Syllabus
LEADERSHIP AS A MORAL ACTIVITY
PPS 264S, Fall 2003
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:50 –5:05
Room 150 Sanford Institute Building
Ambassador James A. Joseph
Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies and
Director of the United States – Southern Africa
Center for Leadership and Public Values
COURSE DESIGN
Until the recent focus on the corporate responsibility of business,
the moral discourse about values in public life has been dominated
by those interested primarily in the micro-ethics that guide individual
behavior. The focus has been on the private virtues that build character.
This course will go beyond the headlines and slogans to substantively
examine the macro-ethics of public institutions and large corporate
systems. The focus will be on the public values that build trust
and sustain community.
The fundamental issue we will explore is not whether we can agree
on the moral virtues essential to good character, but how best to
apply ethics to public life and corporate institutions without getting
caught up in the politics of virtue or the parochialism of dogma.
Using case studies from actual experiences in government, business
and civil society; small group work sessions; readings; discussions
with public leaders and other dynamics, each student will be asked
to develop a framework/set of principles for making public policy
decisions and/or guiding a morally responsible institution.
Social ethics at the dawning of the nation state helped us understand
the responsibilities of citizens to independent national communities.
This course offers students an opportunity to identify, analyze
and reflect on public values appropriate for an interdependent world
that is integrating and fragmenting at the same time.
COURSE OUTLINE
Leadership Theories and Paradigms
· Introduction and Overview of the Course.
· Reviewing General Theories of Leadership: Developing a
Working Theory.
· Leadership and the Role of Context.
· The Impact of Culture and Community.
· Values in Leadership: The Changing Role of Ethics in Public
Life.
Transactional Leadership
· The Leader as Manager: The Manager as Leader.
· Political Leadership.
· Legislative Leadership.
· Presidential Leadership.
· Corporate Leadership.
Transforming Leadership
· Leadership as a Transforming Act.
· The Leader as Servant.
· Reform Leadership.
· Revolutionary Leadership.
· Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in Business.
· Civil Society and the Public Square.
· Nonprofit, Advocacy and Movement Leadership.
Does Morality Need Religion
· The Moral Sense as a Natural Disposition.
· Religion and Moral Systems.
· God-Talk, Public Policy and the American Experiment.
· The Public Use of Religious Symbols.
· Evolution of the Caring Impulse.
The Application of Moral Reasoning
· Grand Principles: Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart
Mill Revisited.
· Whatever Happened to Situation Ethics.
· The Ethics of Intuition.
· Regulatory Ethics and Corporate Codes.
Identifying Public Values that Build Communities and Empower
Leaders
· Trust and the Creation of Prosperity.
· Freedom in the Making of Western Culture.
· The Idea of Justice.
· Equality and Affirmative Opportunity.
· Reconciliation and the Potential for Forgiveness.
· The Spirit of Community and the Communitarian Agenda.
Developing a Framework for Making Ethical Decisions
· Public Interest and Private Wants: Discerning the Public
Good.
· The Decision-making Process: Managing Information and Framing
Issues.
· Asking the Right Questions: Finding the Right Answers.
· Decision and Dissent.
· Ethics in Practice: Case Studies on Ethics and Corporate
Responsibility
Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
· Rethinking Leadership.
· How Leaders Respond to and Shape Public Opinion
· The Emergence and Impact of Soft Power.
· Leadership and Diplomacy: The Changing Role of the American
Embassy.
· Leadership and Development: Rethinking Foreign Aid.
· Defining Moments: Case Studies on Right Versus Right Decisions.
Personal Renewal: The Inner Path of Leadership
· The Personal Dimension: Revealing, Testing and Becoming.
· What Leaders do to Avoid Burnout?
· What Leaders do for Spiritual and Intellectual Renewal.
· The Power of Commitment.
READING LIST
Course Texts:
1. Leadership, James MacGregor Burns
2. Defining Moments, Joseph Badaracco
3. No Future Without Forgiveness, Desmond Tutu
Selections from the following:
1. Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf
2. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli (Translation by Harvey C. Mansfield)
p. 5-25
3. On Leadership, John Gardner, p. 11-22 & 67-80
4. Leaders, Richard Nixon, p. 337-363
5. Leadership Without Easy Answers, Ronald Heifetz, p.13-27 &
250-276
6. Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis, p.
19-86
7. Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle, Richard McKeon, ed. (selections
to be assigned)
8. Ethics for the New Millennium, The Dalai Lama, p. 3-33
9. “A New Basis for Ethics in a New Age,” Bishop John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 149-167
10. The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Francis Fukayama,
p. 13-32
11. Principle-Centered Leadership, Stephen R. Covey, p. 33-39
12. How Good People Make Tough Choices and Shared Values for a Troubled
World, Rushworth Kidder (selections to be assigned)
13. Ethics in Practice, The Harvard Business Review Book Series,
“Can a Corporation Have a Conscience,” Kenneth E. Goodpaster,
p. 155-166
14. The Spirit of Community, Amatai Etzioni, “The Moral Voice,”
p. 23-53
15. On the Profession of Management, Peter Drucker, p. 19-41 &
131-142
15. Remaking America, James A. Joseph (selections to be assigned)
16. “The Road to Reconciliation,” Alex Boraine, A Country
Unmasked, p.11-46
Articles/Essays
1. “Whats God To Do With The American Experiment,”
Brookings Review, Spring 1999
2. “Reaching for What’s Right,” Rushworth M. Kidder,
Foundation News, November/December, 1995, p. 28-31.
3. “Ethics in Practice: Managing the Moral Corporation,”
Kenneth E. Goodpaster, The Ruffin Lecture in Business Ethics at
the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University
of Virginia.
4. “Public Values in a Divided World,” James A. Joseph,
Liberal Education, Association of American Colleges and Universities,
Vol. 88, No 2, Spring 2002
5. “Leadership in Context: African and Western,” Lovemore
Mbigi, The Emerging Leaders Program, United States – Southern
Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values, Robben Island, South
Africa, May, 2002
Videos
1 “Long Night’s Journey into Day,” a film about
the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission in South Africa or
2. “Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Towards Peace,” a conversation
about race and reconciliation filmed primarily on Goree Island,
Senegal
REQUIREMENTS
1. A three-page paper analyzing the moral guidelines or ethical
principles offered by one of the following:
· Immanual Kant
· John Stuart Mill
· Aristotle
· Reinhold Niebuhr
· Alasdair MacIntyre
· Joseph Fletcher
2. A three-page paper analyzing the role of social values in public
life from the perspective of one of the following:
· Martin Luther King
· Nelson Mandela
· Niccolo Machiavelli
· Desmond Tutu
· Francis Fukayama
· Amatai Etzioni
· John Rawls
· Ronald A. Heifetz
3. Group reports on the application of grand principles to the
development of codes of conduct. Each group will be assigned responsibility
for developing a code of conduct appropriate for a hypothetical
organization operating in either the business, government or civil
society sector.
4. Group reports on resolving right versus right conflicts. Each
group will be assigned an actual case study from government, business
and civil society.
5. A final paper (maximum of ten pages) on how classical ethical
principles (philosophical, theological, etc.) informs/enhances your
own approach to decision-making: and what checkpoints, framework
or guidelines you now intend to use, or questions you now intend
to ask, in resolving moral dilemmas, making public policy decisions
or guiding a morally responsible institution.
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