Week 5: Professional Ethics and Leadership

The discussion now shifts from a critical dialogue about ethics in general to organizations and professionals.

In today’s academic and popular literature, as well as in training workshops there is much talk about organizational cultures and values, as well as professional standards. Often, this discussion quickly involves 3 areas: effective business principles that involve strategic goals and operational productivity, leadership qualities and desired participative organizational dynamics and processes, and local and national laws and regulations. In fact, in many organizations the notion of “ethics” is interpreted as “compliance.” Compliance offices and professionals, including a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), are very common in corporations and medium size businesses. There are in Chief Ethics Offices (CEO) in some organizations. In health care there are also ethical boards that review hospital members’ professional practices and patient issues that arise.

While valuing this perspective, and recognizing its importance, ethics is more than what is legal or allowed by mandated regulations. What is legal is not necessarily ethical, or always the most responsible thing to do in a particular situation. It may not be the most appropriate response to make in the given situation.

According the United Nations own work on aiding itself develop organizational integrity, organizational integrity is:

"characterized by a staff whose individual and collective conduct demonstrates consistent adherence high ethical principles and professional standards….A conduct characterized by integrity goes beyond mere compliance with written requirements, but honors the values that lie behind them."

As the discussion turns to exploring organizational integrity and examining business and organizational ethics, numerous questions emerge. Among these questions are: what are the values, ethical principles, and professional standards that undergird organizational cultures that strive to be equitable and collaborative in a manner where all have a professional voice in the organization’s operational and reaching of its mission? What are the values that are foundational to leadership credibility, emotionally intelligent management practices, and empowering work environments? What understanding of worker dignity and rights is fundamental for organizations who authentically accept diversity and promote a “people first” approach to work practices, or who strive to deploy human resource philosophies and operational practices that support work-life balance and corporate social responsibility? What values and professional standards truly enable open and transparent business practices and financial management? What ethical principles are pivotal to organizational cultures and leadership if an organizational is to conduct business and services in a manner that is sincerely sustainable and not just PR or “lip service”?

The first weeks of the course critically examined various ethical systems. As you have seen ethics can be viewed from the vantage point of greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Then there is the sense of human rights and one’s duty to another. People have an inherent dignity that demands a way of being treated. Values and virtues are another foundation upon which an ethical system can be constructed, where the focus is not about what needs to be done, but who one wants to be. The question “What type of person am I to be or I want to be” guides how one acts in each situation. In this ethical perspective not only honesty, truthfulness, responsibility, empathy, forgiveness, justice, etc. are considered praiseworthy, but also prudence, moderation, and courage. Similar to Western perspectives, in the East one is to strive not to do harm to one’s self or another. One is to strive to develop a “skilled mind,” a “calm and peaceful mind” that avoids actions that cause “suffering” or “remorse.” (Buddhist Ethics, 2008, at Buddhanet.net). Compassion for all provides a middle path between exaggerated individualism and socialism. Taoism, rooted in harmony, points towards a life characterized by selflessness, moderation, embracing the mystery, non-contrivance, detachment, and humility.

As with personal ethics, and the ethical norms of a society, professional ethics is equally important. One has a professional code of conduct—values to live by, and standards to uphold. Ways of dealing with clients and customers in a fair and just manner, ensuring that products and services do not harm, that promised quality is provided, and agreements fully rendered.

In Professional Integrity: Thinking Ethically, Pritchard (2006) illustrates that professional ethics addresses:

"[E]thical principles, rules of practice, justification, and decision making…[as well as]…questions about character, perception, and imagination….[Key is]… the integration of ethical values and professional expertise, such that, in the midst of professional practice, the perceptions, imaginings and, finally, judgments of professionals reflect their blending in responsible practice. There are times when it is important for professionals to pause reflectively and ask whether what they are contemplating doing is ethically justifiable. As a subject of study, professional ethics needs to examine ways in which questions might best be answered. However, equally important are the dispositions and values reflected in the very ways professionals come to perceive problems and possibilities in the first place. Professional ethics needs to pose for professionals the questions…”How do agents come to perceive the situations in the way that they do? How does a situation come to have a particular character for a particular moral agent?" (pp. 150-1)

Integrity refers to a sense of wholeness and completeness, plus a willingness to be reflective and act in a discerning manner (p. 67). Professional integrity, as described by Cox, La Caze, and Levine (2003) in Integrity and the Fragile Self, then is:

"[N]ot a matter of remaining true to oneself;..[but]…is…a matter of remaining true to the fundamental role and character of one’s profession—to its principles, values, ideals, goals and standards. This requires that professionals not merely remain true to and publicly endorse personal values and principles but that they remain true to the role they are publicly entrusted with." (p. 104)

Often professionals find themselves in leadership roles. In light of the discussion of professional ethics, one question that emerges is: how does one lead ethically and with integrity.

As Bill George (2003) states in Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secretes to Creating Lasting Value

“leadership is authenticity, not style….Authentic leaders genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership. They are more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference than they are in power, money, or prestige for themselves. They are guided by qualities of the heart, by passion and compassion, as they are by qualities of the mind….Authentic leaders use their natural abilities, but also recognize their shortcomings and work hard to overcome them. They lead with purpose, meaning and values. They build enduring relationships with people. Others follow them because they know where they stand. They are consistent and self-disciplined. When their principles are tested, they refuse compromise. Authentic leaders are dedicated to developing themselves because they know that becoming a leader takes a lifetime of personal growth.” (p.11-12)

Leadership means having followers and influence, often accompanied by some form of position or recognition. Position and status bring power. With professional leadership comes authority and power in many forms, and in many degrees. With success comes notoriety and power. How does one retain one’s bearings, one’s ethical compass, when being a manager, department head, a CEO of a corporation or an executive director of major nonprofit organization? How does one not get caught up in the “grandeur” and power of the position? How does one not compromise one’s own values in order to stay aligned with organizational practices, and its desire to obtain success or state competitively in the lead when to do this entails following unethical practices and/or policies?

How would you answer the above questions?