Authenticating the Leader: Why Bill George Believes that a Moral Compass Would Have Kept Jeffrey Skilling out of Jail

In the wake of a series of corporate scandals, there has been a growing call for authentic leadership in order to ensure ethical conduct in contemporary organizations. Authentic leadership, however, depends upon the ability to draw a distinction between the authentic and inauthentic leader. This pap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2018-01, Vol.147 (1), p.53-63
Main Author: Johnsen, Christian Garmann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authenticity
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Education
Ethical conduct
Ethics
Jails
Leadership
Management
Morality
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Scandals
Skilling, Jeffrey K
Values
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Summary:In the wake of a series of corporate scandals, there has been a growing call for authentic leadership in order to ensure ethical conduct in contemporary organizations. Authentic leadership, however, depends upon the ability to draw a distinction between the authentic and inauthentic leader. This paper uses Deleuze's discussion of Platonism as a point of departure for critically scrutinizing the problem of authenticating the leader—drawing a distinction between authentic and inauthentic leaders. This will be done through a reading of Bill George's book Authentic Leadership. Informed by Deleuze's inverted Platonism, the paper challenges the practice by which authentic leaders are distinguished from inauthentic leaders. In conclusion, the paper suggests that an adequate concept of authentic leadership should consider how ethics can occur when the authentic leader is able to critically reflect his or her own value-commitments.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-015-2968-7