Leadership Ethics
Course Schedule
Week 3
Framing the context of moral problems and shaping a culture of ethics
Wednesday
Read “Forsaking Honor” case study - This article can be found by clicking on the link and logging into the class blackboard account.
Post your thoughts on the Forsaking Honor case in your journal today. I want you to consider Bolman and Deal's frames and the case study "Forsaking Honor" together - This is a judgment-action gap case in many respects so the primary question I want you to consider is: why did the president, institution and others stumble as they worked through the issues before them? You should also comment on how you would have acted in Dr. Whitehall's position. Finally, what similar issues might come up in the k-12 environment (or other sectors you have experience with) - in other words: how does this higher ed case translate to what you may experience in a leadership position?
In many ways this case begins to bring together much of the work we have done so far including some we did not address explicitly but were assigned readings or videos. Issues like personal fudge factors, zero tolerance, ethical culture, frames and schema can all inform reflections on this case.
Thursday
Watch Dan Ariely talk on moral intuition. I discuss his work in my previous talk and here you can cover it in more depth. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it's OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we're predictably irrational -- and can be influenced in ways we can't grasp. Students who have taken my decision making class will be familiar with Ariely and this is an opportunity to dive into that work from a moral lens.