Working through ethics in education and leadership theory, analysis, plays, cases, poems, prose, and speeches

In turn that will assist in the development of their ability to perceive, understand, address, and to publically defend their decisions as having been made in an ethical fashion as well

Working Through Ethics in Education and Leadership

Working Through Ethics in Education and Leadership

Theory, Analysis, Plays, Cases, Poems, Prose, and Speeches

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All Rights Reserved © 2011 Sense Publishers

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction vii

1 Ethics 1

Can Ethics be Taught? 1

The Genesis of Ethical Principles 3

A Definition and Examples of Ethical Principles 4

Tools for Ethical Principles and their Use in Ethical Analysis 5

The Outline of this Book 6

2 Leadership and Ethics 9

Ethical Discernment 11

Ethical Discernment and Servant Leadership 12

Ethical Discernment in a Broader Context 12

Ethical Determination 13

Ethics in the Marketplace 15

Ethics and Values 15

Ethical Deliberation 16

Inhibiting Factors in Ethical Leadership 16

Ethical Diligence 17

Summary 19

3 Ethical Schools of Thought 21

Virtue Ethics 21

Deontological Ethics 23

Teleological Ethics 26

Relativist Ethics 28

Postmodern Ethics 29

A Simple Assessment 32

Summary 32

4 The Plays 33

The Elementary School Play 34

The High School Play 69

Summary 88

5 The Five Commitments and Ethical School Leadership 89

A Foundationalist Approach 89

Commitment to Common Ethical Principles 89

Commitment to Relational Reciprocity 90

Commitment to Professional Constraints 92

Commitment to Personal Conscience 93

Commitment to Professional Convictions 93

Applying the Five Commitments 94

The Ethics Matrix 96

Summary 98

6 Ten Ethical Dilemmas 99

Introduction 99

Case Number 1: Limiting Freedom of Expression 101

Case Number 2: Private Lives – Public Values 102

Case Number 3: School Closure is for the Common Good 104

Case Number 4: Free Speech has Nothing to do With it 106

Case Number 5: It’s Just a Policy Question 108

Case Number 6: Sexual Orientation and Freedom of Religion and Association are Not the Issues 109

Case Number 7: What’s Right and What’s Fair? 111

Case Number 8: Due Process 101 113

Case Number 9: The Letter of Reference 115

Case Number 10: Sturm und Drang 116

Summary 117

7 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 119

Appendix A: Sample Lesson Plan 123

Appendix B: Personal Ethics Inventory 127

Appendix C: Readings 129

Appendix D: Universal Human Values: Finding an Ethical Common Ground 135

Appendix E: Suggested Prose, Speeches, Poetry and Plays 137

Appendix F: Suggested Movies 139

Appendix G: Decision-Making Approaches 145

References 149

Author Biographies 155

THE RATIONALE FOR THE BOOK

decision-on the whole, incredibly value driven persdecision-ons

We are certainly not the first professors to note this phenomenon and not the first to be chagrined at students’ under use of their skills of synthesis and analysis

in looking at ethical issues Indeed, some former colleagues suggested that classical ethical analysis is pointless as the Cartesian divide makes such analysis impossible (Dewey, 1988; 2003) and even dangerous (Bauman, 1993; Rorty, 1991) Their argu-ment was that classical ethics was dangerous as it “lets people off the hook” as one gives up the responsibility to act with personal responsibility for one’s actions, shifting responsibility to a code or system of belief established and promulgated by others for their own purposes It is said that such choices display a lack of authentic freedom and autonomy and that these engender irresponsibility in ethical decision-making Moreover, with every situation and context being different it seems im-possible to provide guides to ethical action

Our belief is that even if one accepts that there are no universal ethical values, which we do not, there is a great deal of intellectual benefit in students exercising their minds using synthesis, analysis, and critical reflection when considering ethical scenarios Further, such a determinative process is crucial to being able to explain and defend professional decisions to others in the public square To those who say that

“the ethical” is wholly the personal, we answer that we live in relationships and as teachers, administrators, trustees – and others who hold public office – we are answerable to others for our actions which affect them We have accepted the benefits

of public service and we have a public responsibility to explain and defend our decisions in the public square with cogent, considered, rational, and persuasive argumentation Therefore, our responses to ethical challenges must be, amongst other things, articulately defended as thoughtful and reasonable and in the interests

of the common good Those reasons alone should make the study of classical ethics

a worthwhile task

It is our hope that ethical analysis through both reading various schools of thought and vicariously living in this book’s high school and elementary scenarios will assist teachers, students, school administrators, district administrators, as well

as others involved in ethical analysis, to sharpen their abilities to synthesize and analyze data, and to critically reflect upon contentious ethical matters In turn that will assist in the development of their ability to perceive, understand, address, and

to publically defend their decisions as having been made in an ethical fashion as well as being consistent with ethical values and principles in pursuit of the common good

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BOOK

The significance of this book is several-fold First, although there are many books containing ethical cases for study by those involved in education; none of these offer plays which allow the participants to engage in scripted dialogue which is au-thentic, entertaining, and tells a relevant story involving characters in an educational setting These plays have been written to provide the foundation for the terms utilized

in ethical analysis, for example, ethical values and ethical principles Second, the contents of this book have been tested and found to be valuable The authors have, for several years, used these plays in courses with school administrators in the province

of Saskatchewan and in education students’ B.Ed courses at the University of Calgary and University of Saskatchewan In their use we have noted that the level

of engagement by participants with the plays and the ethical scenarios has been high

Third, using the plays in the classroom and having them read by students who assume various characters in the plays has resulted in the participants both becoming attuned to the fact that their ethical assumptions are not necessarily the same as others and further that there is significant ambiguity inherent in real life ethical decision-making due in part to multiple perspectives

THE INTENDED AUDIENCE FOR THE BOOK

This book is not intended as an academic treatise on ethics nor classical ethics; but rather as a tool to be used by instructors and students of ethics who are concerned with having a firm grounding of the main concepts and processes involved with ethical discernment It will be apparent to the reader that this book is intended for use by those in education as the plays and the cases take place in educational settings Indeed, as will be noted later in this book, some of the issues which will be considered relate specifically to the duty of care owed to children in schools and fundamental fairness owed to those in the educational community However, ethical analysis – that is the process by which one arrives at an ethical decision which is at the core of this book – may be applied to any ethical issue facing an individual, a group, or an institution One can argue whether or not there are universal ethical values but one cannot argue that it is possible to avoid making ethical decisions, that is, decisions between what one considers good and bad, and at times, bad and

THE RATIONALE FOR THE BOOK

bad Further, institutional decisions produce consequences for the decision-maker which she or he must live with both in the private and in the public square Therefore, although this book has been primarily written for school teachers and school administrators, it will be found useful by many others should they wish to know more of how one can utilize ethical reasoning in dealing with ethical decision-making in their personal and public lives

CHAPTER 1

ETHICS

In general and very simplistically, a classical definition of philosophy is a field comprised of Metaphysics (which studies the nature of existence), Epistemology (which studies how one knows what exists), and Axiology (studying the quality of value which includes the category of ethics) Ethics asks, “How one ought to act in relation to that which exists – humans and things?” In other words what, given the nature of the entity asking the question and that which is being engaged in the relationship, is the correct type of relationship where “correct” means contributory

to life or continued existence within the nature of the entity regarding the nature of those in the relationship This been said, Boss (1998) is correct when she suggests that ethics is like air, all around but only noticed in its absence (p 5) Ethics is not about rhetoric, what we say, what we intend, what is written, or what has been framed into a credo, but rather ethics is about actions and attitudes, who we are to people, how we treat people, who we are when no one seems to be looking … it is about choosing to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows Ethics is not about compliance but is about doing what is right, good, just, virtuous, and proper Ethics is not about the way things are but about the way things ought

to be Rather, when rightly understood, ethics is a set of principles that guide our attitudes, choices, and actions These principles determine the purpose, destiny, and course of our lives Ethics are the principles of obligation, ends, motive, and virtue that distinguish for us how we should determine right from wrong, good from bad, proper from improper, and virtuous from vicious Living ethically is about being,

in reality, the kind of person I want others to think I am when I am at my best

The Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English (2005) defines ethics as,

“moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour,” and morals as, “principles of right and wrong behaviour” and is “concerned with, based on, or adhering to a coded behaviour that is considered right or acceptable in a particular society rather than legal rights and duties” We think it is helpful to consider the root word from which “ethics” is derived: “ethos” In ancient days, this once described the atmosphere within a cave; an atmosphere that was quite stable (didn’t change much) So it is with stability of ethical principle There are at least two dimensions

of ethics: 1 The ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil, virtuous from vicious, and propriety from impropriety; and 2 The commitment and courage to do what is right, good, virtuous, and proper and to decline not doing the unethical act

CAN ETHICS BE TAUGHT?

