Excellent leadership makes a difference to partnership performance and is arguably the most critical success factor for partnership working. Without it, partnerships would be…
Abstract
Excellent leadership makes a difference to partnership performance and is arguably the most critical success factor for partnership working. Without it, partnerships would be ineffective. It is, however, perceived as a problematic issue for a number of reasons. First, traditional approaches to leadership have focused almost exclusively on individuals. Second, leadership is often seen as just one part of an organisational system rather than something that pervades the whole. Finally, it is said to be difficult to measure and therefore supposedly hard to tell the good leadership from the bad.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of the “Selfless Leader” and to pose the question as to whether this is an impossible ideal. It locates the importance of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of the “Selfless Leader” and to pose the question as to whether this is an impossible ideal. It locates the importance of values within the context of public leadership and puts forward a new perspective on principle-based leadership that incorporates selflessness as its foundation.
Design/methodology/approach
It primarily involves a literature review in relation to the importance of virtues and values based on an historical review, and the wider language of leadership. It draws briefly upon primary research based on realistic evaluation (Pawson and Tilley, 1997) across a range of public service organisations in various differing contexts but is, primarily, a conceptual paper aimed at encouraging further debate and research.
Findings
Given the fact that we are innately selfish, the requirement to lead in the public interest provides a real challenge for all leaders particularly as leaders are encouraged more towards achievement of competitive advantage, rather than collaborative advantage. The paper will suggest that values-based leadership is highly relevant to the challenges facing public leaders, and will present a principle-based framework for the practice and processes of public leadership.
Research limitations/implications
The paper seeks to generate a debate in relation to principle-based leadership that incorporates selflessness as its foundation, primarily through a literature review but supported by selected findings from a range of research projects in the area of public leadership.
Practical implications
The approach to realistic evaluation is helpful, not only as a research methodology, but also in relation to the development and assessment of leadership practice.
Social implications
This is considered to represent a unique approach to the study of leading in the public interest by focusing on the concept of selflessness.
Originality/value
This is considered to represent a unique approach to the study of leading in the public interest by focusing on the concept of selflessness.
Details
Keywords
At a meeting of the Council of the Royal Borough of Kensington, on November 22, Councillor J. BROOKE‐LITTLE, Chairman of the Public Health Committee, brought up a report as…
At the Royal Society of Health annual conference, no less a person than the editor of the B.M.A.'s “Family Doctor” publications, speaking of the failure of the anti‐smoking…
Abstract
At the Royal Society of Health annual conference, no less a person than the editor of the B.M.A.'s “Family Doctor” publications, speaking of the failure of the anti‐smoking campaign, said we “had to accept that health education did not work”; viewing the difficulties in food hygiene, there are many enthusiasts in public health who must be thinking the same thing. Dr Trevor Weston said people read and believed what the health educationists propounded, but this did not make them change their behaviour. In the early days of its conception, too much was undoubtedly expected from health education. It was one of those plans and schemes, part of the bright, new world which emerged in the heady period which followed the carnage of the Great War; perhaps one form of expressing relief that at long last it was all over. It was a time for rebuilding—housing, nutritional and living standards; as the politicians of the day were saying, you cannot build democracy—hadn't the world just been made “safe for democracy?”—on an empty belly and life in a hovel. People knew little or nothing about health or how to safeguard it; health education seemed right and proper at this time. There were few such conceptions in France which had suffered appalling losses; the poilu who had survived wanted only to return to his fields and womenfolk, satisfied that Marianne would take revenge and exact massive retribution from the Boche!
IF SONS DID NOT EXTOL, many a worthy father would sink into oblivion and forever go unsung. As filial biographers, however, sons customarily meet with intimidating scorn and…
Abstract
IF SONS DID NOT EXTOL, many a worthy father would sink into oblivion and forever go unsung. As filial biographers, however, sons customarily meet with intimidating scorn and derision. There is a generally accepted notion that consanguineous biography is fraught more with fealty and filial frailty than with disinterested depiction. The best way to disprove this false assumption is to muster meritorious biographies written by scions and compare them with representative biographies of the ‘blame and blemish’ variety. Sympathetic assessment always stands up stronger than ostensible objectivity, for writers of the ‘warts and all’ kind of biography lose track of virtues and nearly always become engrossed in the imperfections of their victims.
Stephen B. Knouse, Vanessa D. Hill and J. Brooke Hamilton
The purpose of this paper is to trace a history of American codes of business ethics as they evolved from religious bases to legalistic bases to an international emphasis.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to trace a history of American codes of business ethics as they evolved from religious bases to legalistic bases to an international emphasis.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes the evolution of business codes of ethics over the twentieth century in relation to the development of social issues.
Findings
It is found that ethical codes are influenced by the prevailing ideology of the time regarding the social responsibility of business. The earlier part of the twentieth century emphasized religious values governing the treatment of customers and competitors and the responsibility of businesses for the well‐being of their employees by directing their private as well as business conduct. The latter part of the twentieth century stressed legal compliance as government regulation sought to control business behaviors that were harmful to society and to the environment. Entering into the twenty‐first century, we are seeing an increase in international emphases in codes of ethics. We discuss these trends in terms of evolving approaches to corporate social responsibility.
Practical implications
Organizations writing (and rewriting) codes of ethics should move beyond reactive legal compliance and proactively examine values associated with their stakeholder relationships as well as relationships to corporate social responsibility issues.
Originality/value
While there have been histories of medical and legal codes of ethics, to the authors' knowledge, this is the first exploration of a history of American business codes of ethics. The paper examines the development of codes of ethics in the context of business needs and social values prominent during those times.