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8 - Leadership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Sverre Spoelstra  and
René ten Bos
Edited by
Mollie Painter-Morland  and
René ten Bos
Sverre Spoelstra
Affiliation:
Lund University
René ten Bos
Affiliation:
Radboud University
Mollie Painter-Morland
Affiliation:
DePaul University, Chicago
René ten Bos
Affiliation:
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
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Summary

Goals of this chapter

After studying this chapter you will be able to:

  • understand how business ethics portrays leadership as necessarily ethical;

  • understand the problem with ‘the Hitler problem’ in discussions around ethical leadership;

  • understand how the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sees leadership;

  • understand how leadership is not only related to ethics but also to aesthetics.

Introduction

Leadership has fascinated us throughout the ages. Ever since the ancient philosopher Plato (c. BC 427–347), discussions around leadership have been intimately linked to discussions about morality. For Plato, only people with the right moral character are capable of leading. This basic idea is still very much present in ideas (and fantasies) about leadership. Even today, some follow Plato when they take for granted that leadership is all about having a good character. The mere suggestion that there is bad leadership is likely to be dismissed by arguing that bad leadership is not leadership at all.

Type
Chapter
Information
Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy , pp. 181 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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