Leadership Ethics: An Introduction

Are leaders morally special? Is there something ethically distinctive about the relationship between leaders and followers? Should leaders do whatever it takes to achieve group goals? Leadership Ethics uses moral theory, as well as empirical research in psychology, to evaluate the reasons everyday leaders give to justify breaking the rules. Written for academics, practitioners, and students without a background in philosophy, it introduces readers to the moral theories that are relevant to leadership ethics: relativism, amoralism, egoism, virtue ethics, social contract theory, situation ethics, communitarianism, and cosmopolitan theories such as utilitarianism and transformational leadership. Unlike many introductory texts, the book does more than simply acquaint readers with different approaches to leadership ethics. It defends the Kantian view that everyday leaders are not justified in breaking the moral rules.

Terry L. Price is associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. He is the author of Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership and co-editor of The Values of Presidential Leadership, The Quest for Moral Leaders, and the three-volume reference work The International Library of Leadership.