DISCIPLINE OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

The content, the body of literature, that contains the underlying principles and premises of the discipline of ethical leadership does not have to be created or invented.  It has been part of human traditions for thousands of years.  The history of ideas that has led to our present level of thinking about ethical behaviour and right action towards others and the planet is well established and recognized.

Contributions towards ethical thought are abundant from established areas of knowledge in philosophy, psychology, the religions and spirituality, leadership, science, the environmental movement, personal development, health and wellness, etc.  Only thoughtful choice and selection are required to pick out the very best information as examples.

This interdisciplinary approach to a knowledge base is in keeping with current thinking as the barriers and borders between disciplines break down and where joint projects across these lines are becoming the norm and are leading to the best results.

The task then in establishing the new discipline of ethical leadership is to select carefully across time and knowledge bases for seminal and useful material.  Of course, any selection will be only a fraction of the material available, but hopefully it will be sufficient to stimulate ethical thought and action and to encourage further research and study.

In choosing content, however, some essential parameters and principles regarding the practice of ethical leadership stand out.  Chief among these is to understand that ethical practice is universal and applies to relationships among all of humanity and between people and all living things, including the planetary systems that support life.  This means that the basic principle of not harming others for one's own benefit is a sacred universal principle and is not subject to cultural interpretation.  Respect for others in all their diversity and valuing the myriad relationships in the web of life underlies all right action.

The Principals of the Institute for Ethical Leadership, Dr. Desmond Berghofer and Dr. Geraldine Schwartz, are making a beginning in establishing ethical leadership as a discipline.  They invite contact to provide comments, suggestions, dialogue and ideas.

What are the threads we need to weave together to create the cloth of ethical leadership? Some suggestions with related texts follow.

ETHICS	ECOLOGY
LEADERSHIP	SOCIOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY	HISTORY
PHYSICS	ECONOMICS
COSMOLOGY	HUMANITIES & THE ARTS
BIOLOGY	SPIRITUALITY

 

The first thread is ethics.  Here we can draw on several approaches.  One is the spiritual approach to ethics as taught by the Dalai Lama (Ancient Wisdom: Modern World) with the focus on finding true happiness, which does not come from material things, but rather from inner peace and compassionate work for the benefit of others.

A second source of ethical thought is the philosophic approach, as summarized by Simon Blackburn in Being Good.  This is a more dispassionate approach, describing the problems of relativism, the benefits of utilitarianism, the evils of fascism, etc.

A third approach to ethics as right action is reflected in the work of Tom Morris (If Aristotle Ran General Motors), which relates the notion of happiness as something to be considered through four philosophic dimensions of truth, beauty, goodness and unity.

Another writer on ethics is Rushworth Kidder (How Good People Make Tough Choices) who offers a practical approach by focusing on moral dilemmas of right versus wrong and, more significantly, of right versus right.

The second thread in this new discipline is leadership.  Here we can draw on the work of Peter Kostenbaum (Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness) and Robert Greenleaf (The Servant as Leader), supplemented by others, including Stephen Covey (Principle-Centered Leadership, Peter Senge et al (Presence), Margaret Wheatley (Finding Our Way), etc.  This thread introduces the concept of leadership as service, the empowerment and inspiring of others, achievement through collaborative effort, understanding of systemic relations, visioning, seeing parts in relation to the whole, etc.

A third thread comes from psychology bringing in empirical and theoretical work on relationships, health, the role of consciousness, etc.  Different concepts of intelligence, and, in particular, emotional intelligence and social intelligence as described by Daniel Goleman, would be related to ethics and leadership.

Another thread of the ethical leadership fabric is the understanding of reality as described by physics, cosmology and biology, which together provide a worldview placing human activity, and therefore the practice of leadership, in an evolutionary context.

Of the physical sciences, ecology deserves separate attention as a thread because of its focus on showing how the world of human activity is intimately linked to and circumscribed by the natural world.  Leadership that does not recognize and embrace this fundamental understanding could not be considered to be ethical leadership.

A thread from sociology that traces the development of concepts like human rights and individual and collective human relationships needs to be included.

Some treatment of history from the perspective of progress towards respect for the common good as opposed to individual and national conquest and aggrandizement should be included.

A thread from economics would describe how human activity has to be self sustaining and mutually beneficial in local, national and global contexts.  The current emphasis in industrial societies on gross domestic product as the measure of human progress would be challenged by a comprehensive concept of ethical leadership.

As much of human progress is nurtured and mirrored through the creative arts of literature, poetry, music art, etc., humanities and the arts should also be woven as a thread into the cloth of ethical leadership.

Spirituality as a thread links the content of all of the above to the age-old search for meaning and sense that humanity is guided, nurtured and grounded in a higher order of reality larger than all of our thought systems and material accomplishments.

