Dignity, Wisdom, and Tomorrow's Ethical Business Leader

• Published date: 01 September 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12094
• Date: 01 September 2016

Dignity, Wisdom,

and Tomorrow’s Ethical

Business Leader

DONNA HICKS AND SANDRA WADDOCK

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role wisdom and dignity play in

developing ethical business leaders, or what we call shaman-

ic leaders, for the twenty-first century. We define wisdom as

the integration of moral imagination (the good), systems

understanding (the true), and aesthetic sensibility (the beau-

tiful) into decisions, actions, and practices in the service of a

better world. Dignity is our inherent value, worth, and vul-

nerability, a core aspect of humanity that each of us is born

with. The challenges of developing shamanic leaders, i.e.,

individuals who evidence the shamanic attributes of healing,

connecting, and sensemaking, are discussed, including how

tothinkaboutandembodywisdom,andthelearningthatis

required to understand and lead with dignity. We argue that

dignity and wisdom can be learned and provide the reader

with insights into what is required to promote an inclusive

and integrated culture where human flourishing and well-

being are at the core of ethical leadership.

Donna Hicks is Associate Professor at Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard

University. E-mail: dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu. Sandra Waddock is Galligan Chair of Strategy,

Carroll School Scholar of Corporate Responsibility, and Professor of Management, Carroll

School of Management. E-mail: waddock@bc.edu.

V

C2016 W. Michael Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by

Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington

Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.

Business and Society Review 121:3 447–462

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U

buntu, the African cultural idea that “I am because we are”

is central to understanding what it means to be human in

many cultures. This concept inherently recognizes the

importance of the whole community and our relationships to each

other, as well as the individual. The idea of ubuntu is also a key to

understanding both wisdom and dignity as core aspects of what it

means to be an ethical leader today in business and, importantly,

tomorrow, whether that leadership takes place in a business or

some other context. We live in a world fraught with ecological and

social problems, political systems that are out of whack with demo-

cratic imperatives, organizations that demean and dehumanize

many of their employees, and an economic perspective that places

material wealth and financial interests over social, ecological, and

human interests. Such a system devalues what it means to be

human, compromising the inherent dignity and worth of people

who are not at the top, not to mention devaluing the worth of non-

human living beings, including the Earth itself, viewed as the living

system Gaia (see Lovelock, 2000).

This world cries out for wise and ethical leadership, leadership

that recognizes and honors the dignity of all living beings and par-

ticularly humans, and makes decisions, including or perhaps espe-

cially in business, in the interest of the whole, including the planet

and its ability to support human civilization. Wise leaders recog-

nize the reality that our planet is small and fragile enough that the

“we” of Ubuntu, that is, all of us wherever we are situated, need to

work together if needed changes are to be made. Necessary

changes require first of all wisdom and, importantly, that others

within the system be treated with the dignity that all humans and

other living beings deserve as a birthright, along with the courage

to act in the face of established interests and pressures for busi-

ness as usual. As with Ubuntu, we focus on ancient as well as mod-

ern traditions, in particular, the idea of the wise leader as shaman,

to resurrect an ancient paradigm and bring forward much-needed

healing in all of our communities.

There is a sense in which wise leaders undertake the role of the

shaman. Shamans are the medicine men and women in traditional

cultures. Shamans in both traditional cultures and today are

healers, connectors, and sensemakers (Egri and Frost, 1994; Frost

and Egri 1994; Waddock 2015), attributes that we believe are

448 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW