Leadership Values and Ethical Reasoning

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Leadership Values and Ethical Reasoning

• Chaplain (Major) Ken Williams

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Terminal Learning Objective
Action Apply the Ethical Decision Making
Process as a Commander, Leader, or Staff
Member. Condition In a classroom environment,
given case studies, group discussion, and FM
22-100. Standard Identified the relationship
between leadership values and decision making
explained the difference between values and
ethics according to FM 22-100.
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Administrative Data
Safety Requirements None Risk Assessment
Low Environmental Considerations
None Evaluation Leadership Exam
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References

• FM 22-100 Army Leadership 1999
• Article 90 Uniform Code of Military Justice
  1984
• DOD 5500.7-R Joint Ethics Regulation 1993

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Outline

• Review Ethical Decision Making Process
• Discuss Ethical Leadership
• Discuss Establishing an Ethical Climate

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What Is Ethics?

• A group of moral principles or set of values that
  define or direct us to the right choice

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What Are Values?

• Values are the deep seated, pervasive standards
  that influence every aspect of our lives (our
  moral judgments, our responses to others, our
  commitment to personal and organizational goals).
  Values set the parameters for decision making.
  Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, p.
  212

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What Is an Ethical Dilemma?
?
What should or ought I do?

• Situation in which two or more deeply held values
  come into conflict. In these situations, the
  correct ethical choice may be unclear.

What is right or wrong, good or bad?
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Causes of Ethical Dilemmas

• A Bottom Line Orientation
• Short Term Traps
• The Ego Barrier

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Causes of Ethical Dilemmas

• There is no excuse for failure.
• Zero defects.
• Can do.
• Just do it.
• Tell them what they want to hear.
• Make the report say what they
• want to see.

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Determining the Right Thing

• Basic Approaches
• Kantian (Deontic) Approach
• Utilitarian (Consequential) Approach
• Virtue (Character) Approach
• Fairness (Justice) Approach
• Common-Good Approach

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Kantian (Deontic or Rights) Approach

• Immanuel Kant
• Rules or principles determine action.
• Emphasizes the principle over the result.
• The action should not be done if everyone should
  not do it. Can my act become universal law?
• People have rights truth, privacy, and
  protection.
• People are not a means to an end, but are an end
  in themselves.
• Bottom Line Does the action respect the moral
  rights of everyone?

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Utilitarian (Consequential) Approach

• John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham
• Emphasizes the results of the action.
• Ethical actions provide the best balance of good
  over evil.
• An act is right if and only if it results in as
  much good as any available alternative.
• Bottom Line The greatest good for the greatest
  number of people.

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Virtue (Character) Approach

• Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas
• Emphasizes character.
• Character traits or virtues enable us to reach
  our highest potential.
• A virtuous person is an ethical person.
• What kind of person should I be?
• Bottom Line People develop virtues through habit.

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Fairness (Justice) Approach

• Aristotle
• Equals should be treated equally and unequals
  should be treated unequally.
• Favoritism and discrimination are unjust and
  wrong.
• Bottom Line How fair is the action? Does it
  treat everyone the same way, or does it show
  favoritism or discrimination?

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Common-Good Approach

• Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, John Rawls
• Veil of Ignorance Those that make decisions
  should be blind to personal gain.
• We are all members of the same community.
• Bottom Line What is good for individuals is
  based on what is good for the community as a
  whole.

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What Are Values?, cont.

• Values indicate desirable or preferred
  end-states or corrective goals or explicable
  purposes, and values are standards in terms of
  which specific criteria may be established and
  choices made among alternatives. James
  MacGregor Burns, Leadership, p. 74

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What Are Values?, cont.

• Value systems provide an overall frame of
  reference for goal setting they are normative
  views held by individuals (consciously or
  subconsciously) of what is good or desirable.
  Values provide standards by which people are
  influenced by their choice of action. French,
  Kast, and Rosenzwig, Understanding Human Behavior
  in Organizations, p. 69

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What Are Values?, cont.

• Values are the deep seated, pervasive standards
  that influence every aspect of our lives (our
  moral judgments, our responses to others, our
  commitment to personal and organizational goals).
  Values set the parameters for decision making.
  Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, p.
  212

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What Are Values?, cont.

