The Ethical Challenge: How to Lead With Unyielding Integrity

Book Overview

The Enron debacle, the demise of Arthur Andersen, questionable practices at Tyco, Qwest, WorldCom, and a seemingly endless list of others have pushed public regard for business and business leaders to new lows. The need for smart leaders with vision and integrity has never been greater. Things need to change--and it will not be easy. We can take a first step toward producing better business leaders by changing some of our own ideas about what it means to "win." Noel M. Tichy and Andrew R. McGill have brought together a stellar group of contributors from a variety of perspectives--including General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and renowned management gurus Robert Quinn and C. K. Prahalad, among others--to offer insights that will help build better leaders, communities, and organizations. They show how to present a "Teachable Point of View" about business ethics that will help all leaders within an organization: Internalize core values Build a values-based culture across the organization Become engaged to teach the same values lessons to their staff Take action and raise the ethical bar Successful business leaders must be able to articulate their own unique Teachable Point of View on business ethics and drive it through their organization to ensure that everyone knows the ethical line and is neither shy nor silent if others risk crossing it.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078796767X
• ISBN13: 9780787967673
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Leading with integrity

"We need smart, gutsy leaders with vision and integrity to get us through the minefields - leaders who can teach others to follow in their footsteps, hold firm to their values, and proliferate those norms across the organization." That is what Noel M Tichy and Andrew R McGill say in the introduction to this book. The book arose out of a Michigan Business School MBA course and conference, and it features chapters by a number of prominent business leaders responding particularly to the ethical issues arising from the Enron collapse. I normally find books with multiple authors to be difficult to read, so this one has been on my "unread" pile for several months. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting almost every chapter was. Former US Secretary of State James A Baker has an interesting chapter on business ethics in skeptical times, reflecting that some executive compensation schemes are creating perverse incentives, and that esoteric accounting rules are an obstacle to simple honesty. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt discusses how a CEO needs to be the moral leader of a company. James Hackett, CEO of Steelcase, provides a chapter which describes some significant ethical challenges which he has faced, and how he has communicated ethical values in his organisation. Eleanor Josaitis, executive director of Focus:HOPE, provides a brief chapter on the extraordinary work done by her organisation in serving the disadvantaged. All up, it is a book worth reading, although not in the "essential" category.