Ethics

Abstract

Ethical leadership has been widely influenced by both ancient and modern philosophy. Ethics is closely aligned with business, especially when faced by the capitalist credo for profit-making and laissez-faire economy. Evaluating returns and profit rather than acting out of authentic motivation mayMay well signal narcissismNarcissism driven by narcissistic efforts of self-promotion and leadership self-interest. To counteract this, authentic leadership is partnered with virtue ethics, which acts to introduce ethical considerations into leadership decisions. The best proponent of virtue ethics is AristotleAristotle. Even though AristotleAristotle has concerns about profit for profit’s sake, he acknowledges that wealth can be used to create abundance for all and philanthropically benefit others. The most important virtues include, phronesisPhronesis (practical wisdom), benevolence and prudencePrudence, all of which encourage eudaimoniaEudaimonia which is a life-style of being true to one’s self in authentic fashion. An implication of virtue ethics is its argument for role-modellingRole modelling, witnessed by the influence of great leaders such as GhandiGhandi, or MandelaMandela, and proposed by the transformational leadershipTransformational leadership model, where followers readily emulate leaders. Michel FoucaultFoucault, influenced by AristotleAristotle, argues moral responsibility for the other is part of an inner authentic core and has to be acquired by way of a self-disciplined, personal project. In fact, the postmodernPostmodern thinkers, such as DerridaDerrida, LevinasLevinas and FoucaultFoucault, are all concerned with virtuous activities such as justice, personal responsibility, and communitarian freedom.