C. (Winter2000). Lord Acton and the Lost Cause. American Scholar , Vol. 69 (1), p49, 10p.
Howell, J. P. (2006). Understanding Behaviors for Effective Leadership, Second Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.