Ethical Leadership in dealing with Complex Dilemmas

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Ethical Leadership in dealing with Complex
Dilemmas
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Introduction

• What is ethical Leadership
• Why does ethical leadership matter?
• Who decides whats ethical?
• Applying Ethical Frames.

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Ethical Leadership in dealing with Complex
Dilemmas

• Ethical Leadership
• What ethics do leaders model?
• Ethics are the principles, values and beliefs
  that define what is right and wrong behavior.
  Leadership is the process of influencing others
  to achieve goals. Ethical leadership is the
  process of influencing people through principles,
  values and beliefs that embrace what we have
  defined as right behavior.
• Jane A.Van Buren, Vermont University

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Ethical Leadership in dealing with Complex
Dilemmas

• Ethical Leadership as Relationship BuildingThe
  ethical leader understands that positive
  relationships are the gold standard for all
  organizational effort. Good quality relationships
  built on respect and trust, not necessarily
  agreement, are the single most important
  determinant of organizational success.
• Desmond Berghofer and Geraldine Schwartz,
  Institute for Ethical Leadership

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Why does Ethical Leadership matter?

• Civic mission of schoolsFor democracy to
  flourish, public education must play a central
  role in promoting responsible moral action that
  serves the common good. Charles Haynes, First
  Amendment Center
• To educate a person in mind and not in morals is
  to educate a menace to society.Theodore
  Roosevelt

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Why does Ethical Leadership matter?

• Dealing with ethical issues in education
  leadership is not necessarily a legal issue but a
  necessary approach for several reasons
• Governance
• It provides a consistent approach in dealing with
  ethical issues as a critical part of good
  governance
• Upholding an organizations mission and values
• Putting the institutions mission and values into
  action and effectively monitor their success
• 3. Guidance for Staff
• Ensuring that all members of staff are aware of
  how they are expected to conduct themselves
• 4. Legislation
• Helps to interpret educational laws by focusing
  on the letter and the spirit of the laws

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Why does Ethical Leadership matter?

• Risk and Reputation
• By Addressing ethical issues, this can help to
  identify potential risks, prevent future problems
  and safeguard the reputation of the institution.
• Recruiting Staff and Attracting Students
• Establishing a clear ethical stance will
  contribute to the quality of staff and students
  that the institution attracts.
• 7. Encouraging funding, sponsorship and business
  involvement
• Companies are interested in institutions that are
  committed to ethics and transparency and by
  addressing ethics it may result in the
  institution being more appealing to potential
  business partners
• Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE)

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SummaryWhy does ethical Leadership matter?

• Part of our leadership codeStandard 5 An
  education leader promotes the success of every
  student by acting with integrity, fairness, and
  in an ethical manner. Source Educational
  Leadership Policy Standards ISLLC 2008 as
  adopted by the National Policy Board for
  Educational Administration (NPBEA) on December
  12, 2007.

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SummaryWhy does ethical Leadership matter?

• Make us more effective as leadersEthics is
  ultimately about relationships. No matter what
  definition of ethics you examine, ethics is not
  primarily about standards, rules, and sanctions
  in isolation from society. Ethics is about people
  and their relationships with one another.What
  brought down Anderson Accounting was not law.
  It was ethicsor more exactly, a lack of public
  trust. When Anderson could no longer be trusted
  to resist unethical behavior it effectively lost
  its most important resource credibility.
  Negative ethics equals negative business.

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Who decides whats ethical?

• Educational leaders come to the job with personal
  values that they have developed because of
  different influences. The challenge has always
  been how to balance these values with those
  existing in the institution.
• Rushmore Kidders research identified 5 core
  moral values
• Honesty
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Fairness
• Compassion
• Rushmore Kidder, in Shared Values for a Troubled
  World Comversations with Men and Women of
  Conscience (1994 ) and Moral Courage (2005)

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Applying Ethical Frames

• The use of ethical frames provide an opportunity
  for educational leaders to examine their ways of
  thinking about complex dilemmas.
• To consider actions outside their normal way of
  thinking and behaving
• These frames give a holistic approach to
  resolving issues and engaging in reflective
  practice

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Applying Ethical Frames

• Ethical paradigms
• Ethic of Justice
• Ethic of Critique
• Ethic of Care
• Ethic of Profession
• Personal Code
• Shapiro Stefkovich, Ethical Leadership and
  Decision Making in Education, LEA 2005
• Shapiro Gross, Ethical Educational Leadership
  in Turbulent Times, LEA, 2008

