Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility, and Community

by Walter Earl Fluker

Overview

We live in a leadership crisis. "In an age when incompatible worlds collide and when scandals rock formerly stable institutions," says Walter Fluker, "what counts most is ethical leadership and the qualities of personal integrity, spiritual discipline, intellectual openness, and moral anchoring." Fluker finds these characteristics exemplified in the work and thought of black-church giants Martin Luther King Jr. and Howard Thurman.

This volume, for leaders and emergent leaders in religious and other settings, sets forth the context and principles for ethical leadership, particularly for ministries and other professions whose mission directly advances the common good. Fluker's volume grounds leadership in story, the appropriation of one's roots, as a basis for personal and social transformation. He then explores the key values of character, civility, and community for ethical action on the personal, public, and spiritual realms. From these considerations he develops a model of the specific virtues that embody each realm of ethical leadership before applying them to the practical aspects of leadership and decisionmaking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800663490
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	01/21/2009
Series:	Prisms
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	132,854
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Walter Earl Fluker is Executive Director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Atlanta; the Coca-Cola Professor of Leadership Studies there; and editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: At the Intersection Where Worlds Collide 1

Private and Public Spheres of the Intersection 6

Debates at the Intersection 8

Leadership at the Intersection 10

1 Howard Washington Thurman and Martin Luther King Jr.: Critical Resources in the Development of Ethical Leadership 11

The Black Church Tradition 11

Howard Thurman: The Opener of the Way 16

Martin Luther King Jr.: Transformed Nonconformists 23

Thurman and King at the Intersection Where Worlds Collide 28

2 What Is Ethical Leadership? 33

Self, Social, and Spiritual 34

Spirituality, Ethics, and Leadership 36

Ways of Doing Ethics 41

Drinking from Our Own Wells 55

3 Character at the Intersection 57

The Quest for Character 57

The Defining Virtues of Character 62

4 Civility at the Intersection 85

The Quest for Civility 85

Dysfunctional and Transformative Civility 87

The Defining Values of Civility 90

5 Community at the Intersection 121

The Quest for Community 121

The Defining Virtues, Values, and Virtuosities of Character, Civility, and Community 131

6 Staying Awake at the Intersection 157

Beware of Unicorns! 158

Imagination, Character, Civility, and Community 160

7 Remembering, Retelling, and Reliving Our Stories 167

Remembering Our Stories 167

Retelling Our Stories 169

Reliving Our Stories 171

8 Ethical Decision-Making at the Intersection Where Worlds Collide 175

What's Going On? 175

Discernment 176

Deliberation 180

Decision 182

Katrina: A Defining Moment 187

Notes 191

Index 241