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Leadership

Sverre Spoelstra, René ten Bos

Open publisher page 19 citations

Abstract

Goals of this chapter After studying this chapter you will be able to: understand how business ethics portrays leadership as necessarily ethical; understand the problem with ‘the Hitler problem’ in discussions around ethical leadership; understand how the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sees leadership; understand how leadership is not only related to ethics but also to aesthetics. Introduction Leadership has fascinated us throughout the ages. Ever since the ancient philosopher Plato ( c . BC 427–347), discussions around leadership have been intimately linked to discussions about morality. For Plato, only people with the right moral character are capable of leading. This basic idea is still very much present in ideas (and fantasies) about leadership. Even today, some follow Plato when they take for granted that leadership is all about having a good character. The mere suggestion that there is bad leadership is likely to be dismissed by arguing that bad leadership is not leadership at all.

About this research paper

What this paper is about

Goals of this chapter After studying this chapter you will be able to: understand how business ethics portrays leadership as necessarily ethical; understand the problem with ‘the Hitler problem’ in discussions around ethical leadership; understand how the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sees leadership; understand how leadership is not only related to ethics but also to aesthetics. Introduction Leadership has fascinated us throughout the ages. Ever since the ancient philosopher Plato ( c . BC 427–347), discussions around leadership have been intimately linked to discussions about morality. For Plato, only people with the right moral character are capable of leading. This basic idea is still very much present in ideas (and fantasies) about leadership. Even today, some follow Plato when they take for granted that leadership is all about having a good character. The mere suggestion that there is bad leadership is likely to be dismissed by arguing that bad leadership is not leadership at all.

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OpenAlex reports 19 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

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Available abstract

Goals of this chapter After studying this chapter you will be able to: understand how business ethics portrays leadership as necessarily ethical; understand the problem with ‘the Hitler problem’ in discussions around ethical leadership; understand how the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sees leadership; understand how leadership is not only related to ethics but also to aesthetics. Introduction Leadership has fascinated us throughout the ages. Ever since the ancient philosopher Plato ( c . BC 427–347), discussions around leadership have been intimately linked to discussions about morality. For Plato, only people with the right moral character are capable of leading. This basic idea is still very much present in ideas (and fantasies) about leadership. Even today, some follow Plato when they take for granted that leadership is all about having a good character. The mere suggestion that there is bad leadership is likely to be dismissed by arguing that bad leadership is not leadership at all.

Key concepts: Character (mathematics), Morality, Servant leadership, Leadership, Transactional leadership, Ethical leadership, Leadership style, Moral character

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