Abstract
The recent financial crisis has prompted questioning of our basic ideas about capitalism and the role of business in society. As scholars are calling for “responsible leadership” to become more of the norm, organizations are being pushed to enact new values, such as “responsibility” and “sustainability,” and pay more attention to the effects of their actions on their stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to open up a line of research in business ethics on the concept of “authenticity” as it can be applied in modern organizational life and more specifically to think through some of the foundational questions about the logic of values. We shall argue that the idea of simply “acting on one’s values” or “being true to oneself” is at best a starting point for thinking about authenticity. We develop the idea of the poetic self as a project of seeking to live authentically. We see being authentic as an ongoing process of conversation that not only starts with perceived values but also involves one’s history, relationships with others, and aspirations. Authenticity entails acting on these values for individuals and organizations and thus also becomes a necessary starting point for ethics. After all, if there is no motivation to justify one’s actions either to oneself or to others, then as Sartre has suggested, morality simply does not come into play. We argue that the idea of responsible leadership can be enriched with this more nuanced idea of the self and authenticity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Agle, B. R., & Caldwell, C. B. (1999). Understanding research on values in business. Business and Society, 38, 326–327.
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315–338.
Benjamin, J. (1988). The bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism, and the problem of domination. New York: Pantheon.
Bloom, H. (1997). The anxiety of influence: A theory of poetry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Frankena, W. K. (1958). Obligation and motivation in recent moral philosophy. In A. I. Melden (Ed.), Essays in moral philosophy (pp. 40–81). University of Washington Press: Seattle.
Frederick, W. C. (1995). Values, nature and culture in the American Corporation. New York: Oxford University Press.
George, B. (2003). Authentic leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
George, B., & Sims, P. (2007). True North: Discover your authentic leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gilmore, J. H., & Pine II, B. J. (2007). Authenticity: What consumers really want. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Hartman, E. M. (1988). Conceptual foundations of organization theory. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth: The struggle toward self-realization. New York: W. W. Norton.
Jackson, K. T. (2005). Towards authenticity: A Sartrean perspective on business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 58, 307–325.
Joas, H. (2000). The genesis of values. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jordan, J. V., Hartling, L. M., & Walker, M. (2004). The complexities of connection. New York: The Guilford Press.
Kets de Vries, M. (2006). The Leader on the couch: A clinical approach to changing people and organizations (pp. 9–11). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stages in the development of moral thought and action. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Kohut, H. (1996). In P. Tolpin & M. Tolpin (Eds.), The Chicago Institute lectures. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Maak, T., & Pless, N. M. (Eds.). (2006a). Responsible leadership. New York: Routledge.
Maak, T., & Pless, N. M. (2006b). Responsible leadership in a stakeholder society: A relational perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(1), 99–115.
Milgram, Stanley. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378.
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority; An experimental view. New York: Harpercollins.
Miller, J. B. (1976). Toward a new psychology of women. Boston: Beacon.
Painter-Morland, M. (2008). Business ethics as practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rogers, C. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client-centered framework. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science, Vol. 3: Formulations of the person and the social context. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
Rorty, R. (1980). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Rorty, R. (1989). Contingency, irony, and solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rorty, R. (1991). Freud and moral reflection. In: Essays on Heidegger and others. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Siegel, A. M., & Kohut, H. (2000). The psychology of the self. London: Brunner-Routledge.
Simpson, E. (1999). Between internalism and externalism in ethics. Philosophical Quarterly, 49(195), 201–214.
Stolorow, R. D., Brandchaft, B., & Atwood, G. E. (1987). Psychoanalytic treatment: An intersubjective approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Taylor, C. (1991). The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Uhl-Bien, M. (2006). Relational leadership theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 654–676.
Werhane, P. H. (1999). Moral imagination and management decision making. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Freeman, R.E., Auster, E.R. (2011). Values, Authenticity, and Responsible Leadership. In: Pless, N.M., Maak, T. (eds) Responsible Leadership. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3995-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3995-6_3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-3994-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-3995-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)