Why Leaders Fail Ethically: A Paradigmatic Evaluation of Leadership

by Cameron A. Batmanghlich

Contrary to popular conceptions that ethical failures in leadership are correlated with economic downturns and other stressful market conditions, this book argues that such transgressions are an intrinsic element of leadership, as it is defined under the current prevailing paradigm. In recent years the crisis of failures in ethical leadership across organizations, particularly corporations, has been highlighted more than ever, both in academic discourse and the public sphere.  Psychological maladies leading to higher number of sick leaves, general feelings of disillusionment among employees, loss of motivation and employee loyalty, even suicide (both in Western corporations and in other parts of the world) are just a few examples of how ethical failures in leadership are expressed. In order to gain original insight into the phenomenon of ethical leadership, the author explores the origins and effects of the current leadership paradigm along two dimensions: (1) a revisit of the leadership construct from a historical and philosophical perspective, with a focus on the relationship between theory and practice; and (2) the theoretical roots of the ethical component of leadership theories, identifying the reasoning behind the value system in our paradigm. Subsequently, by linking these constructs together, a meta-theory emerges suggesting that the three main ethical departure points of virtue ethics, teleology and deontology (all of which have emerged during the past three thousand years through a confluence of the Abrahamic religions’ and Greek value-systems) are the basis for our reasoning about leadership, its construct and the practice of leadership itself. Challenging traditional views of ethical leadership, the author goes beyond theory and philosophy  to consider practical implications, including alternative ways to improve executive recruitment, training, and involvement of followers in decision-making; experiments like rotating leadership; and a peek into other paradigms, such as the Zoroastrianism, hence making an original contribution to the field of leadership both for scholars and practitioners.

156 pages, Hardcover

First published December 14, 2014

Reviews

[Alireza Hejazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book examines the causes of poor leadership in the context of ethics. It provides a crucial response to the issue of why so many people in positions of leadership disregard moral principles. Failures in ethics in leadership are an inherent aspect of leadership since it is seen as a social activity. Since leadership is a result of the dominant paradigm of the leader, it will invariably have the same shortcomings and flaws as the paradigm itself, regardless of the sort of leadership style used or the theories tested. The book investigates if the shortcomings in leadership are paradigmatic. It makes the case that the paradigm is to blame for the flaws in leaders’ conceptions of leadership, of which ethics ought to be an integral component. Business managers and leaders and leadership scholars who are interested in learning the reasons why leaders fail can both theoretically and practically benefit from this book.