Before I begin my discussion of ethical leadership, I should clarify the terms I will be using throughout this essay. Personally, I differentiate between morals and ethics. For me, morals signify a person’s individual code of values, culled from personal beliefs (religious, cultural, social), experiences, and influences and role models. Ethics, by contrast, are codified morals, endorsed by a particular group, institution, or governing body, and often imposed upon those who identify with that group. An individual subscribes to an institution and its ethics for two reasons. First, she chooses to belong to the group. But she may also belong to it for reasons out of her control, namely, because she is born into a “body” whose ethical code she must uphold. In this way, ethics function in much the same way as the social contract.
Given these definitions, I’m dubious regarding the nature of ethics in leadership. On the one hand, I recognize the importance of aligning yourself with institutions that hold similar values to your own. At the same time, I appreciate that finding a group whose ethical system match exactly your moral system is a nearly impossible task, even in the religious context.
This stems, I think, from the fact that most ethical codes represent compromises. Because two individuals’ moral codes correspond value-for-value, an effective institution’s ethical code must pick from various value systems to synthesize one all-encompassing system. Of course, the society in which you live, as well as its culture, will establish a standard deviation within which any particular body’s ethical code will fall. In the United States, for example, no ethical code will permit killing a person, unless, of course, in circumstances of self-defense, or for retribution against an individual for her own crimes. (I’m speaking specifically of the death penalty, and I recognize that my claim requires in itself a lengthier explanation. For now, I will suffice to say that anybody who wishes to discuss my views on the death penalty may contact me to do so in person.)
This lengthy, perhaps convoluted introduction amounts to the following. I think that people will likely confront situations in which their personal morals will not align with the code of ethics to which they are expected to adhere, or perhaps one of their ethical codes conflicts with another. In those circumstances, I view the importance of ethical leadership skeptically, and I even feel inclined to suggest that people should not be ethical when faced with those situations. Throughout the rest of this essay, I wish to posit three examples of situations in which a person’s morals conflict with her ethics, or one ethical code conflicts with another, to show that, in some cases, stepping up to the plate means being an “unethical” person.
Morals Conflict with Ethics, I
This first section will examine the series of global surveillance leaks by former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden. Before leaving the NSA, Mr. Snowden copied approximately 1.7 million from the NSA and 900,000 files from the Department of Defense. These documents contained previously top-secret information regarding global surveillance, such NSA programs and secret treaties between international intelligence bodies. In Hong Kong after the leaks, Mr. Snowden said in an interview with the Guardian: “I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. . . . My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”
Clearly, Mr. Snowden’s personal value system (and in this case, I may loosely attach morals) was in conflict with those of the organization with which he chose to associate as an NSA employee. Confidentiality constitutes part of the NSA’s value system. Apparently, Mr. Snowden either did not understand this standard when he signed up for the position, had no intention to uphold it, or, most likely, did not realize the extent to which documents had been concealed from the public.
Put broadly, we may assume the NSA’s goal behind its Code of Ethics is to protect sources that facilitate the maintenance of international security against such threats as terrorism. As noted above, Snowden holds in high esteem the public’s ability to trust its officials and to be informed of programs enacted on its behalf by the NSA. Was Mr. Snowden an ethical leader? Certainly not—he committed an overt breach of ethics. However, whether or not Mr. Snowden performed an act of public good or disservice is less clear. Regardless, that Mr. Snowden is a leader is certain, and an unethical one at that.
Morals Conflict with Ethics, II
In this section, I wish to suggest that those whose morals disagree with the social contract employ “unethical leadership,” and that this is simply another term for civil disobedience. Emmeline Pankhurst, one of my personal heroes, was born in Manchester in the mid-nineteenth century, before women could vote in England. In 1903, she and several other suffragettes founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which originally engaged in non-violent acts of protest, such as Ms. Pankhurst’s attempt to enter Parliament in 1908 to deliver a protest resolution, for which she was arrested and jailed for six months. Upon her release, she lived a vagrant lifestyle, moving from city to city to campaign for women’s suffrage. In 1912, she participated in a series of window smashing in London and was again imprisoned. While in jail, she initiated a hunger struck for better prison conditions for fellow suffragettes. As a result, prison officials force fed her. World War I, of course, broke out in Europe shortly after, but after it ended, Ms. Pankhurst returned to London to learn that 1918 legislation had paved the way for universal female suffrage. Not contented, Ms. Pankhurst, along with her sister, Christabel, reformed the WSPU and continued to campaign for equal pay for labor, equal marriage laws, and equal opportunities for women.
Again, Ms. Pankhurst defied the social contract, or imposed code of ethics, of her country—the disenfranchisement (and inequality of employment and pay) of women. But, according to her moral code, women and men deserved equal rights. She was thus an “unethical leader,” but without her the suffragettes would not have had such success, and women may not have received the right to vote as quickly, or at all.
Conflicting Ethical Systems
For this final section, I wish to discuss briefly an example Dean Brady discussed last year in the PLA Policy Class. According to him, after ex-president Graham Spanier was fired from Penn State because of his leadership failures, he offered to speak to the PLA seniors at the end of the year. He wished to be candid with students, so the PLA, knowing that many of the seniors were in some way journalists for Penn State news outlets, invited all seniors to attend the meeting. However, they were asked to come not as journalists—with no recorders and no intention to report on aspects of the discussion—or not to come. In this instance, we may see a circumstance in which two codes of ethics—that of the PLA and that of a journalist who holds much the same values as Mr. Snowden—may have poetentially conflicted. Should the PLA not given the option not to attend, there would have been pressure to break one of their ethical values. And some students, Dean Brady told us, indeed chose not to attend.
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In the previous examples, I have attempted to differentiate between personal “moral” values and their codified, institutional equivalent, namely, ethics. And I have tried to show that, in some cases, doing the right thing means breaching an established ethical code. To end, I want to emphasize that I do not believe, when one’s moral and ethical codes conflict, she should immediately subvert the ethical code. Instead, such instances should provide opportunities for reflection and assessment of her moral values. Only if her convictions hold should she then TEAR SHIT UP. (Just kidding—sort of.)
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