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Global Ethos, Leadership Styles, and Values: a Conceptual Framework for Overcoming the Twofold Bias of Leadership Ethics

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Abstract

The philosophical nature of ethical reasoning generates different definitions of moral subjectivity. Thus any talk of leadership ethics requires not only that we confront biases regarding human nature and the purpose of leadership and business conduct, but also differing ethical approaches which may be rooted in specific cultural and religious backgrounds. Building a conceptual framework for leadership ethics which overcomes these obstacles of bias and cultural embeddedness therefore requires another approach. It can be found in the concept of the Global Ethos values. Using Kohlberg’s model of moral development, the Global Ethos values appear as a protoethical system of values with a level-six effect, a universally explicable deontological canon of ethical values below the sixth level, i.e. in the realm of hands-on management and leadership. As non-judgmental and regulative guiding principles, these values are the normative guidelines for selecting a situationally appropriate form of leadership style before and beyond any philosophical explication and rationale.

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Notes

  1. A socio-political point of view of legitimacy mirrored by a psychological view of the relation between leaders and subordinates led Max Weber and Kurt Lewin to distinguish between three basic leadership styles, i.e. charismatic, bureaucratic, and traditional (patriarchal) forms of command (Weber 1921) or authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faires styles of leadership (Lewin et al. 1939). Most literature after Weber and Levin has analyzed the complex phenomenon of leadership with a specific focus, drawing different psychological, normative, and functional aspects together. Stogdill (1974) captures the phenomenon by identify different traits and skills which mark good leadership. Laying the groundwork for the needs-oriented concepts of transactional and transformational leadership styles (Burns 1978; Bass 1985, 1997), Douglas McGregor’s (2006) behavioristic view distinguishes between two types of managerial conducts in leadership, with both stipulated by opposing understandings of human nature (Theory X and Theory Y). Highlighting the relational and situational aspects of leading and following, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard distinguish between leadership styles according to the different tasks which are aligned in leading, namely, in general, directing and commanding, supporting, delegating and coaching (Hersey and Blanchard 1969, 1977; Hersey 1985). Taking emotional intelligence into account (Goleman 2000, 80), i.e. the ability to align one’s leadership style with the thinking and feeling of the persons to be led, Daniel Goleman sees six leadership styles, i.e. the coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching forms of command and guidance.

  2. This becomes apparent when we focus on the social-psychological dimension of group behavior. There exists a strong consensus among biologists, psychologists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers that human beings are wired to ignore personal convictions in order to comply with the habits and opinions of the groups in which they find themselves (Arendt 1986, 2011, Asch 1955, 1956, Bauer 2006, 2008, Neitzel and Welzer 2011 Watzlawick 1993). This form of compliance is rooted in a much deeper psychological need than the mere striving to be obedient (Milgram 1974). Indeed, we are in an important sense ‘programmed’ to show at least a degree of allegiance to our counterparts and to the social systems within which we act. This triggers a dialectical development in which compliant behavior – behavior organized according to alleged expectations of what the system and its individuals actually expect from us – leads to conformity within the system. If a certain value bias is prevalent in an organization, it will therefore reliably affect how members act.

  3. Even if economic scientists have models that assume that our plans have full transparency and complete information about the given situation, that we can be homines oeconomici and take rational decisions about our means, routes, and goals at every juncture, we know: As finite beings, we do not have this divine omniscience that the theories assume we do. We take our decisions with constant knowledge gaps, in a world that does not follow the ceteris paribus rule. The world around us is not only changing all the time; it actually tends to behave in a way that we would not have dared dream of. Leading therefore is the task to decide in situations of incomplete knowledge.

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  1. Global Ethics Institute, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Hintere Grabenstrasse, 26 / 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Friedrich Glauner

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Glauner, F. Global Ethos, Leadership Styles, and Values: a Conceptual Framework for Overcoming the Twofold Bias of Leadership Ethics. Humanist Manag J 3, 203–220 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-018-0047-9

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