Where Are the Ethical Leaders?

• In Event: Leadership Education and Ethics: Meeting the Challenge

Short Description

Leaders face ethical decisions every day, but unfortunately, we have not intentionally helped people learn how to make ethical decisions. This presentation will describe an innovative program, The Madison Collaborative: Ethical Reasoning in Action, which teaches all students within a university how to make ethical decisions.

Detailed Abstract

There are many causes of turbulent times that create challenges for leaders. One major cause has to do with ethical breeches in all sectors of society. If we are truly going to mitigate the turbulence we must be much more proactive in helping future generations learn how to make and act upon ethical decisions.

We know that leaders face ethical situations every single day, yet we do little to equip future leaders with the necessary skills to do so. At James Madison University, we have made an institutional commitment to ensure that we are giving our students the necessary tools to be “educated and enlightened citizens who live productive and meaningful lives.”

Our commitment has resulted in the campus-wide creation of a program that will transform lives for generations to come. The name of the program is, The Collaborative: Ethical Reasoning in Action, and its purpose is to teach ethical reasoning skills that students will be able to apply across many personal, professional and civic situations. We firmly believe that the ability to evaluate ethically the implications of different courses of action for ourselves is the core of living a life of authenticity, purpose and meaning.

The program has three overarching goals:

1. Elevate the campus-wide understanding and discourse on ethical reasoning as a teachable, evaluative process.
2. Provide a unifying framework that aligns campus efforts to teach and assess ethical reasoning.
3. Encourage multiple avenues of intentional connection among personal, professional, and civic application of ethical reasoning skills.

The mission statement of the program follows: The Collaborative prepares enlightened citizens who apply ethical reasoning in their personal, professional and civic lives.

One unique aspect of the program will be highlighted: It’s Complicated!
It’s Complicated is administered to all of our 4000+ incoming students during Orientation. It provides students with a tangible experience to help them learn about ethical reasoning and employ the Eight Key Questions.

The Eight Key Questions provide an inquiry-based framework for making ethical decisions. They reflect the best of humanity’s ethical reasoning traditions.

The Eight Key Questions follow:

Fairness – How can I act equitably and balance legitimate interests?
Outcomes – What achieves the best short and long-term outcomes for me and all others?
Responsibilities – What duties and/or obligations apply?
Character – what actions best reflect who I am and the person I want to become?
Liberty - How does respect for freedom, personal autonomy, or consent apply?
Empathy – What would I do if I cared deeply about those involved?
Authority – What do legitimate authorities (e.g. experts law, m religion) expect of me?
Rights – What rights (e.g. innate, legal, social) apply?

During Orientation, the students are formed into small groups. They watch a video that is scripted and performed by campus employees/students. They use the Eight Key Questions to determine what action they should take as the leader. The discussion helps them explore and learn about a process of decision-making that they can employ immediately.

This program is just the first foray into learning about the Collaborative. The students are exposed to other elements of the Collaborative throughout their tenure at the university.

The Eight Key Questions are complemented by seven learning outcomes (SLOs). The SLOs describe what the university expects students to know, think, or do as a result of the program.

1. Students will be able to state, from memory, all Eight Key Questions.
2. When given a specific decision and rationale on an ethical issue or dilemma, students will correctly identify the key question most consistent with the decision and rationale.
3. Given a specific scenario, students will identify appropriate consideration for each of the Eight Key Questions.
4. For a specific ethical situation or dilemma, students will evaluate courses of action by applying the considerations raised by the Eight Key Questions.
5. Students will apply SLO 4 to their own personal, professional and civic ethical cases.
6. Students will report that they view ethical reasoning skills as important.
7. Students will report increased confidence in their ability to use the ethical reasoning process.

At this point, all undergraduate students on our campus have gone through the program. We have a robust assessment system in place, which will help inform our effectiveness. In the short time we have offered this program, our assessment results have already shown positive change in ethical decision-making ability.

To our knowledge, there is no other program like this. We believe that this program will not only help us transform lives and communities throughout the world.

Participant

• Mark J. Warner, James Madison University