Ethics in
Global
READ THE ARTICLE SUMMARY. HOW DOES ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD RELATE TO
ETHICS IN EDUCATION?
Ethics play a large part in
everyday life. Every decision we make has
some sort of moral compass attached to it.
Normally, those decisions are about our
immediate life to include our careers,
families, children, and ourselves. Those
decisions are based on our values, our
insights, our experiences, and our
knowledge of consequences. As a leader,
ethics plays the same role on a much
larger scale. The values of a company, its
employees, and essentially its success is
in the hands of the leaders and their
ability to maintain positive ethical
business decisions. In the article, About
Global Leadership and Global Ethics, and
Possible Moral Compass: an Introduction
to the Special Issue, the authors review
the challenges to global ethical leadership
and the special ethical challenges that
help shape global business environments.
The first and pre-eminent
ethical leadershipchallenge facing not
only global business leaders, but also all
of humanity, is that of climate change
(Jones & Millar, 2010). While some
businesses will benefit from what could be
disastrous changes, others could suffer or
cease to exist. Under the climate change
dilemma, business leaders in the fossil
fuels segment of the energy sector are
particularly confronted by ethical
challenges (Jones & Millar, 2010). New
alternative technologies are being brought
to life in these industries that could make
their entire asset basis obsolete. Do the
leaders in this industry use these new
technologies to push their businesses to
be more progressive taking the chance
that they will fail? Or do these leaders
hold off on deploying these new
technologies for asset enhancement?
To aid the discussion in energy,
the authors state that another challenge
that present is itself to an ethical leader is
the relevant science indicates that we
have passed the point in time at which
known global petroleum reserves exceed
consumed reserves (Jones & Millar,
2010). This means that once our oil is
nearly depleted, our fossil fuels will also
be on the decline to near depletion. To
push this issue further, the current
alternative energy technologies, such as
solar power, will not come close to
offsetting the energy deficit since their net
energy yield the difference between the
amount of energy one unit of a substance
generates and the amount of energy that
has been expended to make it is only a
fraction of that typical of fossil fuels
(Jones & Millar, 2010). The ethical
dilemma presents itself in these leaders
being able to be visionary enough to see
the need for long-term, positive,
progressive change and implement that
change while knowing the financial
stresses will not be raised for years to
come.
Other ideas on what an ethical
leader consists of presents itself further in
the article when previewing what chapters
lie ahead. One author, Deborah Poff,
argues that perhaps the most promising
orientation to an ethical leadership
compass has emerged from the work of
those scholars working in the traditions of
two value based leadership
theoriestransformational leadership and
servant leadership(Jones & Millar, 2010).
Business:
How does it
relate to
Education?
This ethical leadership compass, or moral
compass, is defined by Websters
Dictionary as anything which serves to
guide a persons decisions based on
morals and virtues. Poff states that any
version of an ethical leadership compass
must combine global and culture free
competence or effectiveness with values
such as integrity, honesty,
trustworthiness, and commitment to
virtue as well as service to the
organization (Jones & Millar, 2010).
Leaders need to follow this structure of the
moral compass and place the good of
human nature above the value of material
things. This will help to guide the society
that can help create a worldview that
embraces global justice.
Business leaders have an even
harder task to accomplish. While making
business decision that are for the
betterment of the company financially,
they also have to show their employees
that they are valued. These leaders have
to help guide their employees through
challenges and help create a shared
wisdom tradition of enduring values to
foster human flourishing under
disorienting conditions of uncertainty,
risk, and threat (Jones & Millar, 2010).
This is a great example of leading by
example. Leaders have to be the leader
they want to see in their employees.
Ethical Leaders have challenges they face,
but the decisions that come from those
challenges can help to promote a
progressive future for globalization.