LDRS 503 Leadership Ethics

Great leaders are both morally good themselves and inspire moral goodness in those they lead. This course is an advanced introduction to the philosophical study of morality. In it we examine the nature of virtue, duty, and the general welfare. Particular attention is paid to Aristotle’s account of the development of moral character. The course is designed to help students develop their abilities to read, explain, analyze and evaluate philosophical literature, express their own ethical views, and think critically about ethical issues.

Credits

3

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Define and explore different perspectives of values, ethics and ethical leadership as they apply to organizations.  Discuss how personal values and organizational values relate.  Discuss the benefits and reasons for organizations and leaders to be ethical
2. Describe the Management Model for Understanding Ethical Behavior in Organizations.  Define/explain the 4 key elements of the model: ethical issue intensity, individual factors, organizational factors (leadership, strategy, structure, procedures, and corporate culture), and opportunity
3. Describe the stakeholder model in relation to ethics as it applies to identifying ethical issues, strategic planning, and in ethical decision-making.  Explain the role of primary and secondary stakeholders, the guidelines for using the stakeholder model, and application of the model
4. Discuss ethics in relation to social responsibility.  Explain Carroll's Model of Social Responsibility.  Describe social responsibility issues related to economic conditions, competition, legal and regulatory areas, and philanthropic topics
5. In relation to ethical issues, describe the major ethical issues in organization, ethical issue intensity, ethical dilemmas, and the role of management in making employees aware of ethical issues.  Relate specifically to you as a leader. 
6. Ethical decision-making will be explored from several different perspectives including research models, philosophical approaches, and management systems methods.  Discuss the role leaders play as examples and in designing organizations to be ethical
7. Explain six philosophical perspectives to ethics including egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, relativism, virtue ethics, and justice ethics.  Apply these to several case studies and discuss how you as a leader could use the different philosophies to approach an ethical issue
8. In making decisions, describe how culture influences our ethical decision making.  Discuss the influence of norms, groups, relationships, significant others, and organizational pressures on a manager's decision-making