It's impossible to manage and regulate ethics. If the CEO of
an organization chooses to manage that organization unethically, there
may be opportunities to disclose those ethical shortfalls to a third
party but an employee must inevitably choose whether to continue working
for that employer using his own moral compass. This is easier to talk
about than do. And because each situation is unique, it's very
difficult to teach ethics. However, it is useful to hear the stories of
others who have faced moral dilemmas.
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Living Into Leadership: A Journey in Ethics is a useful guide in
facing the ethics challenge because it includes various examples of real
dilemmas that the author faced. Some may seem like minor challenges, but
as the author explains, each of the decisions he made described in these
pages had an effect on how he viewed himself, and how others viewed him.
Ethics inevitably involves "improvising in the world," as
the author says. This new book is a useful tool with which to inform
your view of that challenge.
By Bowen H. McCoy. Published by Stanford University Press. For more
information visit www.sup.org.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Society of Management Accountants of
Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.