EBEN 2013 A special track on leader and leadership ethics

En septembre prochain, dans le cadre de la conférence annuelle d' EBEN (European Business Ethics Networks) j'aurai le plaisir d'animer un special track consacré à l'éthique du leadership et des leaders en compagnie de deux spécialistes: Joanne Ciulla (Richmond University) et Patricia Werhane (De Paul University).

"License to lead - A special track on leader and leadership ethics"

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Patricia Werhane

In these turbulent times have a way of shedding light on the moral failures of business leaders, many of whom are responsible for parts of the global crisis. Today’s crisis reminds us of how much leaders and the ethics of leaders matter. Hence it is a good time to focus our attention on the ethics of leaders and the moral foundations of leadership:

What is the relationship between leadership ethics and business ethics? What do the current problems teach us about good and bad leadership? Do we face a leadership crisis? If yes, what sort of crisis? Is the crisis about more than removing some bad apples from the tree? Do we need to think carefully about who we give the “license to exert power and leadership”? How do we use the current challenges to improve the ethics and effectiveness of leaders and followers in all sectors of society? 
According to philosophers as well as psychologists, power can corrupt but morality also provides great power to leaders. How can we deal with this paradox to build a positive and sustainable leadership? What are the antecedents and the consequences of destructive leadership and hubris in organizations? What are the contributions but also the limits of emerging positive/responsible leadership theories/practices?
In organizations, top executives are given an exceptional amount of power which goes with a license to lead as well. What justifies this power? Is this license still morally acceptable? 

To answer these questions, this special track on leadership ethics would like to discuss the moral license of leaders to exert power and leadership in organizations.

Theoretical propositions, empirical or practice oriented contributions dealing with the following topics are welcome:

• Leadership ethics / the moral dimension of leadership
• Leadership in times of crisis /  the crisis of Leadership
• Legitimation and justification of leaders and leadership  
• Characteristics, determinants and consequences of leadership acceptance
• Leaders abuse of power/hubris
• Ethical/responsible leadership
• Positive/authentic leadership
• Challenges to hierarchical leadership
• Leadership ethics and systems thinking
• Ethical and effective leadership
• Leadership and diversity



Joanne B. Ciulla

The track would be composed of two sessions:

1. A general session on leaders and leadership ethics (4-5 papers)
2. A special session on top executives/top management teams leadership (3-4 papers)

Contributions from both academics and practitioners are encouraged.  We expect submissions from the management field but also from the social sciences as well as the humanities. Multidisciplinary approaches would be especially appreciated.