Last night's Four Corners on ABC TV showed how unsavoury lending practices have put some unfortunate borrowers into hot water. Some of it, what happened to these people, was heart-rending. Some of it, the cynical behaviour of the lenders, was sick-making. It showed how far good business practice, or at least, highly profitable business practice, has moved from ethical behaviour.
But my guest on the show today, Jeff Malpas, says this circle can be squared. Malpas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania - and he's been looking at this very area.
Essentially, he says, ethical behaviour requires some very potent skills. Things like attentiveness to the interpersonal context in which one works; decision making & problem solving; empathetic understanding; and emotional maturity. All of these relate to leadership.
Workplaces are mostly short of good leaders and enterprises do better when they can devolve decision-making down to the people in the best position to make them. The more leaders at the appropriate levels, instead of all being at the very top, the better.
For this to work of course there has to be trust. Trust within the organisation that the devolved leadership is up to the task, and trust in the organisation from all its stakeholders. But ethical behaviour, or more accurately an ethical culture, reinforces trust. And trust reinforces ethical culture. It's a virtuous circle.
Jeff Malpas believes that ethical behaviour, and the skills to pull it off, will become increasingly highly valued in the corporate world. (You can find out more here)
I have to say, I hope he's right.
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hello Richard
i was very interested in Jeff's comments and your linking it to leadership has spurred me to write.
the potent skills you list seem about right to me in terms of what's needed for the task, but i have my reservations about leadership.
i am familiar with the critical role we give leadership these days but i doubt whether it actually exists.
i know there are leaders of organisations, etc., but it is the notion that a set of skill such as those you list amount to the kind of thing that can be deployed and of which specific results can be expected.
leaders are important because they make (good) decisions about many, many things. but i suspect leadership is just another name for the person who knowingly and wholly takes repsonsiblity for making those decisions in an organisation and does so with a broad and deep understanding of what is being attempted through the decisions.
the work of professor gabriele lakomski of melbourne university is really interesting on leadership.
kym houghton
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