The role of ethical leadership in resilient corporations

Abstract

This paper suggests that to ensure resilient and sustainable organisations, ethical leadership needs to go beyond strict rule compliance, using a four-pronged approach: 1. Collect and monitor broad indicators, quantitative and qualitative, that may signal an increase in ethical risks; 2. Create an open and safe dialogue culture where voicing risks and concerns is actively encouraged. 3. Develop a values-based corporate culture where duty of care, in its widest conception, guides policies and decision making by all members of the organisation. This implies actively supporting those who (i) show genuine concern and care for the organisation; (ii) care for one another and for their staff; (iii) care for stakeholders, including clients and those that may be negatively affected by its operations; 4. Create trust in this values-based culture by ensuring a gradual, people-centred response to inappropriate conduct, away from the traditional rules-based legalistic approach that has fuelled distrust in the system's ability to heal internally.