Meno Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or

by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way? (Plato, 380 B.C.E.)

It may be said that ethics cannot be taught as the impulse to act ethically precedes thought And further, ethical formulas or systems of thought are mere mechanisms which at best inadvertently cause people to avoid the fundamental, innate, human pull

of ethical behaviour and at worst produce an inability in people to act with authentic autonomy within their sphere of human freedom Moreover, it has been said that even

if one could teach ethics that task would only be fruitful with the young and ionable, not with adults who have already established through experience their level of ethical awareness and accepted a process of ethical decision making, or lack thereof

In our view, ethics can be taught to young and old to inform thought and impact wisdom in action As humans we learn in many ways and develop our moral capacities in predictable but idiosyncratic patterns Parks (1993) stated,

Empirical evidence demonstrating the importance of moral education in the young adult years has been charted … by researchers such as Conry and Nelson (1989), Gandz and Hayes (1988), Bebeau (1991), and Rest… (1988; 1986)… Surely adult moral and ethical development occurs in a variety of settings, both formal and informal, but there is now ample evidence that ethical consciousness and commitment can continue to undergo transformation at least throughout formal education (p 13)

Rest (1982) made the convincing point that “it is useful to think of morality as an ensemble of processes” (p 29) He suggested that,

four major components must be considered in developing a moral framework (1) how does the person interpret the situation and how does he or she view any possible action as affecting people’s welfare; (2) how does the person figure out what the morally ideal course of action would be; (3) how does he

or she decide what to do; and (4) does the person implement what he or she intends to do (p 29)

The general thesis of the above, which we agree with, is that in so far as an academic study of the components or any combination of them contributes to a participant’s understanding of them, that activity contributes to an individual’s moral education

As Rest (1982) said, “this psychological model assumes that moral behaviour is defined not solely by its external consequences … but by the internal processes that govern it” (p 29)

Component One can be addressed in class by raising the awareness of students

to multiple possible responses to an ethical conundrum and to heighten students’ awareness of the multi-layered social and person ramifications of ethical decision-making Component Two can be enhanced by students studying the works of Kohlberg (1981), Erickson (1950), Gilligan (1982), and others which echo in part the statement that “research studies … clearly link changes in moral judgment with changes in cognitive capacity… 100 studies … link moral judgment test scores with real-life decision making and behaviour” (Rest, 1982, p 32) Research into Component Three, and common experience, shows that believing what one should do does not mean that a person will choose a particular course of action However, there are studies which indicate that being morally motivated to act in a particular way is associated with cognitive development (Kohlberg, 1981; Piaget, 1965) Therefore, it seems

ETHICS

reasonable that the possibility of an individual choosing a moral outcome, at least

as defined by her or him, is arguably increased when the decision-maker has an understanding and appreciation of the domains of implications and consequences

of those choices to others as well as herself or himself Component four is summed

The idea of role playing figures prominently in this book as we provide two plays for the reader in Chapter 4 We recommend that the plays in this book be processed within a group setting

We have occasionally explained to people that there are four Cs for moral ment: Consciousness (ethical sensitivity), competence (ethical literacy and dialogic competence), commitment (pre-situational determinations to be and act ethically), and courage (ethical action aligned to ethical consideration and decision) The four

develop-Cs are complementary expressions to Rest’s four component perspective

In summation, the student has of course free will to decide not only what is in her or his opinion the right or wrong action or inaction when faced with an ethical decision making problem However, the cognitive processes which provides for a deep understanding of the circumstances surrounding the situation, the consequences of making a decision, alternative paths if one chooses a resolution, and being able to articulate an intelligent rationale for such a decision, which is so crucial for teachers and others holding public office, are all matters which can be taught and practiced in a classroom using a variety of teaching techniques As in all professional schools, whether that be medicine, law, nursing, or education, the process

of ethics education can provide tools of thought for synthesis, analysis, and critical reflection Although such activities do not guarantee a particular result, such an education can provide the tools and thereby arguably increase the likelihood of reaching a moral decision, at least as defined by the decision-maker, which the decision-maker can then accept and articulate as ethical in nature to others

We acknowledge and agree with Goodpaster’s (1982) statement that “the teacher seeks to foster a certain kind of growth, but more as a leader of active inquiry than

as a therapist or physician” (p 38) In that respect, this book espouses the thesis that

by assisting students cognitively and socially in the classroom to clarify their own sense of ethical principles and by employing analytical processes and encouraging critical reflection on ethical matters students of ethics will be better prepared to make, articulate, and hence defend their decisions in the ethically charged public arena

THE GENESIS OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

There are several sources for the ethical values which we individually or as a society use to assist us in deciding if an action or inaction is right or wrong, morally good or

morally bad Among those included are: a) religion (revelational text and sacred tradition); b) society (laws, customs, and moral norms); c) organizations (culture, embedded values and practices); and d) family (generational tradition and education) Religion can provide a source of ethical principles, the validity of which is deemed divinely given or inspired, universal and immutable, or unchanging from society to society and throughout all time It is usually enforced by social opprobrium and severe spiritual penalties Society can provide a collective definition of what is morally good and bad and provide legal and social penalties for enforcement Some societies may claim that their ethical values, their morality, are superior expressions of morality and should be universal for all societies Organizations, to which a person belongs, may provide a set of ethical values Lawyers, accountants, teachers, and doctors and other professional groups all have codes of conduct, some

of which are statutory in nature, that clearly state the ethical expectations of their members Each family has its own unwritten code of ethical conduct that defines acceptable and unacceptable moral behaviour within the family group In addition

to the above, some claim that by the very fact of being human individuals know what is ethical in an organic, innate fashion which precedes thought and supersedes socialization in a particular community Notwithstanding the variation and differences above, one point seems certain, being human means that we choose between what we believe to be the good and the bad, or the least of the bad and the worst, in many situations in life and we all seek a reason or reasons for making the choices we make – if only to be able to personally live with them or to explain to others the reasons for those choices

A DEFINITION AND EXAMPLES OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Having defined ethics generally, for the purposes of this book, the next definition required is of ethical values and it is here that some become confused as the term values can refer to non-ethical and ethical matters I may value Fords over Chryslers and that is simply a preference A value is merely a preference for one thing over another As a noun, value is the worth of something Intrinsic value means that the “thing” has value, in and of itself Instrumental value refers to the worth a thing has as a means to an end Ethical values are a particular set of values which are different from all the rest Ethical values speak to what I hold to be right or wrong

in human action These values encapsulate what is good and bad for humans given their nature in the actions or inactions which they choose Examples of ethical values might be professionalism, friendliness, hospitality, equity, efficiency, community, and liberty

Using an ethical analysis may be as simple as saying, for example, that some act

or a failure to act is not professional, or efficient The High School and Elementary School plays in this book, which are in Chapter Four, allow the reader to move through identification and clarification of the ethical values at play

Once having utilized the Plays, the reader will have clarified and be able to identify a myriad of ethical values and have a familiarity with the process of ethical discernment As the plays are intended to be taken up in a class, the participants

ETHICS

will have an opportunity to challenge each other’s assumptions which underlie the articulation and application in particular situations of their ethical values During the class discussion of the plays, it will quickly become evident the identification and acceptance of certain ethical values amongst the participants will differ Clashes will occur when the choice facing a decision maker is between two positive ethical values, such as, friendship and professionalism, or two negative values, such as, lack of respect and unprofessionalism In such cases, the ability to identify ethical values and to contemplate them in a practical case are not sufficient to make a determination for resolution in what may require a publically defensible decision in

the public square In that case, what are required are ethical principles The purpose

of the plays is to provide an opportunity for the readers to identify their own ethical values reflected in the scenarios and to articulate the meaning and genesis of those values in a public yet safe space where they will be subject to challenge and hence further clarification and considered application In Chapter Six of this book, the matter of ethical dilemmas will be addressed but prior to that time it is likely that readers of the plays will require some knowledge of ethical principles in order to better understand the ethical value conflicts faced by the characters in the plays

Therefore what follows is a brief explanation of the term ethical principles used for

the purposes of this book

TOOLS FOR ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND THEIR USE IN ETHICAL ANALYSIS

