Study how our culture views and values the ideas, qualities, and ideals of ethical leadership. Consider the essential qualities of good leadership: honesty, moral courage and moral vision, compassion, fairness, intellectual excellence and willingness to listen to others, creative thinking, aesthetic sensitivity, good timing, and selflessness.
What does it mean to be an ethical leader? In this course, we study how our culture views and values individuals who represent the ideas, qualities, and ideals of ethical leadership. We begin by exploring the classical Greek philosophical tradition of virtuous leadership in accordance with Plato's Four Cardinal Virtues and Aristotle's views on leadership and virtue. These virtue-based approaches to moral leadership provide a framework we can use to identify the characteristics or qualities of a virtuous and ethical leader: someone who lives a virtuous and ethical life based on leadership and service.
Next, we investigate ways we have applied and interpreted the classical Greek virtues across time and culture. We explore how cultures conceptualize the virtuous leader. How does culture change and preserve the concept? Finally, we consider the traits or essential qualities for good leadership: honesty, moral courage and moral vision (these two concepts are combined into one), compassion, fairness, intellectual excellence and willingness to listen to others, creative thinking, aesthetic sensitivity, good timing, and selflessness.
- Unit 1: The Classical Virtues of Leadership
- Unit 2: Perspectives on Leadership
- Unit 3: Characteristics of an Ethical or Virtuous Leader
- Discuss the classical virtues of leadership according to Plato and Aristotle;
- Critique cultural ideals of leadership considering the classical virtues; and
- Compare modern approaches to virtuous and ethical leadership and the classical Greek approach.