Verizon Lecture: Why Is It So Difficult to Be an Ethical Leader?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12145
• Author: Joanne B. Ciulla
• Date: 01 June 2018
• Published date: 01 June 2018

Verizon Lecture: Why Is It So

Difficult to Be an Ethical

Leader?

JOANNE B. CIULLA

ABSTRACT

In some ways it is more important to understand why it is

difficult for leaders to be ethical than it is to understand

how to be an ethical leader. By being aware of the com-

mon temptations and moral pitfalls of leadership, leaders

are better able to avoid them. Like all areas of applied

ethics, leadership has its own set of problems that stem

from the roles leaders play and their relationship and

responsibilities to followers and others. Moreover, leader-

ship is ethically challenging because it and requires con-

trol of the self, the ego, and the use of power. This article

examines some of the aspects of leadership that make it

ethically difficult.

Popular books on leadership usually tell us that leaders are

inspirational, visionary, courageous, and ethical. Such

books are frequently found in airport bookstores. People like

them because they contain common sense or because they are

motivational—as in, “you too can be a leader!” I started research on

leadership ethics in 1991. At the time, there was very little

Joanne B. Ciulla is a Professor, Department of Management and Global Business, Director,

Institute for Ethical Leadership, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick,

Rutgers University, Newark, NJ. E-mail: jciulla@business.rutgers.edu.

V

C2018 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. DOI: 10.1111/basr.12145

Business and Society Review 123:2 369–383

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