Ethical principles are real, unchanging, self-evident, self-validating, external, eternal, and universal human values that pertain to our relations with others The ethical principles call us to habitually think and behave in a manner consistent with what

is right, good, and virtuous and to avoid the opposite

Ethical principles provide the decision-maker with particular ethical content for analysis As an example, imagine that you are an administrator in an institution that has a written policy that compels you to report any and all theft to your superior The policy is simple, one strike and the employee guilty of theft is fired Now imagine that it has come to your attention that a very hard working employee in your depart-ment has taken $100.00 from petty cash, without your permission The employee’s purpose was to buy her secretary flowers for secretary’s day You have every reason to believe that the funds will be returned as this has happened in the past with other employees What do you do? There are several ethical values in play, a) professionalism, b) your responsibility to be faithful to the policy (law abiding-ness), c) equity of treatment amongst employees, etc What do you do? Here you may look to ethical principles to resolve the conflict Principles such as, a) do unto others as you would have them do unto you (the Golden Rule), or b) what action would you be proud of if your child knew of your decision? (The “kid on the shoulder” principle), or c) one’s duty should be the deciding factor in ethical decision-making (Deontology), or d) do what is best for the greatest number of people involved (Utilitarianism)

As seen above, ethical principles help the decision-maker to adjudicate through ethical complexity and conflicts

How could an instructor develop a lesson plan which would demonstrate many

of the above matters raised in this Chapter? We provide a sample lesson plan in Appendix A which uses an inductive method to bring the ethical discussion alive in the classroom with adults It had been used by us many times over the past few years with great success in raising ethical awareness and sensitivity among education students

THE OUTLINE OF THIS BOOK

This book has seven chapters with references and Appendixes

Chapter One has presented working definitions of ethics, ethical values, ethical principles, an example of ethical analysis, and this outline of this book

Chapter Two provides a way of considering the place of ethics in the work of leadership, with a focus on ethical discernment, determination, deliberation, and diligence

Chapter Three looks at the various schools of ethics utilizing five titles, Virtue Ethics, Deontology, Teleology, Relativism, and Postmodernism

Chapter Four provides two plays, the High School Story and the Elementary School Story, which may be read out loud by participants and are intended to allow the participants to clarify their own sense of ethics and to confront their unstated, and sometimes stated, ethical values, principles, and assumptions in the public yet safe space of the classroom, seminar, or workshop

Chapter Five provides the authors’ method of ethical analysis – entitled the Five Commitments – which uses a matrix of various ethical values and ethical principles

to assist a decision-maker in her or his ethical analysis

Chapter Six goes beyond the ethical identification and ethical clarification of Chapter Three to the application of ethical analysis when faced with ten difficult case studies specifically designed to produce ethical dilemmas facing decision makers

Chapter Seven provides a very brief conclusion to this book which summarizes its key elements and reflects upon various aspects of study which may be used with students in junior and senior high school and adults in order to maximize the impact

of the study of ethics

The Appendices are very important for the use of this book – depending upon the age and purposes of the reader We have referenced the reader to primary sources

in texts, articles, and in some cases video clips with original authors The original readings will undoubtedly be used by some readers to delve more deeply into the key ideas in this book That would be good! Appendix A provides a Sample Lesson Plan for teaching an ethics class Appendix B offers the Ethics Aptitude Survey (Brady, 1990), for the reader to discern her or his own ethical tendencies Appendix C provides the readings and video sites noted above Appendix D gives the site for

an important article, by Rushworth (1994), Universal Human Values: Finding An Ethical Common Ground as well as other useful references dealing with universal

ETHICS

values Appendix E offers a selection of prose, speeches, poetry, and plays, with references to video clips where appropriate, for use by students or instructors in ethics courses Appendix F suggests several movies for use with an ethics course Appendix G offers several simplistic decision-making ethical considerations The References are fairly extensive with web links to make deeper study of the references easy to access

CHAPTER 2

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS

The topic of making ethical decisions is important to each one of us who value and take seriously institutional leadership and the challenges entailed in sustaining organizational and personal integrity It is especially important for leaders in their formative first five years in a new profession For the neophyte leader, moral habits and ethical decision patterns are formed for an entire professional tenure during these years This is not to say we become hard-wired, but we do habituate ethical interactions, responses, and choices in subtle, incremental patterns At a minimum, aspiring to be or “professing” to be ethical leaders builds on the platform of integrity and is mediated by one’s character and competence This topic is also important for those who through their personal experience the importance of ethical keen-ness, and the critical capacity to say “no” to what is unethical and “yes” to what is ethical Such knowledge and the determination to be diligent are the essential benefits of constant ethical renewal and vigilance For those who have sought to exercise ethical leadership for many years the challenge is to examine their practice, reaffirm their principles, filter through the myriad of cultural and contextual demands and influence those around them to think, do, and dare with ethical integrity Based on the findings from a reliable research project (Josephson Institute for Advancement

of Ethics), certain things are predictable:

1 That every reader of this book would say that they want, in his or her heart of hearts, to be an ethical person;

2 That each of us also wants to be thought of as highly ethical;

3 That most of us would say, if asked, that we believe others are not quite as ethical as they should be;

4 That most people believe that their personal ethical standards are higher than those generally found in society; and

5 That most believe that their occupation, say as a leader with business, social or public sector responsibilities, is more ethical than other professions or occupations The research would also suggest that in an organization of good people (such

as the one you work in), most would believe themselves to be personally and professionally more ethical than the other members of the organization, working under the same auspices and with similar super-ordinate purposes

We want to affirm our readers - as well intentioned and typically upright people

At the same time we would like to affirm the desire held by all of us to sustain our uprightness when the situational winds of pressure confront and threaten to tip us Likewise, the organizations that you work with make many efforts to sustain their earned and deserved reputations of integrity and ethical practice It is an appropriate beginning to think the best of each other In the main, these positive self perspectives

help to sustain our ethical ‘tonus’ On the other hand, we would invite you to join us

in admitting that while we aspire to be good, right, virtuous, and proper; we times struggle with what may be called an “internal civil war” We know what is right, good, virtuous and proper but sometimes fail to live up to my own standards

some-We are sometimes surprised that there is an inner battle for things that ought to be pre-decided

We would like to suggest that there are good reasons not to leave the matters of ethical leadership with no more than this said We would like to explore the area under four headings:

Let us put some personal relevance and substance into these ideas before discussing them more fully Pause for a moment from your reading and bring to

your mind someone for whom you have a tremendous amount of ethical respect

We all know somebody fitting that description These people often personify your tangible images of servant leadership If we think about them, we can probably

‘see’ or ‘hear’ them quite clearly, even if they are not with us Ask yourself, “what

is it about that person that singled them out for you, that brought them to mind?” What are the features of their ethicality? What characterizes their leader-likeness and integrity? We all seem to have an in-built ability to know what it takes to be an ethical person – we do not think this is just a subjective thing Throughout our lives

we learn from experience and build pictures of what it means to be ethical That picture helps us with our discernment and our ability to help those in our organization who look to us for ethical leadership

Ethical leadership involves reflecting on ethicality in a very conscious way Ethics pervades everything we do As educational or public leaders we are in the people business, and ethics is embedded in that Are there any people decisions that

we make as leaders which do not have some possible positive or negative ethical ramifications? If you can think of one, let us know However, in the field where we work with undergraduate and postgraduate students in educational administration, leadership, and public administration – the emphasis tends to be on subjects such

as the politics of education; organizational theory; human resources management; financial management; organizational development and public relations These are undeniably important to the work that we do, but what of ethics? Far from being dealt with in a way that reflects our need to be explicitly and discernibly ethical

in our professional orientation and practice, ethics tends to have been implicit and assumed in our pre-service and in-service courses We need to become more explicit about ethicality in our training, practice, and personal behaviour, if we are to provide suitable ethical models and lead by example This idea was one of the reasons this book as written

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS ETHICAL DISCERNMENT

What we do not know about each other is how satisfied we are with our present state of ethical fitness (personally, professionally, and organizationally) We also

do not know exactly what will be required of us tomorrow These internal and external variables warrant our thinking about ethics in a discrete fashion

Through experience and wisdom, there are some who have come to a state of what might be called “authentic ethical humility”– knowing that there is always room to grow in the ethical realm and wanting to be better today than yesterday, and better still tomorrow than you are today When at their best, these people realize that they don’t have to be ethically sick or corrupt to get ethically better Experience teaches us a great deal We often get our ethical consciousness or moral sensitivity through events or circumstances along life’s way Displace-ment of “ethical muteness,” moral complacency or even ethical mediocrity, is best achieved in a proactive fashion rather than in response to difficult circum-stances Be assured, if you are new in the exercise of leadership, that difficult

situations and challenging issues will visit you! It only takes one or two of these

to appreciate one’s own frailties, fragilities and the precarious days in which we live

We are reminded of Darley and Batson’s (1973) work in moral psychology These two researchers worked in the mid-1970s with the seminarians (people training

to be ministers) at Princeton Theological Seminary The seminarians were asked to prepare and deliver a short talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and then to deliver their talks in another building, requiring a short walk between campus buildings Darley and Batson used the walk as an analogy of the famous road between Jerusalem and Jericho, and to complete the scenario, positioned a student confederate along the way, who was slumped over, shabbily dressed, coughing and groaning Darley and Batson wanted to see how each of the subjects would respond

to the ‘victim.’

