Contemporary Ethical Challenges and Leadership

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CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL CHALLENGES AND LEADERSHIP

Ethics is a discipline of philosophy that outlines the right and the wrong moral conduct. It is a study of the moral behaviour of individuals and sets out a code of conduct as to how humans should act in a given situation. Contemporary ethics links the basic ideology of ethics with various other disciples of philosophy.

Global dynamics have changed over the years. The way people think and behave, their sense of right and wrong, their views on the good and the bad, all of this has changed over time. Things that people perceived as wrong in the past are now viewed as tolerable and acceptable. This change in the way people think has brought about numerous challenges that leaders have to face.

Moral behaviour was initially judged on the basis of religious teachings. Irrespective of which religion an individual belonged to, the human life was focused on the religious teachings. However with the passage of time, the human focus has shifted from religion. With secular societies and nations being on the rise, religion is not viewed as the fundamental basis of how one should act. Consequently, the error theory and the meta-ethics have developed over time. In the present times, age old principles are not used as the basis of governing a situation. Be it an issue in economy or a problem faced in the business, people consider the present situation and weigh their pros and cons before terming an action as either ethical or unethical. It is believed that times have changed so immensely, that the age old principles do not apply any longer to the issues faced by the people today (Mackie, 110).

In a world, where people often do not abide by the rules of religion, it is very ...

... middle of paper ...

...hat a distinction between right and wrong still exists.

Works Cited:

Ciulla, Joanne.B. “Ethics and Leadership Effectiveness”. The Nature of Leadership.(2004), 302-327

Freeman, R.E. & Stewart, L. “Developing Ethical Leadership.” Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. 2006. http://www.corporate-ethics.org/pdf/ethical_leadership.pdf

Fulmer, R.M. “The Challenge of Ethical Leadership.” Organizational Dynamics, 33/3 (2004), 307-317. Web. 14 November 2013 http://www.kantakji.com/fiqh/files/companies/w155.pdf

George, B. et al. ”Discovering Your Authentic Leadership.” Harvard Business Review. February 2007, 1-8

Mackie, J. “Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong.” Penguin Books Limited, 1990.

Mullane, Susan, P. “Ethics and Leadership.” White Paper Series, The Johnson A. Edosomwan Leadership Institute.

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