Ethical Leadership

1
Ethical Leadership Go Ahead for Common Good

• Views and Reflections from a
• Retired Public Servant

2
Ethics, Leadership and Common Good

• What is Ethics?
• Moral Principles that control or influence a
  persons behaviour
• What is Leadership?
• The ability of a leader or the qualities a
  good leader should have
• What is Common Good?
• Something pleasant, favourable, acceptable or
• morally right for the vast majority of people
  in the
• present or the future

3
Recent Examples of Leaders taking up Ethical
Issues

• President Obama of the United States accused the
  payment of bonuses to Wall Street Bankers as
  shameful
• Premier Wen Jiaobao said, Nothing is greater
  than moralityWe should call on all enterprises
  to take up their social responsibilities.

4
Core Values of the HK Civil Service

• (a) commitment to the rule of law
• (b) honesty and integrity 
• (c) accountability for decisions and actions
• (d) political neutrality 
• (e) impartiality in the execution of public
• functions and
• (f) dedication, professionalism and diligence in
• serving the community.

5
Ethical Leadership in Action

• Integrity is an important issue in the civil
  service.
• Senior managers at all levels should put it
  at the top of their action list. In brief, they
  must take action to
• ? provide clear direction by acting as a role
• model
• ? exercise monitoring and control
• ? implement integrity programmes
• ? sustain integrity promotion efforts
• ? align the people and the system in support of
• an ethical culture

6
Acting as a Role Model

• Rules, codes or guidelines are useful in setting
  out
• the values to be upheld by staff.
• However, it is the managers role in providing
  clear direction to subordinates by walking the
  talk which simply means acting as a role model.
• Staff are more likely to do what they see their
  supervisors do than to adhere to formal
  policies.It is of utmost importance that senior
  managers should convey to staff their own beliefs
  in and conviction to the value of integrity.
• Suggestions to

7
Ethical versus Legal

• The Law does not regulate all personal behaviour
• Different societies and cultures may have
  different moral standards
• Leaders, particularly political leaders or senior
  civil servants, are expected to be more ethical
  than ordinary citizens

8
Common Criteria to Judge the Ethics of a Leader

• Perceived personal, family or small group
  interest versus common good or interest
• Lack of transparency in decision making causing
  suspicion
• Commonly acceptable standards of morality
• Accountability after making mistakes or in face
  of poor performance

9
Ethical Leadership and Common Good

• Ethical Leadership is a pre-requisite to achieve
  a Common Good objective
• But a good leader requires vision, passion,
  ability, resilience and other qualities to plan,
  execute and deliver results
• An unethical person may act as an ethical leader
  before his or her true character is revealed or
  misbehaviour discovered.

10
Conclusion

• Human civilization started with the formation of
  communities bound by common moral standards
• Laws are codifications of moral behaviour and are
  subject to change
• Greed is the most serious ethical issue and is
  the cause of the financial tsunami
• Ethics will become a major consideration for
  governments and leaders