The factor that made a large difference in helping behaviour was the time pressure put on the subjects Those seminarians who were placed under great pressure tended to help less than the seminarians who were given a more leisurely pace to compose and deliver their short talks The seminarians under pressure seemed not

to have processed the new situation (the ‘victim’) since they were so absorbed with fulfilling their first duty – preparing the talk and getting to the place where they were to do their talk Indeed, we read their account that on seminary students on their way to give their talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan literally stepped over the victims as they hurried on their way to speak of doing good to one’s fellows

When we think about this study, it reminds us that we too can fail to meet ethical obligations on our way to doing good We intend to serve but have not left sufficient margins in our lives to do so We do not think there is room to be sanguine when it comes to ethics in leadership Busy lifestyles, pressured lives and even enthusiasm

to do good can distract us from discerning the first order needs of those around us and our call to direct ethical behaviour

Ethical Discernment and Servant Leadership

As aspiring leaders of integrity, we are a good, well-intentioned bunch of people, are we not? Is that not how we see ourselves? And are not the people who work for and with us similarly well intentioned? We are a good cadre, on our way to doing good, but there are so many things along the way that we need to beware of, to be discerning about

Step outside your reading again for a moment and personalize this: Imagine several of the people you know from your workplace who might be reading this same text Ask yourself how many of these people would have thought of you as an ethical person and leader, for whom they have great respect If they know you, they will have been able to make an assessment on the basis of decisions they have seen you make, together with their images of the ethical attitudes you have made explicit When we ask ourselves this question, all of a sudden we understand the meaning of

“ethical humility” We would like to be thought of in this way, but we are not fident that we have yet reached this in the eyes of the colleagues who know us best A key characteristic of servanthood is humility Without humility there is no grace; with-out grace there is no authenticity nor is there consistency in one’s service to others Frequently others are involved with our decision making even if we do not consciously include them We do not, and should not, operate in isolation We need

con-to pace ourselves, and recognize that there are many times when we cannot do it all

on our own We all require the help of others Other people have different sets of

‘antennae’, beyond those that we have built into our personal ethical ‘handbook’ Collaborative ethical decision-making is so important A “lone leader” is a contra-diction in terms There needs to be somebody on hand to ask questions like “Is

anybody going to be hurt by this decision?” or, perhaps more pragmatically, “How will this look if it is covered in the newspapers?” We need more than just ourselves

to be involved in the discernment process

Ethical Discernment in a Broader Context

Where a state is based on the consent of the governed, every citizen or stakeholder

is entitled to have complete confidence in the integrity of those who purport to serve them Each agent of the state, parents, police, employing board, and the general public must help to earn that trust, and must honour it, by his or her integrity and conduct in all private and official action

The challenges associated with working as an ethical leader requires a great sense of discernment Not only do we need knowledge of laws, rules and standards applicable to our organizational-community settings, but we need to be able to access the best and most reliable information and data upon which to base our decision

We are living in the so-called “Knowledge Age” Not everything out there is true, reliable, good, and beautiful We need to be discerning

We need to link up with people who are especially able at detecting trends and issues that enable us to be proactive – people who can help us to understand and interpret our world We need to build discerning professional learning communities, with people of conscience and critique, commitment and covenant Leaders make

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS

space for the discerning They foster organizational cultures that make room for ethical sensitivities without pandering to petty idiosyncrasies It is pre-supposed that leaders must develop or affirm (personally, professionally, and organizationally) explicit ethical frameworks in order to proceed, with integrity, in the stewardship

of their tasks and relationships

It is our contention that in some ways we need more ‘ethical fanatics’ in the organizational world Let us explain In the negative sense, ethical fanatics might

be described as leaders who, having lost their sense of direction and purpose, cope

by doubling their speed We would want to stay clear of such an individual On the other hand, we think that we need thoughtful and conscience-driven servant leaders who are willing to take some “personal hits” for the sake of their own and their organization’s integrity Such people are fanatics in the sense that others may muse about or even belittle the energy that this person puts into ethical thinking and acting But this is the kind of person we would like to serve with Ethical heroes are needed every day in our organizations and institutions

If it is true that most of us think that doing the right thing is more costly than it really is, and that we often under-estimate the cost of failing to do the right thing This should give us pause Remember that we typically judge others’ worst actions

by our own best intentions Obviously this is not a fair comparison Only the ethically discerning person can see the ethical imperative of an authentic ethical do-gooder

It is true that bad ethics is always bad leadership Poor ethics tends to perpetuate more bad ethics and generates more policy and regulations Should not we work to

be more discerning? All of us will have experience that helps us affirm the notion

that poor ethics creates suspicion, anxiety, and loss of control – and causes the degeneration of trust Trust is an extremely important leader concept – a complex and fragile condition in any organization

Accounting for these conditions argues for giving much importance – perhaps even being fanatical – about one’s own and one’s organization’s ethics Discernment sees this larger picture but also consists of the capacity to pick up the ethical nuances

of situations and circumstances Discernment will not allow a blind eye to be turned to situations that threaten ethical integrity

ETHICAL DETERMINATION

These are precarious and perilous times indeed One only needs to open a newspaper

in today’s cynical environment to see that leaders’ conduct is commonly construed

in the worst possible light In general, public leaders are often presumed guilty of ethical offence by consensual validation that has no resemblance to fair process or substantive grounds There are some “bad egg” leaders in recent times; ones who make it difficult (reputation-wise) for all of us

At an extreme, all officials within private, public, and social sectors tend to be considered unfairly as being no better than the worst of their number The same is true of at least some professions - for example accountancy and law The ungracious brunt of jokes and tarring by broad-brush generalizations has transformed the noble into the scorned Undeserved imputations and unjust malignment must be counted

by servant leaders to show a scoundrel-weary age that for the most part the skeptics skeptics are in error Much of this cynicism has understandable roots We recall for

you the dialogue in John Grisham’s terrific novel The Rainmaker (many of you will

have read this, or seen it in the form of the movie a good number of years ago) There is a scene where Deck Shifflet (Danny Devito in the film) is mentoring the hero Rudy in the fine art of ambulance chasing In the context of the issues raised in this article, it is worth wading through a conversation between these two characters (see Extract 1, Chapter 4)

Extract 1:

Extract from The Rainmaker by John Grisham

We say our good-byes as we backtrack and make a quick exit [from the hospital room of a Dan Van Landel fellow who has been injured and lies in a hospital bed]

Once in the hallway, Deck proudly says “And that’s how it’s done, Rudy Piece

of cake”

We dodge a woman in a wheelchair and we stop for a patient being taken away

on a gurney The hall is crawling with people “What if the guy had a lawyer?” I ask, beginning to breathe normally again

“There’s nothing to lose, Rudy That’s what you must remember We came here with nothing If he ran us out of his room, for whatever reason, what have we lost?

A little dignity, some self-respect”

His reasoning is completely logical I say nothing- My stride is long and quick, and I try not to watch him jerk and shuffle “You see, Rudy, in law school they don’t teach you what you need to know It’s all books and theories and these lofty notions of the law as a profession, like between gentlemen, you know It’s an honourable calling, governed by pages of written ethics”

“What’s wrong with ethics?”

