MGT 5372 Fall 2009: Leadership and Ethics
Course by J. Duane Hoover
Team One:
Joe Jimenez
Ryan Ford
Aliza Levinsky
John Taylor
Leadership and Ethics 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcrYYV4EvA
Leadership and Ethics 2
Adopting an Ethical Perspective “Self-interest and Ethics”
by McKay
“Crucibles” by Bennis and Thomas
“Enabling Self by” JDH
Managing Business Ethics. Wiley Chapter 1 pp 713 and 17-18
Questions
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You find a dollar on the ground when
entering the classroom from which a
class has just been dismissed. What
would you do?
You are a sales associate at a outdoor
retail store that has a policy stipulating
that all employees cannot accept tips.
You carry out a barbeque grill and the
customer offers you a tip. What would
you do?
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• Self Interest is:
– Universal: Adam Smith and “The Wealth of Nations” (ka-ching!)
– Highly motivating: What would I do for an A?
– Both positive and negative: Mother Teresa and Madoff
– What promotes the breach of both moral and legal boundaries in a
competitive environment
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Competitive presssures
The sports environment and The business environment and the
being number 1
pursuit of profit
•Betting: 1919
World Series
•Bribery
•Breaking
records: Mark
McGwire
•Overstated Earnings
•Backdating
•Gifts
“In the fight against the tendency of the overblown (overstatement) to
overstep, nice guys finish last.”
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More opportunities
for success
• Nike and their sweat shops
• Ikea and Indian children
making rugs
Low likelihood of
being caught
• Until caught on Cheaters
Survival
Violation of ethics
• Everyone is doing it…
Competitive
advantage
• Information: Boeing
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Actions that are
Unethical and legal
Actions both
Unethical and illegal
(Arena #A)
(Arena #B)
(Arena #C)
Total number of alternative Actions
Actions both
ethical and legal
Additional
Alternatives
Additional
Alternatives
Pressure of Self-Interest
Under Competition
Ethical Line
Legal Line
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• A, B, or C?
• You are washing cars for a higher price in the affluent
neighborhood than the low income neighborhood.
• You are a physician and your boss tells you to accept only
cash even though you can accept credit cards too.
• You hack the professor’s e-mail in order to find a test file.
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1
2
3
4
5
6
• Identification of the forces against the boundaries
• Trim down the foundations for breaches
• Create personal responsibility
• Implement an environment for compensation and penalties
• Develop an environment promoting ethical and legal behavior
• Designate a position for ensuring ethical actions
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•Leadership skills evolve trough adversity
Definition: A crucible is a transformative experience trough which
an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity.
•Experience are the source of distinctive leadership skills
•Crucible experience define a person
Sidney Harmon
Bolivar Issue
Technology is there to
work for man
Examples
Liz Altman
China Sony Factory
Avoid culture
assumptions
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•Vernon Jordan vs. Robert Maddox
•“Vernon can read”
•Rearview mirror symmetry
•Death rattler
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Judge Nathaniel Jones
•Mentor Maynard Dickerson
•Civil Right Movements
•Red ink as if it were blood
•Having a vital role to play society
•and important destiny
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Predisposed
to negativity
Paradox of
negative feedback
Less inclined to
positive
self-reinforcement
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•Understanding the natural
predisposition
•Intellectual Mastery
•Emotional Mastery
•Behavioral dimension of indulgence
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Defeating the Paradox of Negative
Feedback
• Understanding of our negative predisposition
• Mastery of one’s personal behavior
Practice Chosen Enablement
• - Recognize positive feedback
• - Reinforce positive feedback
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•Management researchers began to study business ethics during
1960’s. Some thought that business ethics was just a fad.
•The interest in ethics is fueled by the media which covers
ethical lapses in the business community
•Ethical problems affect every institution of the society and
every country.
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•First released in 1995.
•Ranks 180 countries by
their perceived levels of
corruption, as seen by
business people and
country analysts and
ranges between 10 (highly
clean) and 0 (highly
corrupt).
CPI 2008
http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/cpi2008
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Ethics Resource Center 2007:
http://www.ethics.org/files/u5/The_2007_National_Business_Ethics_Survey.pdf
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• Felix Rohatyn - Not past the age of 10
• Lester Thurow - “Not unless students have
already learned ethics from families,
clergy, previous school or employers”
• Is a result of nature (genes)
and nurture (environment)
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•Character: Combination of traits that are thought
to guide individuals behavior in ethical dilemmas
•Good character isn’t always enough
Bad apples
•Opportunistic people.
•“Good apples” that
are spoiled by “bad barrels”
Bad barrels
•Institutional environment has a
profound impact in peoples
behavior
•Even “good
apples” may
turn bad in “bad
barrels”
•Bad apples are
encouraged by
bad barrels
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Good character isn’t prepared to deal with
special ethical problems that can arise in
one’s jobs.
Having good character isn’t enough to
guide decision, there can be difficult
dilemmas with conflicting values
Special training can help anticipate ethical
dilemmas, recognize, and have a framework
for thinking about ethical issues
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•Study by the Rutgers
University 2002.
•Young adults in their 20 and 30 in
Survey given to
moral develop education programs
170,000 students in
have shown to advance better in
165 universities.
morals reasoning than younger people. Taylor Cox
•Business school needs more ethics
training than most of other majors
•Employers have responsibility to
teach employees what they need to
know to recognize and deal with
ethical issues.
•Paper business student cheat more often than others
•25% business
students reported one
or more incidents in
cheating on exams
•53% of business
students cheating in
writing papers
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The principles, norms and
standards of conduct governing
an individual or groups.
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• Law: Reflecting society’s minimum norms and
standards of business conduct
• There is an overlap between what’s legal and ethical.
• There are many particular
situations not covered by
law that are “ ethical dilemmas”
• We can face situations of
something being legal and
unethical, or unethical but
not covered by any law
Ethics
Law
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