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Multiple Ethical Paradigms
Ethic of Local Community
Ethic of Care
Ethic of Critique
Ethic of the Profession
Ethic of Justice
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Applying Ethical Frames

• Ethic of Justice
• Rights
• Policies
• Law
• Ethical dilemmas resolved by rules, fairness,
  equity, and justice
• Equity and Equality
• Right vs Right
• What circumstances justify exceptions
• Individual rights vs. community good

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Applying Ethical Frames

• Ethic of Critique
• Awakens educators to inequities in society.
• Who makes law?
• Who benefits?
• Who has power?
• Who is silenced?
• Ethical dilemmas resolved by asking how all
  children can be enabled to overcome past
  inequities to grow, learn and achieve.

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Applying Ethical Frames

• Ethic of Care
• The first job of schools is to care for our
  children. Noddings, 1992
• Who is hurt?
• What are long-term effects of the decision?
• Caring, concern, connection
• Decision-making requires leaders to consider
  multiple voices.

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Applying Ethical Frames

• Ethic of Profession
• Education, unlike law, medicine, dentistry and
  business, require little or no formal training in
  ethics.
• Codes of Ethics authored by professional
  associations have filled that gap somewhat.
• Eg. JTA Code of Ethics and The Jamaica Teaching
  Council Draft Bill

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Applying Ethical Frames

• Ethic of Local Community
• What does the community think about the
  particular issue that affects the institution?
• How does the community feel about the issue?

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Case 1

• An assistant principal in a rather conservative
  town completes a teacher performance appraisal on
  one of the schools master teachers. The only
  part of the evaluation that concerns the AP is
  the fact that this staff member has never taken
  part in any of the schools extra curricular
  programs. The AP assumes that her teachers
  family life must be taking up his spare time.
  Conflict arises when the AP decides to purchase a
  gag gift from an unpopular adult fantasy store.
  In her hast while shopping, she notice her master
  teacher emerging from the back room of the Adult
  Fantasy store. As it turns out, he and his wife
  run the lucrative business and have preferred to
  keep their business enterprise a secret. They
  operate the business so that they can afford to
  put their children through university as well as
  afford the extras in life.
• Multi-paradigm questions to ponder
• 1) Are teachers role models? If yes, then is it
  acceptable for a teacher to be part owner of an
  adult centre?
• 2) Could the teachers decision to take on this
  particular job be justified when one considers
  that his job as a teacher is valued so little by
  society that he is unable to earn enough from it
  to support his family? To educate his children?
• 3) What should the teacher do? What would be in
  the best interests of the students? Would you see
  this decision differently if the principal were
  male? If the teacher were female?

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Case 2

• Coach Alex and his wife were excellent substitute
  teachers who committed themselves to their jobs.
  Coach Alex eventually obtained a permanent
  teaching position and his career was looking up.
  As time passed, the community developed deep
  regard for such a visible and successful coach
  who helped many young athletes gain scholarships
  and professional sport membership. On the home
  front, Coach Alex was much different however.
  News began to spread that Coach Alex was arrested
  twice for beating his wife and placing her in
  hospital. Both times his wife dropped the charges
  and let her husband off the hook. As the news
  spread, many parents became outraged and wrote
  letters to the board and signed petitions to have
  coach Alex fired. At the next board meeting the
  oversized crowd became irate and shouted out
  commands for the board to take action. After the
  president of the Parent-Teachers Association
  spoke on behalf of the crowd, she turned toward
  Superintendent Brown and said, What are you
  going to do about this?
• Multi-paradigm questions to ponder 
• 1) What is the fairest choice Superintendent
  Brown could make? The most caring?
• 2) Could it be argued that spousal abuse is a
  disease as alcoholism is a disease? Why or why
  not? 
• 3) What advice would you give to Superintendent
  Brown?

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Case Sharing
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Questions and Answers
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Final Words

• The importance of having an ethical
  administratoris inherent to the success of the
  school as a social entity
• Society or we do not invent principles they are
  the laws of the universe that pertain to human
  relationships and human organizations. To the
  degree people recognize and live in harmony with
  such basic principles as fairness, equity,
  justice, integrity, honesty, and trust, they move
  toward either survival and stability on the one
  hand or disintegration and destruction on the
  other. Covey, 1992