Developing Moral Leaders

Anyone who is a regular reader knows that I am a staunch advocate for free markets and individual liberty.  However, building a successful economy and society based on these principles is dependent on a common recognition of the individual moral responsibilities which hold it all together.

As an entrepreneurship professor, I try to challenge our students to understand the moral and ethical responsibilities that they will face as they start and grow their ventures. 

Unfortunately, the research of Thomas A. Wright, the Jon Wefald Leadership Chair in Business Administration at Kansas State University, shows a gap between the character traits that business students say make a good business leader and the traits they describe having themselves.

Wright suggests that there is a significant moral decline in higher education, including in schools of business. He said it is critical for students to learn about the importance of character and ethical behavior before entering the workplace.
 
And when entrepreneurs and other business leaders abdicate their responsibilities to act in ethically and morally government, particularly the more activist, socialist government now in power, will be quick to intervene and use regulatory powers to dictate the behaviors of business leaders.

“As business professors in an increasingly ‘just show me the money’
business school environment, we all share responsibility for this moral
decline,” Wright said. 
 
Wright has found that MBA students list social intelligence as being one of the top two strengths necessary to be an effective manager. However, this strength was among the least common strengths self-reported by these same students.

“Obviously, if the development of character is important, many of our students are entering the workplace woefully lacking in a number of the prerequisites necessary for success,” Wright said.
 
Many students rated honesty as one of their top five strengths. However, in another study, Wright found that 88 percent of the students reported that they have cheated in school, with many students reporting they had cheated 100 or more times.

“Students report that they lack viable, positive adult role models – individuals who can walk the talk,” Wright said.

Indicative of a morally relativistic perspective, the majority of students sampled said it solely depended on the situation whether a person should lie, cheat or steal, Wright said.
 
“It’s a common belief that as long as our behavior is seen as being instrumental in our pursuit of personal and material success while not hindering our personal choice preferences, we are willing to accept a modicum of lying, cheating and stealing behavior from both ourselves and our leaders as a cost of doing business,” Wright said. “Alternatively, a character-based leader will not lie, cheat or steal, nor will he or she tolerate those who do.”
 
He said students who cheat in school are not only more likely to cheat in graduate and professional school, but they also are more likely to engage in unethical business practices. This provides all the more reason for why higher education institutions should include ethical and character development in their pedagogy, Wright said.

Wright is correct.  Virtue is a habit.  Our behaviors over time are what shape our character.  The executives at Enron did not wake up one day and say, “I’m going to lie and cheat our shareholders and employees.”  As Mike Naughton and I have argued, their actions were most likely the culmination of a long series of deceitful acts.
 
“It’s important to help students develop the awareness and skills necessary to make morally based choices through the development of character strengths,” Wright said. “Our collective failure to practice strengths of character, such as perseverance and self control, has led us to the brink of both moral and financial ruin. Massive governmental takeovers are not the answer, but the development of individual character may well be a viable solution. As faculty members, the ethical and strength of character development of our students should be made an integral part of our stated mission in higher education.”

Amen!