Constructing an accurate ethical-leadership concept that is
not over-extended by one’s ideological agenda ought to begin with defining
leadership itself. That is to say, more attention should be paid to thinking
about what leadership is. Beyond its
attributes and any contextual artifacts, leadership itself must be identified
as a distinct phenomenon before we can go on to highlight the ethical dimension
that completes “ethical leadership.” Then what counts as the ethical dimension
of leadership can be clipped back to that which is implied in the definition of
leadership, which in turn is entailed in the essence of the phenomenon.
Material from this essay has been incorporated in The Essence of Leadership, which is available at Amazon.