Drs. Berghofer and Schwartz have also developed the Ethical Leadership Scales as part of the discipline of ethical leadership.  They draw in their content from many of the threads described above.

A variety of teaching methods at different levels and for different purposes are now being considered.  Facilitator Training (including an internship) is one example.  More in-depth study of the content could be directed to universities as a single course in the humanities, as a core course in leadership programs, and eventually as a full program at the graduate level for leaders in Business, Education, Health, etc.  The Principals invite contact to discuss this issue further.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY (A Beginning List)

Ethics

• The Dalai Lama, Ancient Wisdom Modern World:  Ethics for the New Millennium (London:  Abacus, 1999)
• Simon Blackburn, Being Good (Oxford:  University of Oxford Press, 2000)
• Tom Morris, If Aristotle Ran General Motors:  The New Soul of Business (New York:  Henry Holt and Co., 1997)
• Rushworth Kidder, How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (New York: Harper Collins, 1995)

 

Leadership

• Peter Senge et. al, Presence:  An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society (New York:  Currency Doubleday, 2005)
• Robert Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader (Minnesota:  The Robert K. Greenleaf Center, 1970)
• Stephen Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership (New York:  Summit Books, 1990)
• Larry C. Spears (ed.), Insights on Leadership:  Service, Stewardship, Spirit and Servant-Leadership (New York:  John Wiley and Sons, 1998)
• Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science (San Francisco:  Berrett-Kaehler Publishers, 1992)
• Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way (San Francisco:  Berrett-Kaehler Publishers, 2005)
• Peter Kostenbaum, Leadership:  The Inner Side of Greatness (San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass, 1991)

 

Psychology

• Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books, 10th anniversary ed. 2005)
• Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books, 1998)
• Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books, 2006)
• Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press, 2002)
  

 

Science

• Michio Kaku, Parallel Worlds:  A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions and the Future of the Cosmos (New York:  Anchor Books, 2005)
• Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe (New York:  Harper Perennial, 1992)
• Ervin Laszlo, Science and the Akashic Field:  An Integral Theory of Everything (Rochester, Vermont:  Inner Traditions, 2004)
• Ervin Laszlo, Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos:  The Rise of the Integral Vision of Reality (Rochester, Vermont:  Inner Traditions, 2006)
• Dean Radin, Entangled Minds:  Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality (New York:  Paraview Books, 2006)
• John Haeglin, Manual for a Perfect Government:  How to Harness the Laws of Nature to Bring Maximum Success to Governmental Administration (Fairfield, Iowa:  Maharishi University of Management Press, 1998)
• Lynne McTaggart, The Field (London:  Harper Collins, 2001)
• Lynne McTaggart, The Intention Experiment (London:  Harper Element, 2007)
• Bruce Lipton, The Biology of Belief (Santa Rosa: Elite Books, 2005)
  

 

Ecology

• Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers (Toronto:  Harper Collins, 2005)
• James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia:  Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity (New York:  Basic Books, 2006)
• Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth (Emmaus, Pennsylvania:  Rodale, 2006)
• Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2006 (New York:  W.W. Norton and Co., 2006)
• Elizabeth Kolbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe (London:  Bloomsbury, 2006)
  

 

Sociology

• James Robertson, The Sane Alternative (London:  Villiers Publications Ltd., 1978)
• James W. Botkin, Mahdi Elmandjra, Mircea Malitza, No Limits to Learning:  Bridging the Human Gap (Oxford:  Pergamon Press, 1979)
• Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York:  Continuum, 1970)
• Geraldine Schwartz, Journeys of Second Adulthood: A Woman's Search for Higher Ground (Victoria: Trafford Publishers, 2007)

 

History

• Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation:  The Beginnings of Our Religious Traditions (New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 2006)
• Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress (Toronto:  Anansi Press, 2004)
• Carl Johan Calleman, The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness (Rochester: Bear and Company, 2004)
• Barbara Hand Clow, The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind (Rochester: Bear and Company, 2005)
  

 

Economics

• Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (New York:  Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005)
• Roy Madron and John Jopling, Gaian Democracies:  Redefining Globalization and People Power (Foxhole, Devon:  Green Books, 2003)

 

Humanities and the Arts

• Desmond Berghofer, The Visioneers: A Courage Story about Belief in the Future (Vancouver: Creative Learning Press, 1992)
• Desmond Berghofer, Antale: An Allegory of a World Reborn (Victoria: Trafford Publishers, 2006)
  

 

Spirituality

• Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality (Boston:  Integral Books, 2006)
• Gregg Braden, The Isaiah Effect (New York:  Three Rivers Press, 2000)
• Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix:  Bridging Time, Space, Miracles and Belief (Carlsbad, California:  Hay House Inc., 2007)