• Values are the enduring beliefs that have worth,
  merit, and importance for the organization.
  Daft, Leadership Theory and Practice, p. 192

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Types of Values

• Individual individuals
• Group formal or informal groups
• Organizational composite of individual, group,
  organizational, culture
• Constituents those in direct contact with the
  organization
• Cultural the entire society
• Understanding Human Behavior in Organizations,
  Kast and Rosenzweig, p. 150

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Sources of Values
Religion Peers Education
Parents Media Technology
Personalvaluesystem
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Beliefs

• Assumptions or convictions you hold as true about
  people, concepts, or things
• People generally behave in accordance with
• their beliefs.
• As a leader, your beliefs directly impact on
  the leadership climate, cohesion, discipline,
  training, and combat effectiveness of the unit.

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Norms

• Rules or laws based on a groups commonly
  accepted beliefs or values
• Formal norms are official standards or laws
• that govern behavior.
• Informal norms are unwritten rules or
  standards.

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Army Values

• Example is not the main thing in influencing
  others. It is the only thing.
• --Dr. Albert Schweitzer

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Are There Universal Values?

• Justice
• Mutual Respect
• Stewardship
• Honesty
• Interfaith Declaration, British-North American
  Research Association
• The Ethical Imperative, Dalla Costa, 1990, p. 132

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Are There Universal Values, cont.

• Human Dignity
• Mutual Responsibility
• Economic Equity
• Fiscal Fairness
• Social Justice
• Environmental Integrity
• The Ethical Imperative, Dalla Costa, 1990, p. 132

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Basic National Values

• Truth
• Life
• Liberty
• Equal opportunity

• Pursuit of happiness
• Justice and fairness
• Peace and security
• Responsibility

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Values

• Serve as our moral compass to help us find our
  way to the right action.

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Influences on EthicalReasoning

• Laws and regulations
• Basic national values
• Army values
• Unit operating procedures
• Personal values
• Institutional pressures

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Ethical Reasoning Process

• Step 1 Define the problem.
• Step 2 Know the relevant rules.
• Step 3 Develop and evaluate courses of
  action.
• Step 4 Choose the course of action that best
  represents Army values.

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Step 1 Define the Problem

• Who said it?
• What was said, ordered, or demanded?
• Dont accept hearsay.
• Get the details.
• Remember that problems can be described in more
  than one way.
• The hardest step.

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Step 2 Know the Rules

• Conduct research.
• A seemingly ethical dilemma may in reality be a
  misunderstanding of a regulation or policy.

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Step 3 Develop and Evaluate Courses of Action

• Two Parts
• Develop Courses of Action
• Brainstorming
• Evaluate Courses
• Ethical Approaches
• Army Values

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Rotary Clubs Four Way Test

• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build good will and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

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Step 4 Choose the Course of Action

• That best represents Army Values
• A values-based organization provides publicized
  values as a framework for
• expressing expectations,
• making decisions, and
• evaluating systems, processes, decisions, and
  employee performance

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Practical Exercise

• Captain Rockwood
• Is he using this or any ethical reasoning
  process?
• Is there a point at which his thinking becomes
  flawed?
• What is the tension for him, or what values are
  in conflict? What is he focused on, the actions
  or the end result?
• What solution would you have come to if faced
  with Rockwoods experience? How did his use or
  lack of use of an ethical reasoning process
  effect his choices?

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What If Your Boss Asks You to Do Something
Unethical?

• Examine the facts.
• Turn implied request into ethical response.
• Never appear to be self-righteous.
• Expose your personal sensitivity.
• Remember that ethical people have the power.
• Be professional and ethical.
• Be friendly and non-threatening.
• Richard Chewning, When Your Boss Asks for
  Something Unethical. Presbyterian Journal, 24
  Dec 86, 14 Jan 87, 4 Feb 87

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The Leaders Challenge

• To act morally and ethically in all aspects of
  ones private/personal and public/professional
  life

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Ethical Leadership
Thoughts to consider in pursuit of being an
ethical leader
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Ethics and Leadership

• Your ability to lead flows from your individual
  beliefs, values, and character.

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What Is Leadership?

• Leadership is an influence relationship among
  leaders and followers who intend real changes
  that reflect their mutual purposes.
• -- Rost, Joseph C. Leadership for the
  Twenty-first Century.

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• What is the difference between ethical
  leadership and unethical leadership?
• Is there a type of leadership that is neither
  ethical nor unethical?

