28. Ethics & Leadership

International Section | Leadership & Management Division | College of Management and Technology

28. Ethics & Leadership

SLP(E) Course

Why do we need to know about ethics?

• Complex battle-field | business-space.• Drills & standard procedures not enough.• Working at edge of policy.• Face moral dilemmas.• Under public scrutiny through the media.

Ethical theories

• Theory:– Provides tools not answers.– Help clarify difficult challenges.– Assist decision making; tools for debate.– Explain & support plans & actions.

• Two theories:– Utilitarianism.– Deontology.

1. Utilitarianism

‘Always ACT so as to bring about the greatest happiness of the greatest number’

Jeremy Bentham,(1748-1832) “The Father of Utilitarianism”

The right action is the one that brings about the best

overall consequences.

Utilitarianism - Assumptions

• The ethics of ENDS not MEANS:– ‘The end justifies the means’.

• Guided by moral value:– balance between human happiness &

avoidance of pain:

• We each count as ONE.

Case Study - Hiroshima

• 66,000 Civilians killed.• Contemporary assessments said:

– War would continue for a further year.– Up to 1 M additional US casualties.– Huge Japanese losses.– Okinawa: 80K US & 120K Japanese.

• ‘To avert a vast indefinite butchery.. at the cost of a few explosions, seemed a miracle of deliverance’. Churchill

Utilitarianism - Assessment

• Counter-intuitive: is it right to kill civilians (non-combatants) in any circumstances?

• Is the theory incomplete or just plain false?

2. Deontology

• From the Greek ‘Deon’ = a duty | ‘Logos’ = study or science of.

• About Rights & Duties.

• Some acts are just wrong | full stop!– Murder, rape, torture, intentional (or reckless)

killing of civilians.

• People are ENDS in themselves –

not MEANS.

Immanuel Kant 1724-1804

Deontology – Human Rights

• Provides absolute limits and guarantees:– Right to life, liberty, security, freedom from torture.

• Rights are attached to individuals:– As opposed to States or communities or peoples.

• Rights act as TRUMP CARD.

Deontology: Rights vs Duties

• Rights are absolute – can be forfeit.

• Our actions against someone must be based on what that person did. Not on the wider situation.

• An aggressor therefore forfeits right if they wrongly attack you: self-defence.– Attacker liable to defensive force.– But not the innocent bystander.

Deontology | Application in War

• Provides an explanation of why intentional killing may not necessarily be wrong.

• Determines the acceptable aims of war:– Self-defence & humanitarian protection.

• Conditional on:– Necessity & proportionality.– Discrimination: combatants from non-combatant.

Summary

• Ethics helps us make decisions in complex, unforeseen circumstances.

• Two theories: Utilitarianism & Deontology.

• Individual Rights act as TRUMP CARDS.

• Unless the individual forfeits those rights.

• Servicemen…?

International Section | Leadership & Management Division | College of Management and Technology

28. Ethics & Leadership

SLP(E) Course

International Section | Leadership & Management Division | College of Management and Technology

Ethical Challenges

Exercise

SLP(E) Course

Ethical Challenges

• At the strategic level ethical dilemmas are likely to be encountered.

• In syndicates spend 45 minutes evaluating a case study.

• Debate is important, whilst this is an academic exercise, gut feelings are useful indicator!

• Use the Theories (Deontology | Utilitarianism).• Nominate (a) speaker(s) to give a short (5 min)

presentation to the whole course.

Guidance

• What is your initial gut feeling | instinct?

• Who are the stakeholders?

• Apply Deontology: how does it help?

• Apply Utilitarianism: how does it help?

• How would you deal with the situation?

Red-Lines and Assumptions

• How far would you go?

• Over what line would you absolutely not pass?

• What is vital ground?

• For my Country Right or Wrong?

• Which of your assumptions, if they were proved incorrect, would substantially change your position?

Session Topics

• Relevance and purpose

• Four approaches to military ethics:

the Just War tradition – Pacifism– Realism– Utilitarianism: an ethics of consequences– Deontology: an ethics of rights

ILO: Describe the relationship between ethics and leadership