ETHICAL

FOUNDATIONS OF
LEADERSHIP
JONATHAN A. ODUKOYA
DAYOODUKOYA@GMAIL.COM
 What is Ethics?
Ethics is a philosophical
term originating from
Greek word “ethos”
meaning custom or
character.
 What is Ethics?
Ethics is the code of values
and moral principles that
guides individual or group
behaviour with respect to
what is right or wrong.
 What is Ethics?
They are behaviours that
are legally and morally
acceptable to the larger
community (Trevino, 1986)
Ethics in Organizational Setting
In an organizational context,
ethics can be viewed as those
values and principles most
important [or contributory] to
stakeholders and to business
[prosperity and profitability]
With over 200 definitions of
leadership, the question
has evolved from
„what is leadership?‟ to
„what is good leadership?‟
- Jessica T. Waggoner (2010)
 Ethics tend to
produce good and
effective leaders
Guess what is
the heart of
Leadership
Ethics is the heart of
leadership.
A good leader is
ethical and effective
- Joanne Ciulla(2004)
Core Ethical
Foundations Respect
for Great
Leadership
Core Ethical
Foundations
for Great Service
Leadership
Core Ethical
Foundations
for Great Justice
Leadership
Core Ethical
Foundations
for Great
Honesty
Leadership
Core Ethical
Foundations
for Great Community
Leadership
Core Ethical
Foundations 1
for Great Respect
Leadership
 Respect is to treat
others as ends in
themselves and never
as means to ends.
 “Persons must be treated as
having their own autonomously
established goals and must never
be treated purely as the means to
another‟s personal goals.”
– Beauchamp and Bowie (1988, p. 37)
 As Burns (1978) suggested,
leaders should nurture followers
in becoming aware of their own
needs, values, and purposes,
and assist followers in integrating
these with the leader‟s needs
values, and purposes.
True respect thinks
Win-Win
Core Ethical
Foundations 2.
for Great Service
Leadership
 Ethical Altruism
A number of ethical theories
emphasize a concern for the
interests of others (ethical
altruism). Service is clearly an
example of altruism. showing a
disinterested and
selfless concern
for the well-being
of others; unselfish.
 Beneficence
The leader‟s ethical
responsibility to serve
others is very similar to the
ethical principle in health
care of beneficence. researchers should have
the welfare of the
research participant as a
goal of any clinical trial or
other research study.
 Leaders who serve are
altruistic: they place their
followers‟ welfare foremost
in their plans
showing a
disinterested and
selfless concern
for the well-being
of others; unselfish.
 Perhaps it is this ethics that
gave birth to the concept of
Servant Leadership
Core Ethical
Foundations 3.
for Great Justice
Leadership
 Ethical leaders are concerned
about issues of fairness and
justice. They make it a top priority
to treat all of their subordinates in
an equal manner.
Core Ethical
Foundations 4.
for Great Honesty
Leadership
 To be a good
leader, one must be
honest
 When leaders are not
honest, they are seen as
undependable and
unreliable.
 For leaders in organizations,
being honest means, “Do not
promise what you can‟t deliver,
do not misrepresent, do not
evade accountability …”
Core Ethical
Foundations 5.
for Great Community
Leadership
 An ethical leader takes into
account the purposes of
everyone involved in the group
and is attentive to the interests of
the community and the culture.
 Such a leader
demonstrates an ethic
of caring toward others
(Gilligan, l982)
This factor, concern for others, is
the distinctive feature that
delineates authentic
transformational leaders from
pseudo-transformational leaders
(Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999).
 When a leader
loses any or all of
these ethics, what
happens?
 Summary
After a deep reflection on what
we have done so far, I am
tempted to conclude that the
core ethical foundation of great
leadership is the fruit of the spirit.
What do you think?
Love Joy
 Long-
Peace suffering
Gentle Good
ness ness
 Meek
Faith ness
Temperance
These are divine ethics that
God operate. These virtues
constitute God’s character.
This is what make God the
greatest leader of all times.
 BUT
the greatest is Love.
„Walk in LOVE, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given
Himself for us an offering and a
sacrifice unto God …‟ Eph 5:2
 Embrace these
foundational leadership
ethics and become
great in life
REFERENCES
 Bass, B. M., & Steidlmeier, (1999). Ethics, character, and
authentic transformational leadership behavior. Leadership
Quarterly, 10(2), 181-217.
 Beauchamp, T. L., & Bowie, N. F. (1988). Ethical theory and
business (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
 Ciulla, J. (2004). Ethics, the Heart of Leadership. Westport,
Connecticut: Praeger.
 Waggoner, Jessica, (2010). "Ethics and Leadership: How
Personal Ethics Produce Effective Leaders". CMC Senior Theses.
Paper 26, http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/26