“Oh, nothing, I guess I mean, I believe a lawyer should fight for his client,

refrain from stealing money, try not to lie, you know, the basics”

Deck on ethics We spent hours probing ethical and moral dilemmas, and wham, just like that, Deck has reduced the Canons of Ethics to the Big Three: Fight for your client; don’t steal; try not to lie

We take a sudden left and enter a newer hallway St Peter’s is a maze of additions and annexes Deck is in a lecturing mood “But what they don’t teach you

in law school can get you hurt Take that guy back there, Van Landel I get the feeling you were nervous about being in his room”

“I was Yes”

“You shouldn’t be”

“But it’s unethical to solicit cases It’s blatant ambulance chasing”

“Right But who cares? Better us than the next guy I promise you that within the next twenty-four hours another lawyer will contact Van Landel and try to sign him up It’s simply the way it’s done, Rudy It’s competition, the marketplace There are lots of lawyers out there”

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS

Ethics in the Marketplace

The marketplace for professional services, whether legal, public service, health care

or education, need not be so crude as the “fictional” picture drawn by Grisham ever, as economies, technologies, systems, and structures change, and as opportunism comes to characterize many attitudes throughout society and within these fields, we need to be aware and wary of the reductionist ethics of those around us who may talk and think like Grisham’s character, Deck Shifflet

Most of us are associated with organizations, businesses, moments, institutions, or groups who have been seen as ‘great arenas of ethical excitement.’ We all appreciate the pervasive nature of ethics in the work we do as leaders As we suggested earlier, virtually every significant decision made by leaders has some ethical qualities associated with it Perhaps all decisions related to people and relationships are inherently ethical decisions They are not just ethical decisions in isolation – they may be organizational, administrative, political, legal, social, or spiritual - but we can be certain that there are ethical implications and ramifications with each of these decisions in terms of motivation, action, obligations, and consequences

We think the determination of ethical pathways is made more difficult with some conceptual mistakes or myths that need to be corrected For example: – Some say that ethics and the law are the same thing I think we can do better than Deck Shifflet in that arena

– Some are convinced that ethics are a personal thing

– We have all heard people perpetuate the myth that ethical character is fixed at an early age

– We have heard speakers who think that people who do no moral wrong are ethical

– There are even some who believe that acting and being ethical are easy for us The well-armed and reflective leader needs to challenge each of these statements, recognizing how subtly they make their ways into the minds and hearts of women and men in their organizational settings Such unfounded statements need to be dis-placed with more rigorous and balanced understandings

Ethics and Values

As we have indicated earlier, ethics and values are not the same Nor are they changeable terms They need to be seen as two sides of the same coin:

inter-– Values are the important beliefs, desires, and preferences that shape our attitudes and motivate our actions

– Ethics are a sub-set of values, but refer to core principles which determine right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous and vicious, righteous and sinful (i.e., honesty, promise keeping, respect, caring, etc.)

We are all different, and values vary greatly between people In this sense diversity and “different strokes for different folks” maybe fine; but when it comes

to ethics, the content is more stable, and consensus is much more achievable It may

be said that true servant leaders manage or mediate values but affirm, stand for/by and influence others with ethics Ethical principles are universal and, when not in

conflict with other ethical principles, should “trump,” or over-ride, neutral, religious

or cultural values

ETHICAL DELIBERATION

As leaders, we must work consciously for continuous improvement in our ethical behaviour and be examples to others Within all the diversity that surrounds us, we must have, prescribe, and live by a clear set of ethics – the tools which will allow

us to mediate and manage values, processes, and content – for ourselves and those who look to us for leadership

This is a path which we must tread with great sensitivity The story has been recounted of a meeting of college educators at Harvard University about 20 years ago

At one of the open forums associated with this meeting Frank Rhodes, the President

of Cornel University, suggested to his audience that it was time for educational institutions to pay “real and sustained attention to students’ intellectual and moral well-being,” as these institutions work to reform themselves There were gasps from the audience, according to reports, with one angry student standing to demand indignantly “Who is going to do the instructing? Whose morality are we going

to follow?” The audience apparently affirmed the interrupter with loud applause, as

if to suggest that he had posed an unanswerable question President Rhodes, we are told, sat down, either unable or perhaps unwilling to respond The question seems a most appropriate one to ask of leaders: “Whose morality are we going to espouse?”

Perhaps every person who would be a leader, whether a human services ional, business person, educator, politician, or public administrator ought to put him

profess-or herself in President Rhodes’ position, by asking “What would my response have been?”

Inhibiting Factors in Ethical Leadership

We join with others in our view that there are a number of rationalizations that keep

us from our best ethical thinking If a rationalization is an attempt of the human mind to persuade the human spirit or heart to change its position on a given issues

or issues, then most of us will be able to relate to the understanding that we are times “walking civil wars” The contests of head and heart in ethical deliberation can be significant for us This is especially so in a pluralistic society However, it

some-is not necessary to ‘ship one’s mind to the Arctic’ in order to work out some of these conflicts In fact rationalizations are rarely grounded in substantive arguments Typically, Pascal was right in suggesting that “the heart has reasons that reason knows not of”

Below we suggest a few examples of rationalizations which get in the way of cleaner and clearer ethical deliberation These are rationalizations that we should recognize and avoid:

1 Ethical agnosticism This says to us that we can never know what the ethical action or attitude is—so why bother to be deliberate?

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS

2 Ethical cynicism This asks us the question, “what does it matter—do you really think it is going to make any difference—doing right or wrong?”

3 The doctrine of “relative filth” This tells us that a particular policy or decision may be wrong but it is justified by the possibility that others are doing worse;

4 The jam of “false necessity” This explains to our hearts that we have no other choice—that there is no escaping the tragic dilemma we are facing; and

5 Statistical morality This tells us that it may be unethical to do something but it

is legitimated by the fact that everybody else is doing it—or may be soon—so why be last?

Of course there are many other forms of ethical rationalization, but these examples serve to demonstrate how commonplace and subtle they are We would all agree that obvious wrongdoing such as violating laws - except where some laws are wicked as in Nazi Germany -, rules or acts involving dishonesty, or disregard for ethical standards will get us into trouble We may be somewhat less convinced that the appearance of wrongdoing is unethical – where we engage in conduct that is likely to generate or reinforce cynical attitudes and suspicions about our organizations and the people who lead and manage these enterprises

These general rationalizations can be accompanied by other subtle enemies of integrity, such as: careerism; naive relativism, short-term thinking; the arrogance

of power; independence; misplaced loyalty; egoism; carelessness; neglect; a lack of forgiveness, obduracy; and otherwise crooked thinking

We must not weary along the way Again, we live in a precarious age It is an uphill battle, right from the start, to be, and to be seen as, an ethical leader – some-body who serves others with integrity Metaphors for standing strong in the wind

or storms abound: roots, foundations, and anchors come to mind Simply on the basis of the fact of your leadership position, unthinking people will brand you as

“unethical” “How did that person get there?” they will say, or “They must have done something wrong to get through the system to this position” As we know leadership

is first about serving and helping move towards the fulfilment of a worthy cause not about positionality

As we have said, people are judged by their worst acts, with no regard to their best intentions, much less their most noble acts Often we are judged by our last, worst act Inconsistency in ethics can defined in a moment by one thoughtless gesture, word, or action This is why we must diligently work to be ethical, act ethically, and appear to be ethical

ETHICAL DILIGENCE

Robert Coles (1995), the eminent Harvard psychiatrist who has given us books

such as the Pulitzer Prize winning Children in Crisis, The Moral Life of Children,

and so many other worthwhile writings, tells the story of a woman of colour, the mother of Ruby Bridges, who was one of the children in a study he was conducting Coles says that

she pointed out that ‘there’s a lot of people who talk about doing good, and

a lot of people who always worry about whether they’re doing right or

doing wrong.’ Finally there are some other folks, ‘They just put their lives on the line for what’s right, and they may not be the ones who talk a lot or argue

a lot or worry a lot; they just do a lot!’ (n.p.)

Readers of this book article may have read Peter Drucker’s (1997) preface to the

excellent book, Leaders of the Future Drucker used as a title the phrase “Too Few

Generals Were Killed” This captures some of the same ideas, intelligence, and wisdom expressed by Ruby Bridges’ mother Leaders need to be diligent, relentless, and courageous doers of ethics

We all know the clichés about walking one’s talk, but ‘ethics is easier said than done.’ Drucker was recalling that it is too often the case that we have everything worked out in our minds as leaders, but don’t get into the trenches, roll up our sleeves and do the work (the work of ethical exercise, or wrestling with ethical issues and problems that confront us) This is our call to due diligence as servant leaders

We must recall that ethics is not just “doing no wrong;” but it is also about “doing right” There are lots of reasons why we are not ethically active We are constrained

at different levels of concern (individual, organizational, professional, organization level, community level, societal level) and the further constraints of uncertainty, lack of ability, inadequate information, or analysis, legal conflicts, structural or procedural barriers and so forth are not insignificant

Many ethical problems are messy Timing is important There is a need to build our ethical acumen to sort through ethical conflicts: right versus wrong; good versus good; right versus bad; right versus inefficient, etc As Peter Vaill (1991) once suggested, we need to be diligent in working through these tough decisions, reflectively, collectively, holistically and spiritually In organizations or institutions,

we need to develop a team of people who can give attention to systemic and large problems through public discourse and the various instruments of dialogical and diagnostic competencies These are not small problems – there are no quick fixes;

no three-step decision triages or templates to put the complex and sacred activities of your leadership through, to come up with actionable answers In tough times, ethical are complex and the pressures to be merely technically sophisticated and instru-mental, rather than fundamentally ethical, exert powerful influence on us

