Ethics

Leadership takes place not in theory but in action, and the practice of ethics is an important component of leadership activity. The approach to ethical decision making adopted in this book is designed to provide an effective road map for ethical action, effective decision making, and the exercise of conscious choice. The 21st Century promises to challenge the human race as never before, especially in the West, where cultural evolution has moved through the post-modern Information Age into a Knowledge Age, an era of escalating dynamic and detail complexity. In this new era, we will need more than just the knowledge distilled from raw information. We will need the wisdom that comes from using our knowledge effectively in our decision making. We will need new worldviews, new mental models, and new understanding of consciousness. And we will need a new approach to ethics. In Ethics: Finding True North, Peter A. Schuller develops a new decision-making model that can be deployed to handle emerging ethical issues, within the larger context of the "system" that is American society. Drawing on systems thinking and behavioral concepts derived from in 21st century neuroscience, Mr. Schuller takes both a theoretical and practical approach to this ethical decision making and demonstrates how it can improve the operating efficiency of all types of organizations. Specifically, this ethical decision-making model adopts the following approach: 1) it is systems based, just as organizational development thinking is systems based; 2) it is process oriented, because efficient organizations understand and know how to implement process; 3) it goes beyond the traditional categorical orientation of ethics (deontological, situational, utilitarian), yet encompasses all the critical moral concerns of those approaches; 4) it can be applied at different levels of complexity, depending on the exigencies of any given ethical dilemma; and 5) it approaches corporate ethics in particular, emphas