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Practical Exercise

• Role-play the Parable of the Sadhu

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The Parable of the Sadhu

• Describe the breakdown between the individual
  ethic and the organizational ethic.
• What are some ways that we show favoritism?
• What is the leaders responsibility to the
  subordinate?
• What are some sources of stress on leaders and
  how does stress influence leaders?
• What part does a shared purpose, values, and a
  process for making decisions play in an
  organization?

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Leaders Ethical Leadership Responsibilities

• Be a role model.
• Develop your subordinates ethically.
• Avoid creating ethical dilemmas for your
  subordinates.

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Leaders and Followers

• Either leading or following, we model ethical
  behavior in either role.                   
• (1) Leaders set standards of ethical behavior.
•   (a) Define and affirm core values.
•   (b) Provide clarity.
•   (c) Act as standard bearers.
•  (2) Followers embrace those standards.
•   (a) Embrace core values.
•   (b) Ask for direction when uncertain.
•   (c) Meet standards.

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Four Essential Character Traits of Ethical Leaders

• Ability to recognize and articulate the ethics of
  a problem
• The personal courage no to rationalize away bad
  ethics
• An innate respect for others.
• Personal worth from ethical behavior

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"Report on Ethics of American Youth" in October
1997

• Set One82 think that their parents want them to
  do the ethical thing no matter what the cost78
  think it is not worth it to lie, cheat or steal
  because it hurts your character 69 think that
  their school works hard on character
  development68 think it is very important or
  essential to be ethical in all aspects of life

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"Report on Ethics of American Youth" in October
1997

• Set Two93 think that being treated with respect
  is essential or very important91 are satisfied
  with their own ethics and character 90 think
  that they would be listed by a friend as one of
  the most ethical people they know73 think that
  they are more ethical than most people they know
• Set Three70 had stolen something at least once
  in the last year 50 had cheated on at least
  once exam in the last year

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INTEGRATING VALUES/ETHICS
INDIVIDUAL
Personal Private Values
Professional Public Ethics
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Establishing an Ethical Climate

• Typical Responses
• Gut instinct
• Defining the Shalt-Nots
• The Starting Point explicitly articulating a
  personal and professional philosophy

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Personal Operating Philosophy

• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement
• Core Values

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A Vision Statement

• Vision Statement a guiding picture of a
  desirable, ambitious future. Criteria for a
  quality vision statement futuristic,
  challenging, preserves core ideology, applicable
  to individual or organization, inspires change,
  compelling, clear and concise.

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A Mission Statement

• Mission Statement purpose and reason for
  existence. Criteria for a quality mission
  statement clear and concise, consistent with
  values, action-oriented, measurable, drives or
  directs all decisions and actions.

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What Are Values?

• Values are the deep seated, pervasive standards
  that influence every aspect of our lives (our
  moral judgments, our responses to others, our
  commitment to personal and organizational goals).
  Values set the parameters for decision making.
  Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, p.
  212

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A Healthy Organization

• Guidelines are clear.
• Ethical behavior is rewarded.
• Levels of competition and stress are low.
• Expectations and standards are clearly defined.
• Informal norms are consistent with Army values.
• All rewards and punishments are fair and equal.

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Developing Ethical Fitness

• Three Levels of Personal Moral Development

• 3. Post-conventional
• Internalized universal principles
• Balances concern for self and others.
• Independent
• Complete belief in the values

• 2. Conventional
• Fulfills others expectations
• Societys obligations
• Law abiding
• Identification
• Acts to become a recognized member of the group

• Pre-conventional
• Rulebook
• Self-interest
• Blind Obedience/ Compliance
• Acts based on reward/ punishment
• (Requires leaders presence.)

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Internalizing Beliefs,Values, and Norms

• Compliance -- Actions based on
  reward/punishment
• (Requires leaders presence.)
• Identification
• -- Actions to become a recognized member
  of the group
• Internalization -- Complete belief in the
  values

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Soldiers Learn through Observation
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Ten Ways to Enhance Ethical Leadership

• Establish a code of ethics.
• Require everyone to verify that they have read
  and understand the code.
• Integrate ethics into performance evaluations.
• Recognize and reward ethical behavior.
• Establish a confidential ethics hotline.

