Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: critical crossings
- 1 Agency in corporations
- 2 Stakeholder theory
- 3 Organizational culture
- 4 Enron narrative
- 5 Moral decision-making
- 6 Organizational justice
- 7 Reward, incentive, and compensation
- 8 Leadership
- 9 Whistle-blowing
- 10 Marketing, bad faith, and responsibility
- 11 Corporate social responsibility
- 12 Corporate responsibility standards
- 13 Sustainability
- 14 Globalization
- Glossary
- Name index
- Subject index
- References
8 - Leadership
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: critical crossings
- 1 Agency in corporations
- 2 Stakeholder theory
- 3 Organizational culture
- 4 Enron narrative
- 5 Moral decision-making
- 6 Organizational justice
- 7 Reward, incentive, and compensation
- 8 Leadership
- 9 Whistle-blowing
- 10 Marketing, bad faith, and responsibility
- 11 Corporate social responsibility
- 12 Corporate responsibility standards
- 13 Sustainability
- 14 Globalization
- Glossary
- Name index
- Subject index
- References
Summary
Goals of this chapter
After studying this chapter you will be able to:
understand how business ethics portrays leadership as necessarily ethical;
understand the problem with ‘the Hitler problem’ in discussions around ethical leadership;
understand how the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sees leadership;
understand how leadership is not only related to ethics but also to aesthetics.
Introduction
Leadership has fascinated us throughout the ages. Ever since the ancient philosopher Plato (c. BC 427–347), discussions around leadership have been intimately linked to discussions about morality. For Plato, only people with the right moral character are capable of leading. This basic idea is still very much present in ideas (and fantasies) about leadership. Even today, some follow Plato when they take for granted that leadership is all about having a good character. The mere suggestion that there is bad leadership is likely to be dismissed by arguing that bad leadership is not leadership at all.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy , pp. 181 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
- 16
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