Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow.

 
Craig E. Johnson 
Sage Publications, 2001 
260 pages, $29.95 
Soft-cover 

Craig Johnson provides an interesting model to help us understand leaders' ethical responsibilities to their followers. The book begins with a "metaphor of light and shadow to highlight the ethical challenges of leadership. Leaders have the power to illmninate the lives of followers or cover them in darkness' (p. 9). Darkness or shadows may come from abuse of power, the hoarding of privileges, deceptive behavior, inconsistency of action, betrayal or misplaced loyalty, or neglect of responsibilities. Numerous examples of these shadows both from history and popular culture (real and fictional characters from film and literature) are provided for the reader and cases are offered for classroom use.

Johnson continues his presentation on darkness with an explanation of why leaders cast shadows instead of light. Reasons include the monsters within the leader (like insecurity, fear, and evil), faulty decision making, ethical ignorance, and ethical flabbiness. Here again, Johnson provides numerous examples to support his descriptions.

Once the reader has a clear grasp on the shadows and their causes, Johnson moves on to help us all find the light within the leader. For the most part, once the underlying causes of the shadows are resolved, the light of leadership shines brightly: "To shed light rather than shadow, we need to develop strong, ethical character made up of positive traits or virtues" (p. 49). Suggestions for building a strong moral character begin with finding appropriate role models, enduring and emerging from hardship a better person, internalizing effective habits (see Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), developing a personal mission statement, and clarifying the values you feel are most important.

Johnson considers evil "the most dangerous monster of all" (p. 75). As such, he devotes an entire chapter on the student of evil, the role of forgiveness, and spirituality and leadership. "Evil inflicts pain and suffering, deprives innocent people of their humanity, and creates feelings of hopelessness and despair. Evil destroys self-esteem, physical and emotional well-being, relationships, communities, and nations" (p. 75-76). Evil is dreadful pleasure - pleasure is gained by the evil doer when dread is created in others. Evil is deception- evil people "consider themselves above reproach" (p. 76) and conceal their true selves - instead they project a righteous image. Evil is a choice. Johnson likens evil choice to a road with many forks. If an evil decision is made, the wrong fork in the road is taken. The only way to get back on the correct road is to turn back and make the correct decision. Merely moving on only brings you further down the evil road where more incorrect forks in the road are likely to be taken. Every correct decision strengthens the person, while each incorrect or evil choice weakens the person and allows evil to grow. "Every moral decision, no matter how insignificant it seems at the time, has lasting consequences" (p. 80). In order to overcome evil in ourselves, we must face our demons and be willing to submit to a positive force or ideal greater than ourselves.