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Ten Ways to Enhance Ethical Leadership

• Incorporate ethics questions into surveys.
• Show and discuss videos that deal with ethical
  dilemmas.
• Launch an ethics column in the newsletter.
• Use on-line menu-driven answers to questions
  about ethical problems.
• Hold open forums on ethics with leaders.

Source The Canadian Clearing House for Consumer
and Corporate Ethics, www.interactive.york.ca/ethi
csan/eem.html, as published in Nancy Croft Baker,
Heightened Interest in Ethics Education Reflects
Employer/Employee Concerns, Corporate University
Review (May/June 1997), 6-9.
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Practical Exercise

• Develop your plan for establishing an ethical
  climate.

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Ethical Climate Assessment Survey
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Unit Climate Survey Materials

• Army Research Institute
• www.ari.army.mil

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The Self-Interest Model

• Hobbes people are self-centered and
  egotistical primary goal is self-preservation
• Friedman the act of maximizing return must
  conform to the basic rules of the society, both
  those embodied in law and those embodied in
  ethical custom.
• Assumes that people will be decent and the law
  will appropriately punish unethical behavior.

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The Self-Interest Model, cont.

• Purpose maximize return
• Contract act within laws and customs of the
  land
• Driving assumption corporate self-interest
  provides the greatest return to the greatest
  number
• Primary means tangible efficiency methods

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Drawbacks of the Self-Interest Model

• Self-interest is ethically dysfunctional
• Validates self-aggrandizement
• Does not create mutually beneficial approaches
• Focuses on results not the means

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Drawbacks of the Self-Interest Model, cont.

• Example Incentive systems
• 1. sales performance target
• 2. top management bonuses dependent on meeting
  target
• 3. no one articulates the need for honesty
• 4. sales persons know that honesty is implied
• 5. But, the self-centered design of the incentive
  system encourages dishonesty
• 6. the focus is on the target and the company,
  not the customer

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Drawbacks of the Self-Interest Model, cont.

• Self-interest is not pragmatic
• Its priorities do not produce excellence
• It filters out others
• It focuses on making profit not meaning
• It limits activities to those that reward self.
• Results in mediocrity

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The Covenantal Business Ethic

• Examples JJ baby oil (83), Lex (85) 
• Purpose create delivered value
• Contract receive a beneficial return in
  exchange
• Driving assumption service to others
• Primary means the creation of mutually enabling
  relationships

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Three Conditions of Ethical Problem Solving

• 1. Integrating ethical norms with the pursuit of
  economic success.
• 2. An other-directed attitude.
• 3. A business ethic must be capable of motivating
  pragmatic and competitive behavior.

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Describing Ethical Failures

• A. The Acute Dilemma situations where you do
  not know what is the right or wrong thing to do.
• B. The Acute Rationalization situations where
  you do know what is the right thing to do but
  fail to do it

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Resolving Ethical Problems

• The covenantal ethic is theoretically sound
• But we must have tools for putting it into
  practice internal and external
• External methods laws, punishment, rewards
• Detection alone will not deter unethical
  behavior 

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• The difference between a moral man and a man of
  honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable
  act, even when it has worked and he has not been
  caught. H.L. Mencken

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Ethical Implications of Bottom Line Orientation

• McCoy and the parable of the Sadhu
• People ignore serious moral dilemmas
• Motivation by profit, high stress, and the
  exciting is powerful
• None stepped up to help because there were no
  shared values

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The Bottom Line, cont.

• What Value Am I Creating?
• Questioning value creation can lessen the control
  of the bottom line and will focus on an ethical
  response to quality issues, e.g., the quality of
  childrens shoes Stride Rite versus discount
  retailer.

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Questions to Ask When Grappling with Roadblocks
of the Bottom Line

• Who might get hurt besides ourselves?
• Am I perpetuating a dishonest and fraudulent
  relationship?
• Whose needs am I considering in my definition of
  the problem?
• Have I tested the other persons needs directly?

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Questions to Ask When Grappling with Roadblocks
of the Bottom Line, cont.

• How will this issue affect the companys
  reputation?
• Is this decision consistent with the values we
  wish to convey by the brand or company name?
• What language am I using to set targets for other
  people?

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Questions to Ask When Grappling with Roadblocks
of the Bottom Line, cont.

