Thursday, April 21, 2011
Leadership as Practical Ethics
This article speaks of Leadership as Practical Ethics and the author then provides an ethical framework using three principles. The Author illustrates how often times we can do things and still be in compliance with law—but some of them are still wrong. He then shows how Ethical reasoning helps us make these distinctions by saying that “Ethical reasoning is the process of raising awareness of moral claims and applying principles to arising circumstances. Ethical reasoning implies an interrogation of the moral claims that surround us rather than a mere listing of do's and dont's. In a word, ethical inquiry is proactive rather than passive.”
The first dimension of his ethical framework focuses on the decision maker. The second dimension of ethics has to do with the systems, social arrangements, and conditions that define our range of choices. And the third dimension of ethics is the assertion that we often have the opportunity to improve our situation and to do better. The author argues that Norms, expectations, and ethical claims depend deeply on context and that no single normative theory or formula will suffice across different types of examples. Overall, this leads us to ask three questions: “What is the goal? What means will we use to get there? And what types of trade-offs and compromises must be made along the way? And in asking these tough questions, we must realize that Moral imperatives often conflict. Leaders must make difficult and imperfect choices.”
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dibbs
ReplyDeleteWe live in a world that is rife with conflicts, all of which involves questions of ethics. Historically, people have tried to solve these conflicts through various amoral methods. Intellectuals in the past, like Socrates, saw long ago that there need was an ethical response to go beyond custom, tradition, authority, the market, science, or violence. Many people view our moral response is best served to do so through practical ethics. Practical ethics therefore approaches moral questions as integrating the moral insights and practice of ethics into dialogue with real-world problems. True leaders are willing come forward to address the conflicts of ethics and provide a means to resolve the problems of moral issues. God never intended for man to resolve the moral issues of humanity, because “man” is the problem. God’s plan is to have practical ethics to be best served within and through the ekklesia. The leadership of the modern day ekklesia must have a paradigm shift and receive an “awareness of moral claims and applying principles to arising circumstances.” I agree “leaders must make difficult and imperfect choices;” however, the leadership of the ekklesia must make the choice to build the Kingdom of God or continue to build their own kingdom.
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