Biblical Leadership & Ethics

References

Bansal, P. & Kandola, S. (March/April 2004). Corporate social responsibility: Why good people behave badly in organizations. Ivey Business Journal 68, (4). 1-5.

This article highlights the corporate accounting scandals at Enron and Arthur Anderson. Autopsy of these companies' scandal reveals organizational responsibility stems from individual irresponsibility and a culture of “bystander” syndrome. This is where immoral activities are accepted because nobody feels like it is their position to intervene, there is no clear process for responsibility or it is accepted within the company as the norm.

Berenbeim, R.E. (Sep. 2006). Ethical leadership: Maintain an ethical culture. Leadership Excellence 23, (9). 19-20.

Berenbeim speaks to the “Revised Sentencing Guidelines” as the standard for executives accountability and personal responsibility to ensure a companies culture is fostering ethical behavior. He uses Neru as an example to modern executives, highlighting three lessons on debate, sustainability and personal responsibility for decision making. Accountability is the standard for ensuring we all act according to ethical practices.

Buchanan, L. (May 2007). In praise of selflessness: Why the best leaders are servants. Executive Excellence 29, (5). 33-35.

This article gives a peak at the role that servant leadership has in a culture where skilled people are valued and are looking for a place where they can make a difference. Serving those around us will enable us to gain a new perspective and get better answers to the problems we face in our business lives. Three paradoxes are presented that go against traditional thinking but match up with scriptures.

Covey, S. (Dec. 2006). Servant leadership: Use your voice to serve others. Leadership Excellence 23, (12). 5-6.

This article bridges the gap between servant leadership and the idea from Moral Intelligence of the moral compass. Covey suggests that when we live and act according to the principals of “nature” (I will substitute God's Word). Our formal authority becomes more effective because people follow for the right reason; genuine commitment, not fear.

Chimaera Consulting (n.d.). Famous models: Situational leadership. Retrieved January 31, 2008 from: http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/sitleader.htm

This site give an overview of the Situational Leadership model and explains the leaders side of the model. It helps identify where leaders can improve the interaction with employees to achieve the desired result.

Crainer, S. (Winter2003). Succeeding with values. Business Strategy Review 14, (4). 3-4.

This interview with Randall Tobias, gives real examples of what a CEO must do. They are truly charged with communicating the company vision and ensuring that each person is marching in the same direction. He states that only ethical leaders are truly successful.

Gdich. (2007, August 16) Situational leadership training [video file]. Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYyDWP2-ywE

Introduction to an ASME training session on particular style of leadership.

Hersey, Paul. Interview. Situational leadership: Conversations with Paul Hersey. By John R. Schermerhorn, Jr. Center for Leadership Studies, 2001.

Interview with one of the founders of the “situational leadership” model. Hersey developed the approach while trying to train technical staff to take the next step and become productive leaders. He realized that there was no “golden” strategy to being a good manager, but instead each situation needed a specific skill to be used. By employing the correct skill for the problem anyone could become a successful manager.

Hunter, James C. (1998). The servant: a simple story about the true essence of leadership. New York: Crown Business.

This book gives insightful, provoking thought on what it is to be a servant leader. It gives the ideology needed to understand what is truly behind our own psychological perspective on leadership that has be erroneously created from external influences. It also helps us understand how others view the world and give us ways to deal with differences in perspective.

Lennick D. & Kiel F. PhD (2007). Moral intelligence: Enhancing business performance & leadership success. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.

This book was written to help leaders understand that a strong ethical standard is necessary when dealing in business when long tern success is desired. The authors point out that it is important to work on the ethical portion of our belief system to ensure that it does not suffer from neglect. The book also included the Moral Competency Inventory (MCI) that enable the test taker to evaluate the personal areas of strength and weakness. All choices/decisions must pass through an ethical filter to ensure we do not violate our Moral Compass.

Lovin, R. (2006). Faithful and effective. Christian Century, 123(12), 33.

Levin uses headlines from recent days to show that all Americans seem to be pulled by the measurement of effectiveness. Often times, the measure is place much higher than we are capable and some turn to deceit to close the gap. As believers we must focus on being faithful to Christ and that is how we may be truly effective in our calling on earth.

Murphy, P.E. & Enderle, G. (1995). Managerial ethical leadership: Examples do matter. Business Ethics Quarterly 1, (5). 117-121.

A biographical description of how the former CEO of Johnson & Johnson, James Burke handled the transition of power and the deadly crisis of poisoned Tylenol, twice. He was a man of ethics and made it a priority form his first day in his leading role. The article also highlights 3 other CEO's who showed superior ethical behavior.

New American Standard Bible, Updated edition. La Habra, Ca: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

Nehemiah is an incredible book that demonstrates the plan of God carried out through one man. Nehemiah was able to get direction from God and make a plan to accomplish his task in a very short time. He meticulously planned the entire task and made sure all his bases were covered so that he could focus on the difficult issues that came up during the project.

Patten, R.M. (Sept./Oct. 2004). From implicit to explicit: Putting corporate values and personal accountability front and centre. Ivey Business Journal 69, (1). 1-4.

Article written by an executive within a large Canadian bank describing what their institution had done to prevent corporate scandal and induce a culture that truly cultivates ethical behavior. They have made and declared the code of conduct that each employee must act according to. They also use the results of company wide surveys to identify what topics of ethical behavior should be concentrated on. We need to place the ethics of our organization on the front burner so problems are prevented.

Rhode, D.L. (Jan. 2007). Moral leadership: Inspire ethical behavior. Leadership Excellence 24, (1).

Ethical Leadership does effect the financial position of companies although it is hard to measure. Many ways to ensure company wide ethical standards were discussed but it was noted that unless leaders show ethical behavior the culture will be lacking in ethical actions on all levels. Leaders have many opportunities to show their commitment to ethics if they only look.

Rowe, R. (Feb. 2003). Leaders as servants. Management 50, (1).

This short article reviews the 10 characteristics of a servant leader as defined by Greenleaf, a leader in the servant leadership movement. It was interesting to note the similarities as well as differences when compared with the I Corinthians 13 definition of Love, agape love. The article does little more than state the characteristics and present the servant leadership model as worthy of consideration.

Tonge, A., Greer, L. & Lawton, A. (2003). The Enron story: You can fool some of the people some of the time… Business Ethics: A European Review 12, (1).

This article give an overview of the Enron scandal. It raises the question that many parties share responsibility for the downfall. Ultimately it was the greed of leaders that brought them to their knees but analysts, banks and their auditors added to the unethical practices. The entire Enron problem has opened the books of our entire economic system to prevent such failure in the future.

Wheatley, M. (Jul. 2004). Servant Leaders: What has to change now? Executive Excellence 21, (7).

This article gives seven keys to servant leadership. The author seems very humanistic in her approach to servant leadership, but makes a few good points about the benefits of relationships. Wheatley gives some examples of forgiveness and restoration of things lost that support her views on the humanistic side of this leadership methodology.

Zandy, A. (July/Aug. 2007). If you want to lead…learn to serve. Debt 22, (4). 24-25.

This article gives practical examples of how to create a culture of servant leadership. Zandy points out that that the idea was based on Christian ideals but many other religions have used the same idea to show the power of becoming a servant.