• If the most desirable consequences cannot be
  determined, have I ensured that the procedural
  issues of decision making and implementation are
  ethical?
• What value am I creating?
• Are we in the right business and market to begin
  with?
• How will the decision affect the quality of my
  relationship with X?

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Questions to Ask When Grappling with Roadblocks
of the Bottom Line, cont.

• What if the injured party to intended beneficiary
  were my child?
• Is my relationship with the end-user one of
  empowering or empowerment?
• What other motives are driving me beside the
  companys bottom line?

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Short Term Traps

• Short Term Practices
• Not good must have vision Ford
• HP turned down defense contract because it
  would result in large hirings and large firings
• Moral failure lack of vision and reckoning

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Short Term Traps, cont.

• Efficiency Corrupts in Three ways
• Undermines the need for moral thinking
• Encourages self-delusion
• Promotes greed

84
Ethics and Expediency

• Problem 1 Complying with policy when there is
  no time focusing on the short term
• Problem 2 Complying with unethical people to
  get the job done
• Problem 3 Goodwill at what cost? JJ and
  Tylenol

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Ethics and Expediency, cont.

• Problem 4 Carrying out someone elses unethical
  promise
• Problem 5 Understanding moral failures
• Problem 6 Life or death decisions
• Problem 7 Layoffs

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Questions to Ask when Facing Short Term Traps

• What if I knew there would be a full audit of
  every decision I made two years from now?
• What are the likely consequences of my decision
  one year from now? Three years from now?
• How will this decision affect our customers
  trust in us?

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Questions to Ask when Facing Short Term Traps,
cont.

• How would the decision look if it were repeated
  twenty times?
• How many time have similar outcomes happened in
  the past and why?
• What if I had ten times as much time in which to
  make the decision? Would I recommend the same
  thing?

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Questions to Ask when Facing Short Term Traps,
cont.

• Have I actually tried to stretch the time frame
  in which to complete decision making or
  implementation?
• Because of high turnover, many leaders do not
  have to live with their unethical decisions

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Breaking the Ego Barrier

• Problem 1 Determining the appropriate sales
  incentives
• Problem 2 Processing uncertain information
• Problem 3 Failure to face up to potentially
  damaging information
• Problem 4 Dealing with hostile criticism

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Breaking the Ego Barrier, cont.

• Problem 5 Keeping skunkworks ethical
• Problem 6 Communicating unpleasant information
  upward
• Problem 7 Regarding the technologically
  effective but egotistical team destroyer
•  

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Questions to Ask to Break through the Ego Barrier

• What is my intention?
• Have I invited and tolerated dissent?
• Have I rubbed elbow with subordinates?
• What have I omitted from my analysis
• What if I get caught?
• Have I listened to other opinions? Can I
  tolerate hearing them directly, or only filtered
  through company communication channels?

92
Questions to Ask to Break through the Ego
Barrier, cont.

• Did address the facts? Precisely what value am I
  creating?
• At whose expense am I creating value?
• Have I articulated factual information in as
  objective and impartial a way as possible?

93
Questions to Ask to Break through the Ego
Barrier, cont.

• Are my decisions or behavior having a negative
  impact on the relationships involved?
• Am I rewarding ego-dominant, relationship-destroyi
  ng attitudes in others?
• Have I laughed at myself recently?

94

• If the corporate environment penalizes or simply
  threatens to penalize ethical decisions, many
  managers will be unwilling to apply these morals
  to any other frameworks. If the only choice for
  a manager is private moral norms or career
  suicide, then very few managers will have the
  courage to stick to their principles, and even
  fewer will be fully aware of how often they
  compromise them. Laura Nash, Good Intentions
  Aside

95

• Good managers can be fooled by their own good
  intentions, a managerial problem-solving
  approach, and sometimes financial success into
  complacently accepting a business ethic that
  falls short of their private ideals. Laura
  Nash, Good Intentions Aside

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Conclusion

• Ethical leaders do the right things for the right
  reasons all the time, even when no one is
  watching. (FM 22-100)

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• We need to move beyond refraining to do wrong
• We need to incorporate a Covenantal Ethic that
  promotes the well-being of others.

98
Summary

• Action Apply the Ethical Decision Making
  Process as a Commander, Leader, or Staff Member.
• Identified the relationship between leadership
  values and decision making explained the
  difference between values and ethics according to
  FM 22-100.