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Journal of Business Ethics (2010) 93:914 Springer 2010 DOI 10.1007/s10551-010-0623-x
Ethical Leadership and Global Citizenship: Considerations for a Just and SustainableFuture Deborah C. Poff
ABSTRACT. This article discusses issues of social and distributive justice in the context of global capitalism in the twenty-first century and the necessity of incorporating values-clarification and ethical leadership as part of the core curriculum for university graduates.
KEY WORDS: leadership, ethics, sustainability, capitalism, university education
It might be argued that there is sense of the obvious with respect to what is required for global and ethical leadership for a social and economical just world. It seems that our dilemma in achieving a socially and economically just global society stems not from a lack of understanding or analysis but rather from a lack of will or a lack of collective and coordinated will. The current global nancial crisis is not a surprising outcome of the type of nancial decision-making that has driven global capitalism for the past few decades although it has been shocking to many in its systemic impact around the world.1
I was thinking about these things a few weeks ago when I was watching the morning news on Canadian television while having my rst cup of coffee of the day. A Canadian anchor person was interviewing spiritual health and well-being populist Deepak Chopra who was about to begin a national speaking
tour. The interviewer asked something like, What would you tell people who are troubled by the current nancial crisis? His answer was (and here I paraphrase but not by much), people need to stop thinking of themselves as consumers. Consumption is an ugly way to characterize human agency and human engagement in the world. We need to dene ourselves in terms of our personal relationships and not in terms of what we consume. Chopras recommendation does not seem particularly remarkable. The assumption that how we dene ourselves and manifest that denition through our actions has an inuence on our values and our relations with the world and with other persons is hardly a radical thought. If we think that we are fundamentally consumers rather than fundamentally socially engaged relational human beings, our actions and our values will reect that understanding.
The fact that this needs to be...