The people with whom we work, those who work for us, and those for whom we work, are walking civil wars, like us We know what is right and what is wrong from an ethical perspective, and sometimes we lose the internal struggle to choose right We know that happens, and we know it is going to happen Pre-commitment to ethical principles is a great help to sustained ethical integrity We recommend that people make the decision to be honest, promise keeping, caring, respectful, ahead

of time - then they don’t have to make the decision every time Diligent leaders do

not grow weary in all their well-doing They insist on the resolution of ethical issues and problems in a manner and fashion worthy of their professional and

leadership callings

Much of our research is of an empirical-design to generate descriptions from ethical

leaders (including trustees, chief executives, middle managers, superintendents and

public administrators) about what is ethical to them, what the problems are and what the pressures, basis, grounds and rationale for their decision making might be

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS

This has created a huge pool of data, with hundreds of interviews and thousands

of survey pieces It is likely that we have never personally worked the specific organization where you do your working and leading However, on the evidence of our experience in several other English-speaking countries, we know that almost all the leaders we have connected with are up to their ears in sensitive ethical issues, as a significant part of their day-to-day work Those who say they are not often seem to

be in state of obdurate denial Most want to deal with the issues; to be, do and achieve the best that they can They realize this will not happen unless they maintain their own integrity - the elements over which they have most control - and they work consciously to foster an ethical environment within their organizational settings Harking to a guru in the leadership field, Warren Bennis (1997) says that if leaders fail, it is by virtue of their loss of character, or competence in the eyes

of those they serve – there is a loss of trust in the integrity of these fallen or failing leaders For our international and national-level leaders, many issues and challenges are management ones; they have dollar signs attached to them This is where they often feel the greatest threat with regard to their ethical decision-making Beyond economic and efficiency issues they list a range of interpersonal issues - everything from “I am dealing with incompetence,” through significant human questions of equity, community and individual liberty My concern in this short essay has not been so much for these larger issues but rather in the issues and situations where

we do exercise personal and professional choice and influence

You need to know what the “best interests of the people” you serve is all about –

a deep understanding of purposes, missions, core values and processes that goes beyond rhetoric, and abiding commitment to making it happen Decisions are made

by the hundreds in your work as a leader All of the roles you assume as a leader need

to be founded or rooted in some solid commitments: to common ethical values; to the voice of professional convictions; to your personal conscience; and to your professional and social constraints (codes) From this core of ethical commitments you can sustain the integral core of who you are (a person who has chosen to be ethical) through and into these roles, where conflicts are going to come Integrity is consistency in displaying all these core commitments in each of the roles you take

on as a leader

In part, leadership is about making sure your ethical core permeates all you do, all you are and all you dare to be as a person of integrity We could say much more about all this but let us leave it there, as you continue to use this book and encounter the challenges of ethical decision-making in leadership

SUMMARY

Based on our view that there ought to be conscious and concerted efforts made by leaders to enhance and continually develop their ethical acumen, we have suggested four aspects of that development: ethical discernment, ethical determination, ethical deliberation, and ethical diligence Concerning ethical discernment, we have empha-sized that ethical humility, consciousness or ethical sensitivity; together with working

in concert with the ethical sensibilities of others These are key qualities for the

leader who wishes to serve with integrity With respect to ethical determination, readers are reminded of the forces at work in our environments to shrink the efficacy

of ethical consideration and we point to the necessity of disaggregating notions

of ethical from the larger arena of what matters to us (our values, beliefs and preferences) Here we’ve advocated privileging ethical principles over non-ethical

or neutral values to help our determination of right/wrong, good/bad, and virtuous/ vicious Third, we address the crooked thinking, fallacious considerations, myths and rationalizations that can (and often do) inhibit our ethical deliberations Ethical decision making can be complex and subject to all sorts of forces that distort or mute our “right and righteous thinking” Of course, our point is that if, at the outset, deliberative content is off track, even by a few degrees, then the trajectory of our behaviour and actions will suffer the consequence of taking us where we really do not want to go and do harm (by commission or omission) in ways that we can ill afford Finally, in this chapter we have reminded the reader of the importance of ethical diligence Timing, courage, wisdom, attention to the subtle and ethical mind-fulness are crucial in the exercise of leadership that lives up to claims of integrity

In this chapter there is an argument made for a fundamental commitment to be made by leaders to resist the tendency to passive ethical determinism (“whatever” will be will be); instead, we suggest leaders seek to be active, competent and fully alive to ethical world around them; vigorously assert the place of warranted ethical decision making in all circumstances, engage the complexities and make every effort to be the worthy of their calling as leaders

CHAPTER 3

ETHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Chapter Three describes, in brief, five categories or schools of ethics: Virtue Ethics, Deontology, Teleology, Relativism, and Postmodernism However, before you read

on please take the personal ethics inventory in Appendix B Thereafter, please read this chapter which will at that point have a great deal more meaning to you

As you proceed through this Chapter, you will note that several readings have been recommended These readings are referenced in Appendix C In that Appendix, you will see primary and secondary readings for authors and, in some cases, a video clip of the author speaking The purpose of the readings in Appendix C is to provide a rich background of ideas for the classroom, or seminar, or workshop from the various schools of ethics mentioned in this Chapter and other parts of this book

VIRTUE ETHICS (RECOMMENDED READINGS: APPENDIX C – ARISTOTLE,

CONFUCIUS, HUME, NODDINGS, PLATO)

Virtue ethics is concerned with the character of the individual and not any particular system of analysis or approach that she or he may use when facing an ethical dilemma The difficulty with understanding this school of ethics is that it does not provide a list of ethically good actions with which to judge behaviour in a particular situation Indeed, it would be incorrect to view virtue ethics as a virtuous person carrying a template of ethical values and principles to consult whenever facing an ethical conundrum of dilemma Lawrence Kohlberg (1981) called this the “bag of virtues” approach to decision making Rather, virtue ethics relates to predispositions of the person’s character which have developed over time and resulted in virtuous habits of action exemplifying a virtuous character Such is not a list of ethical values which are used as a checklist by the individual when facing an ethical scenario requiring a decision In that sense, St Thomas More as portrayed in the movie “A Man for All Seasons” (Bolt, 1990) is a good example of a character exhibiting Virtue Ethics A further example may be the Reverend Martin Luther King (1963a,b) who acted from

an interior belief and a deeply developed character manifested in both word and deed His sense of justice, brotherhood, and respect in the face of injustice and violence directed towards himself and people of both colour and poverty in the United States of America are renown A third person who exemplified character ethics is Martin Luther (Ganss, 1910) who when faced with a choice to recant certain religious beliefs or face excommunication from the Catholic Church refused to recant, and as a matter of personal conscience allegedly said to his inquisitors,

“Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God”

In all three of the above examples the individual’s virtuous character was shaped

by his may day-to-day decisions before the penultimate decision-making event Thus, in a sense, his decision regarding that event did not so much shape his virtuous character as manifest it Moreover, the virtuous nature of the individual’s character is seen to involve the cognitive, affective, and relational aspects of the individual Hence, the decision results from the sum total of the individual’s character, not a particular calculation in a particular set of circumstances It is in the doing – the acting out on an ethical matter that is where the ethical virtue of the individual is revealed

The above can be difficult to understand Let us look at an example of what is meant – using Virtue ethics when one says that a person is honest Note that one does not say that she or he acted honestly, but rather that she or he is honest It is the character that is at issue; hence, the reasons, including other involved aspects of the personality For example, the emotional reasons for the - action as understood

by the person - are crucial in making the determination of honesty It is important

to note that one can exhibit honesty in some situations but not others Further, in

virtue ethics the concept of phronesis or practical wisdom is crucial What does

that term mean?

One can honestly want a particular result from an action which one initiates but without practical wisdom, it may not be achieved Practical wisdom comes with experience and may be said to be synonymous, for our purposes, with being able

to choose amongst various possible decisions with a broad understanding of the multifaceted and broad meaning of the decision to those affected including the self

A decision made with practical wisdom is made with eyes wide open to all the pre-existing elements, the contextual factors, and the consequences to those affected

with the decision Unlike wisdom simpliciter, which does not necessarily consider

the impact of a decision on the ground in terms of the actual persons – including the decision-maker – and relationships to and amongst persons and things, practical wisdom exhibits maturity, deep consideration of culture, persons, and things, and possible consequences with a close appreciation of the actual situation with the temporal nature of the situation involved in the decision

For those advocates of Virtue ethics, the belief is that if one lives a life of good character which utilizes practical wisdom, one can achieve the goal, at least for this

school of thought, of personal happiness which is sometimes referred to as eudemonia

meaning that one flourishes according to the nature of being human (Hursthouse, 2007)

There are four classic or “cardinal” virtues: Prudence (wisdom), justice (fairness), fortitude (courage), and temperance (self-control) These are evidenced in work of Greek philosophers, most obviously in Plato (The Republic, 360 BCE) There are also three well known “theological virtues” found in religions: faith, hope, and love Other virtues such as excellence, respect, promise keeping, honesty, and citizenship are commonly described virtue and citizenship ethicists (such as Michael Josephson, cited earlier) Beyond these, we might add the virtues that characterize the “type five

leaders,” identified and extolled by Jim Collins (2001), in Good to Great: humility

and determination

ETHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Some of the questions which a practitioner of virtue ethics may ask are:

Is this decision which I may take in concert with my fundamental and true character?

