Ethical Leadership: Character, Civility, and Community

Ethical leadership is the critical appropriation and embodiment of traditions that have shaped the character and shared meanings of a people. Ethical leaders, therefore, are leaders whose characters have been shaped by the wisdom, habits and practices of particular traditions, often more than one, yet they tend be identified with a particular cultural ethos and narrative. Finally, ethical leadership asks the question of values in reference to ultimate concern.--Walter Earl Fluker

This course provides theoretical and practical approaches to the development of character, civility and community for leaders and emerging leaders in education, business, nonprofit, academic, religious, and other professions. The course examines the personal, public and spiritual dimensions of leadership within the context that Fluker calls “the intersection of lifeworlds and systems”; and outlines principles and practices of ethical leadership from a diverse field of leadership theories. Fluker’s work grounds leadership in story, the appropriation of one’s personal narrative within social and historical contexts, as a basis for individual and social transformation.

Theorists and Leadership Video Interviewees include:

• Congressman John Lewis
• Ambassador Andrew Young
• Dr. Jochen Fried (Salzburg Global Seminar)
• Dr. Walter E. Massey (former President, School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
• Chandra Taylor-Smith (Vice President, Community Conservation and Education, National Audubon Society)
• Nicole Robinson (Vice President of Community Impact, Greater Chicago Food Depository)
• Caren Yanis (former President, Crown Family Philanthropies)
• Biographer Evan Thomas ( Being Nixon: A Man Divided )
• Harvard University Business, Kennedy and Education School Professors Max Bazerman, Howard Gardner, Bill George, David Gergen, Ronald Heifetz and Barbara Kellerman.

BU Leadership Video Interviewees include:

• President Robert A. Brown
• Provost Jean Morrison
• Deans Coleman (SED), Moore (STH), Cudd (CAS), Elmore (Dean of Students), Freeman (Questrom School of Business), Galea (SPH) and Najam (Pardee School of Global Studies).

Course participants will develop an Ethical Leadership Toolkit through video exercises led by Professor Fluker, discussion, journaling and assessments, as well as a 5-7 page final project that addresses his or her area of concern (e.g. economic disparity, racism, LBGTQ concerns, homelessness, hunger, violence, environmental issues, global citizenship).