Excerpt
 
Contrary to popular conceptions that ethical failures in leadership are correlated with economic downturns and other stressful market conditions, this book argues that such transgressions are an intrinsic element of leadership, as it is defined under the current prevailing paradigm.
 
In recent years the crisis of failures in ethical leadership across organizations, particularly corporations, has been highlighted more than ever, both in academic discourse and the public sphere. Psychological maladies leading to higher number of sick leaves, general feelings of disillusionment among employees, loss of motivation and employee loyalty, even suicide (both in Western corporations and in other parts of the world) are just a few examples of how ethical failures in leadership are expressed.
 
In order to gain original insight into the phenomenon of ethical leadership, the author explores the origins and effects of the current leadership paradigm along two dimensions: (1) a revisit of the leadership construct from a historical and philosophical perspective, with a focus on the relationship between theory and practice; and (2) the theoretical roots of the ethical component of leadership theories, identifying the reasoning behind the value system in our paradigm.
 
Subsequently, by linking these constructs together, a meta-theory emerges suggesting that the three main ethical departure points of virtue ethics, teleology and deontology (all of which have emerged during the past three thousand years through a confluence of the Abrahamic religions’ and Greek value systems) are the basis for our reasoning about leadership, its construct and the practice of leadership itself.
 
Challenging traditional views of ethical leadership, the author goes beyond theory and philosophy to consider practical implications, including alternative ways to improve executive recruitment, training and involvement of followers in decision making; experiments like rotating leadership; and an examination of other paradigms, such as Zoroastrianism, hence making an original contribution to the field of leadership both for scholars and practitioners.
 

Author
Prof. Cameron A. Batmanghlich received his PhD, titled ‘Corporate Leadership and Ethics’ with distinction from University of Bradford, School of Management.  Prof. Batmanghlich is currently the Director of MBA Program and Executive Education at Almaty Management University running joint degree programs with Maastricht School of Management and Sheffield Business School.  He also holds the post of Director of Post-Doctoral Studies at Instituto de Estudios Superiores Spenta Mexic; Spenta University Spenta University Mexico.  Prof. Batmanghlich  a member of the Paris Research in Norms Management and Law (PRIMAL) within ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Accountability’ research group; Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense, a permanent member of the editorial board at the ‘International Journal of Small Economies’, a permanent member of the editorial board at the ‘Daena: International Journal of Good Conscious’.  He was the keynote speaker at First and Second American Marketing Conference in Bolivia.  Beside academic activities, Prof. Batmanghlich delivers corporate training and workshops in leadership, ethical leadership, organizational change and other management related courses. He has over 15 years of experience as an executive, business consultant and entrepreneur across three continents and in industries such as Bio Fuel, Management consulting, Electronics and hospitality.