If I make the proposed decision, how might that decision impact my view of myself and my ethical character?

If I make the proposed decision would it be in accord with those persons that

I admire for their strength of character?

If I make the proposed decision how might it affect others sense of their own ethical awareness?

There are many objections to Virtue ethics but the purpose of this book is not

to delve into the various objections – rather it is to provide brief descriptions of the various schools of thought and then to encourage the reader to try applying the concepts to various scenarios

DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS (RECOMMENDED READINGS: APPENDIX C - CONFUCIUS, KANT)

The Deontological school of ethics may be summed up as saying “Do the Right Thing!” It tells the person to do the right thing regardless of the consequences Whistleblowers often say that although they were aware of the possible negative consequences to themselves of telling the truth about an example of government

or corporate malfeasance, they were compelled from a sense of duty to report the wrongdoing or misconduct to the public The key point for the deontologist is that what is at stake is one’s obligations to act in accord to ethical principles or rules Although one should do unto others as one would have them do unto them-selves (the Golden Rule principle), it is important to realize that many people would not necessarily want to be treated – say in a blunt fashion – as the decision maker might want to be treated The deontologist, in true Kantian fashion, would supplement the Golden Rule principle with the Categorical Imperative principle (meaning that it is necessary to always follow this same rule in ethical decision making) which states that when I make an ethical decision it must be universally applicable to all persons including the decision maker Lastly, deontology demands that ethical decision-making involves the “kingdom of ends” That is, in matters involving people, one decides with primary deference to people as ends

not means to my decision-making Every person is seen as valuable per se and

not – as by a manipulator – simply a means to my ends or my organization’s ends

Perhaps one of the most famous whistleblowers was Jeffrey Wigand who told the true story of big tobacco in the United States Here is a transcript of an interview with him on June 2, 2005, where he explains his conflicted sense of duty in deciding whether or not to tell the truth to the public about the dangers of tobacco which were know of, but denied by, big tobacco (Matthews, 2005)

Jeffrey Wigand became a household name when he told the truth about big tobacco to “60 Minutes” back in 1995 His story was later made into the

movie: “The Insider” [see Appendix F] He talked to NBC’s David Gregory about what it’s like to expose the truth

DAVID GREGORY, GUEST HOST “HARDBALL:” Thanks for being

with us… You were not in government You were a high official in a tobacco company

Take me inside your own story Describe that moment when you felt like,

“I can’t work within the system anymore I can’t push my bosses to do what

I think is the right thing I’ve got to go outside I’ve got to try to expose this” Did you feel trapped? Describe that

JEFFREY WIGAND: In a way, you do feel trapped You feel a very deep,

inner conflict between your loyalties, your loyalty to your family, and supporting and protecting your family, the supposed loyalty that you’re supposed to have through the corporation that’s actually paying to you support your family And then you look at the hierarchy or the values, and you say, “Did those loyalties outweigh the loyalty that one has or duty one has to public health and safety?” And after considerable deliberation, I chose the pathway that said that I had a duty and a moral obligation for the truth And I owed that on

a hierarchy basis to public health and safety for the knowledge I gained while

in the tobacco industry that would save lives

DAVID GREGORY: Why did you feel you had to go to the news media?

What wasn’t working by fighting on the inside?

JEFFREY WIGAND: The tradition and the process were so embedded that

I could never change it from the inside Whether it was the violation of lawyers vetting documents, or violation of rules of civil procedure with the lawyers, or statements inside that we’re in a nicotine delivery business and tar

is the negative baggage, that we hook them young, we hook them for life First [problem] was the mantra outside: “No, nicotine is not addictive Smoking doesn’t kill It hasn’t been proven, the targeting of children” I mean, just the outright misrepresentation of the fact that, when put in the right hands of the public, under what we might consider the doctrine of consumer sovereignty, consumers would make different choices

And those choices were taken from them, particularly because the industry wasn’t truthful and not only engaged in what I would say immoral activities but most certainly approached the fringe of being illegal, if not fraudulent

DAVID GREGORY: Let me interject one point here, Dr Wigand You

obviously felt the need at some point to put your face to this story… Do you sympathize with [others in a similar situation] wanting to be so secret?

JEFFREY WIGAND: Well, I have to say, in the beginning, I was secret

From March of 1993 to August of 1995, I was secret I worked under a code name with the FDA I worked secretly with the law firm representing ABC News in a $10 billion lawsuit between ABC and Philip Morris But ultimately,

ETHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

I felt that I had the moral imperative that I had to do something with the knowledge I had And I chose to go to “60 Minutes,” because I believed that they had the institution, they had the process to reach 30 to 40 million people with the truth And I trusted that entity to do that

DAVID GREGORY: Is it a good process? Was the result good for you? Do

you feel good as a whistle-blower, or was it a painful episode in your life?

JEFFREY WIGAND: Well, there was pain in it I mean, I can’t say there

was no pain But as I look today, and I look back at what has happened and what has changed as a result of my actions and those that helped and supported

me in what I chose to do, I think it’s made a change in the way tobacco is viewed in the world today And I have absolutely no regrets And I would most certainly do it again I’m not so sure, if I went back to try do it again,

I could change the tapestry or the chemistry of the soup in any way, because the alignment of stars, the support I got from both seen and unseen people, was enormous in making it happen

DAVID GREGORY: You feared for your life at various points, didn’t you? JEFFREY WIGAND: Yes, we had to have bodyguards The threats were

credible They were directed towards my children They weren’t always directed towards me We were provided two armed ex-Secret Service guards to protect

me 24/7 The school that I was teaching at the time put an armed sheriff’s deputy on the classroom door because of the threats But in the end, no matter what, the truth did come out And I feel relieved that the truth did come out

I wasn’t a bystander

DAVID GREGORY: What changes now that Mark Felt has come out? What

changes for whistle-blowers in the future?

JEFFREY WIGAND: I don’t know what changes are — I mean, I would

like to you change the word “whistle-blower” and say it’s “truth-teller”

I believe there is a need for people who cannot resolve and see harm being done to do something And I think Mark Felt [the FBI agent who secretly spoke to reporters about the Watergate Hotel break-in which brought down President Nixon] did it I think Karen Silkwood [a worker in a nuclear facility who spoke out against safety breaches and who later died in what some consider

to be a suspicious automobile accident] did it I most certainly think Coleen Rowley [a special agent for the FBI who spoke in public about mishandling

of pre 9–11 information by the FBI] did it And there are lots of others who have done it and have made the world a better place by telling the truth I would hope more people would do it

DAVID GREGORY: Dr Jeffrey Wigand, thank you very much for being

with us tonight, with the satellite delay from Montreal Appreciate it

Of course there are many other famous whistle blowers such as Peter Buxtun (Reverby, 2009) who worked with the public health authority in the United States

He learned of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment where 399 poor African American males were used as a sample in the testing, but where they were not given readily available penicillin to treat the disease, and where the participants were not allowed

to be treated elsewhere for their disease When authorities refused to act upon his request for treatment for the participants, Mr Buxtun went public with the experiment

to the disgrace of the public health authorities and all those involved

Some of the questions which a practitioner of Deontological ethics may ask are: – To whom or to what do I owe a duty in this decision?

– Does the proposed decision meet the Golden Rule condition?

– Does the proposed decision meet the Categorical Imperative condition?

– Regardless of the consequences, is there a principle which must be adhered to in this case?

Whatever one may think of deontology as a school of ethical decision-making it stands as a very persuasive school of thought and one which every person can relate

to in their life notwithstanding that much therein is subject to the interpretation of the decision maker

TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS (RECOMMENDED READINGS: APPENDIX C - BENTHAM, MILL)

Everyone has said at one time or another, “Hey, go along with the idea – it’s in everybody’s or almost everybody’s best interests”, or “you have to break a few eggs

to get a yolk” Certainly in history, human beings have faced horrendous decisions which they later have had to defend in a court of law or in the court of public opinion

In the famous English criminal law case of Regina v Dudley and Stephens in

1884 the yacht Mignonette set sail for Sydney to Southampton with a crew of four when along its way it encountered a gale causing the crew to take to a lifeboat The criminal indictment, which resulted from the experiences of the survivors, reads, in part, as follows

On July 5, 1884, the prisoners, Thomas Dudley and Edward Stephens, with one Brooks, all able-bodied English seamen, and the deceased also an English boy, between seventeen and eighteen years of age, the crew of an English yacht, a registered English vessel, were cast away in a storm on the high seas

1600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, and were compelled to put into an open boat belonging to the said yacht In this boat they had no supply of water and no supply of food, except two 11 pound tins of turnips, and for three days they had nothing else to subsist upon That on the fourth day they caught

a small turtle, upon which they subsisted for a few days, and this was the only food they had up to the twentieth day when the act now in question was committed That on the twelfth day the remains of the turtle were entirely consumed, and for the next eight days they had nothing to eat That they had

no fresh water, except such rain as they from time to time caught in their oilskin capes The boat was drifting on the ocean, and was probably more

ETHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

than 1000 miles away from land That on the eighteenth day, when they had been seven days without food and five without water, the prisoners spoke to Brooks as to what should be done if no succour came, and suggested that some one should be sacrificed to save the rest, but Brooks dissented, and the boy, to whom they were understood to refer, was not consulted That

on the 24th of July, the day before the act now in question, the prisoner Dudley proposed to Stephens and Brooks that lots should be cast who should

be put to death to save the rest, but Brooks refused to consent, and it was not put to the boy, and in point of fact there was no drawing of lots That on that day the prisoners spoke of their having families, and suggested it would be better to kill the boy that their lives should be saved, and Dudley proposed that if there was no vessel in sight by the morrow morning the boy should be killed That next day, the 25th of July, no vessel appearing, Dudley told Brooks that he had better go and have a sleep, and made signs to Stephens and Brooks that the boy had better be killed The prisoner Stephens agreed to the act, but Brooks dissented from it That the boy was then lying at the bottom of the boat quite helpless, and extremely weakened by famine and by drinking seawater, and unable to make any resistance, nor did he ever assent to his being killed The prisoner Dudley offered a prayer asking forgiveness for them all if either

of them should be tempted to commit a rash act, and that their souls might be saved That Dudley, with the assent of Stephens, went to the boy, and telling him that his time was come, put a knife into his throat and killed him then and there; that the three men fed upon the body and blood of the boy for four days; that on the fourth day after the act had been committed the boat was picked up by a passing vessel, and the prisoners were rescued, still alive, but in the lowest state of prostration That they were carried to the port of Falmouth, and committed for trial at Exeter

The question for the reader of the above is, “Do the ends justify the means?” The simple response of teleology - although there is a much more nuanced response - is

“Yes”

The classical nature of the teleological argument is more complex than the simple answer stated above as the works of Jeremy Bentham (1996) and John Mill (1986) attest However, for the purposes of this book, the issue is that a decision should

be judged to be ethical if it is made with the intention to create the greatest good

or happiness for the greatest number of people In that sense, the crew of the Mignonette acted ethically

More recently, the disturbing case of Uruguayan Air Force Flight #571 (Webley, 2010) displayed the ends to which some people will go to survive in that eating dead fellow-passengers of the air plane crash was deemed by the survivors, an action necessary to survive One has to ask if the end – survival – justifies the means of survival - becoming a cannibal For the deontologist the answer seems to be yes (Andes Incident Official Website - survivors’ interviews)

The utilitarian sees the ethical value of an act, or inaction as the case may be, in the utility that is the happiness, to the greatest number of people Therefore, the decision-maker’s focus is upon the outcome or consequences of her or his action

or inaction In Act Utilitarianism one looks to the result of the action to determine the utility; hence, the ethical aspect of the act In Rule Utilitarianism, one looks to whether or not the decision is in accord with the general rule of utility References to the two main proponents of classical Utilitarianism, Mill (1986; 2002) and Bentham (1996) are in Appendix C for further study should the reader care to do so

For the purposes of this book suffice to say that decision-makers in education often face making decisions which are unfavourable to a minority such as the closure

of a local school due to very low enrolment - yet which is in the best interests of the majority as the financial solvency of the school district may be at stake Another example in education is the elimination of certain programs such as second or third language instruction or band trips due to a loss of funding for the school district The choices made by educational decision makers on how to address a loss of income

to their school district involves, often, a Utilitarian calculation and, of course, much dismay on the part of some ratepayers

Some of the questions which a practitioner of Teleological ethics may ask are: – What will be the immediate consequences of my proposed decision with respect

to the matter at hand?

– What will be the long-term consequences of my proposed decision with respect

to the matter hand?

– How does the proposed decision relate to the general happiness of most of those people affected by the decision?

– Does the proposed decision relate to this one instance or does it relate to a general principle to be used in such decisions?

There is no doubt that Teleological ethical decision-making is fraught with concerns At its simplest, it does not consider the individual person’s hopes, fears, concerns, circumstances, or thoughts, but rather considers people in aggregates, and the ends – arguably of high utility to the majority of persons – may be seen to justify the means Yet, its use as an analytical tool is relevant to the decision making process

RELATIVIST ETHICS (RECOMMENDED READINGS: APPENDIX C –, BAUMAN, RORTY)

Ethical relativism is often encountered in schools and universities It seems in vogue to say that what is ethical in decision-making is determined by the culture, the community, the past experiences of the decision-maker, by some group in power that makes the rules, or simply by what works in the circumstances or the situation

at hand Clearly, if that is the case, then there is no Archimedean point of reference

or touchstone upon which one can refer for eternal ethical principles which apply

in all cultures, for all people throughout time whether or not they realize such is the case Indeed, to many people it seems arrogant to make such a claim!

Einstein (1905) established that time is relative to the individual and how fast she or he is travelling – consider the Twins Paradox (Nova, n.d.) Moreover, there

is no fixed unmoving point in space from which to measure a fixed distance as all things are in motion So too, relativists see ethics as being, depending upon the sub-school of relativism, relative to the person, the community, its culture, time,

ETHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

or situation This position leads to some interesting paradoxes such as if one is an ethical relativist, then how one cannot rationally argue against the Nazi’s treatment

of the Gypsies, gays, Catholics, and the Jews in Germany as such was accepted by many as the culture of the time (Koonz, 2003) Hence the oft cited refrain, “who are we to judge another culture from another time which made decisions under conditions different from our own?” There are of course, many other more current examples which cause great discomfort if one takes the ethical relativists position

to the extreme Nevertheless, ethical relativism is rife in the classrooms in which these authors have taught for over 30 years

Some of the questions which a practitioner of relativist ethics may ask are: – What would the proposed decision mean to the community’s opinion of me if

I made this decision?

– What should I do based on what the community thinks I should do?

– What is the short-term benefit that can be achieved by the proposed decision? – What do other decision-makers do when they decide this kind of issue?

The reader will see from the questions above that some of the questions posed

by an ethical relativist are reasonable and may even be considered prudent Indeed, one should consider many of the relativist’s questions in considering an ethical question but whether the answers to those questions should be definitive in making

a decision is certainly open to question

POSTMODERN ETHICS (RECOMMENDED READINGS: APPENDIX C – BAUMAN, RORTY)

What unites purposefulness, reciprocity and contractuality is that all three

imply calculability of action They all assume that thinking precedes doing;

definition precedes the task; justification precedes the duty The three attributes presuppose action that is the outcome of rational decision-making, or at least can be such an outcome if the actors put themselves to it… I suggest, on the

contrary, that morality is endemically and irredeemably non-rational – in the

sense of not being calculable, hence not being presentable as following impersonal rules, hence not being describable as following rules that are in principle universalizable The moral call is thoroughly personal; it appeals

to my responsibility, and the urge to care thus elicited cannot be allayed or placated by the awareness that others do it for me, or that I have already done

my share by following to the letter what others used to do… We are not moral

thanks to society… we live in society, we are society, thanks to being moral

(Bauman, 1993, pp 59–60)

During World War II, many citizens in Nazi Germany determined that the treatment

of the Jewish population - from its inception with the Nuremburg Laws of 1933 - was inhuman Indeed, many non-Jewish German citizens put their own lives and the lives of their families in peril by hiding Jewish families That action was contrary to the laws of their country and the socially mandated view by the govern-ment that Germany would be better off without Jews How can one explain some individuals’ sense of moral outrage and their moral impulse or urge to act contrary